Associated Advertising & Promotions

Established in 1999, AA&P (Associated Advertising & Promotions Pty Ltd) has grown its services steadily across the Northern Territory. In 2021, its company directors saw an opportunity to expand its service delivery to northern Australia, strengthening its specialisation in providing events and strategic communications services to the Agricultural sectors in WA, NT and QLD.

With many agricultural clients having moved away from urban centres and delivering their events and forums in regional and remote areas, AA&P needed to ensure that it had the resources, systems and processes to support clients in regional and remote northern Australia.

In order to support their business ambitions, Managing Director Natalie Bell decided to join the AUCBG’s Growth Ramp program in 2021.

“We have a very client focussed approach to how we do business and that has been a large part of our longevity and our growth. However, as a business owner, that can make it hard to prioritise the business over client work. The Program was in many ways a ‘forced’ opportunity to step back, evaluate where we are today, and reset. Part of that was identifying and implementing the strategic elements required for growth, whilst also ensuring the operational elements were in place, supported and enabled.” – Natalie Bell, Managing Director, AA&P

The earliest part of the Growth Ramp program focused on setting AA&P’s vision, mission and values. This involved being able to identify, and then articulate, ‘who’ the company wanted to be and where it wanted to go.

From this, Natalie worked with the Centre’s growth experts to build a detailed road map of how AA&P was going to achieve its vision.

The program also helped AA&P review and refine many internal systems and processes. This resulted in improved efficiencies across many areas of the business.

Natalie and her team also reviewed their resource planning processes to better support delivery of their services into regional and more remote areas of northern Australia. AA&P directed investment and recruitment accordingly, including 4WD vehicles with cel-fi, remote office set up and an adventurous and experienced team who love to get out and about.

“The earliest part of the program, about setting the company’s vision, mission and values was fundamental. The program was an opportunity to step outside the business and to dedicate the time, thought and effort to work on the business, not just in the business. The face to face and online sessions kept you accountable and on track and meant that focussing on the growth of the business didn’t fall to the bottom of an ‘always urgent’ priority list.” – Natalie Bell, Managing Director, AA&P

Since undertaking the AUCBG Growth Ramp program and having a clear road map of growth and objectives, AA&P has gone from strength to strength. In 2024 AA&P celebrates its 25th year in business – a remarkable achievement considering the success rate of small businesses in Australia.

Throughout the program, the entire team became very engaged and involved in this process and eventually became the biggest supporters and drivers of company growth.

In the year following their start in the Growth Ramp program, AA&P increased revenue by 16%, profit by 148% and jobs by 50%.

In 2023 (two years on from graduating from the program), the team boarded over 60 flights from its home base in Darwin and flew more than 120,000 kms delivering projects in North Queensland, Central Australia, northern Western Australia and right down to South Australia – the equivalent of two trips around the world.

This included growing AA&P’s footprint within the Northern Territory and moving to an office twice the size of their previous office, with all of the latest amenities and technology for an efficient and happy well supported team. Larger offices also enable future growth of skills and capacity, which AA&P will need for 2024/25 and beyond as it continues to grow.

The company now has senior team members based in Queensland, South Australia and London, eight team members based in Darwin and an established Australia-wide network of excellent contractors and consultants.

Natalie and her team are excited to be working on several special milestone events for clients in 2024, such as the NT Cattlemen’s 40th anniversary conference which will bring around 600-800 delegates to central Australia in March. AA&P has recently delivered the International Conference for Crocodile Specialists in Darwin, and is already working to deliver a range of high profile events in 2025, such as the Northern Australia Food Futures Conference, and the World Federation of Neuroscience Nurses International Congress.

“The CBG Growth Program provided me with the tools, knowledge and framework to be able to look at the business as a whole and prioritise the areas we needed to grow, improve, change and stop doing. We are also now working with a national client which will see us expanding our delivery into Perth, Adelaide and central Queensland, as well as doing more in regional areas of northern Australia, which we are very passionate about.” – Natalie Bell, Managing Director, AA&P.