It’s been a very long time since our last post, which means we have been a bit slack but also means we have been up to our necks in work - which is a good thing.
Those following Dan or I on Twitter (@JustinBarrie and @BigHittingLama) would know that we’ve just been overseas for a market validation trip to the UK.
As winners of the Australian Final of the Technium Challenge we were lucky enough to be taken over to Swansea to compete in the global final. A week long cultural tour introduced us to all that the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) are doing to support businesses (and encourage them to enter Wales as a base) and also gave us a look around a range of cities and towns like Cardiff and Aberystwyth.
We didn’t win the global final - we tell our families we can runner-up 
- but the experience was excellent.
The WAG have some very interesting support packages including running the 11 Technium Centres - incubators that allow companies an “easy-in easy-out” approach to setting up an office. The WAG also have a very vibrant Finance arm - Finance Wales and strong Angel Community - Xenos. All very interesting stuff.
The second half of our week was down in London. We had three days chocked full of meetings with interested investors, potential strategic partners and most interestingly some really high-quality retailers.
We learnt from brands like French Connection and the Arcadia Group (representing fantastic brands like Miss Selfridges, Dorothy Perkins and Top Shop that the idea of Perkler very much translates to the UK market. We were pleased that with very little adjustment it could become a very successful export market for us.
We also learnt that the expectations of retailers in the mobile space in particular seems to be significantly more advanced than here in Oz or even than in the US (where we were last year). Most of the meetings focused on how the Perkler mobile platform can be extended to really enhance loyalty offerings which was really exciting for us and our future product runway.
Overall I’d say that the UK retailers were very focused on loyalty stopping being a “met too” industry and really looking for ways to really reward loyal customers. Particularly interesting was their desire to link loyalty directly to ‘live’ performance of a particular physical retail location on any given day. Using the loyalty program to drive customers in when times are slow. Very very interesting notion.
On the investment front there seemed to be a fairly buoyant mood. The Australian Government should probably take note of some pretty good initiatives like the London Technology Fund which combine the best of private venture discipline with a softer government approach - we were very impressed. The WAG also had a range of funding options that were very attractive to the right business at the right time.
So the trip was extremely valuable for us in terms of understanding where to after Australia, but also in re-confirming that we need to focus on the Australian launch (only weeks away) and get it right here. And that’s exactly what we are doing.
Negotiations are fairly advanced with a couple of really good brands here at home, and Adam is working bloody hard to get the new version of the site up and ready for solid QA next week ahead of the launch.
For the launch itself we have appointed Magnum PR to lead off our campaign. We are really excited about working with the guys and know that a sustained campaign (combined with our product offering real value to consumers and retailers) will result in some great commercial partnerships and, most importantly, a big intake of members getting value from Perkler.
So back to work - but more regular posts now that we are back in Oz. Don’t forget to follow our community manager Graham on Twitter as well @perkler.
Last thing to report is that whilst in London we were lucky enough to score Centre Court Wimbledon tickets on Ladies Quarter Final day. The seats were amazing and we ended up right next to the members. I can assure you all (because I know you’re wondering) Sir Cliff Richard’s tan is quite extraordinary!
Justin
Justin presented on both days about how loyalty works for consumers. This received great reactions including a lot of interest from potential clients. For the full two days Dan worked the room hard - making sure Perkler was top of mind with every Loyalty Marketing company in the joint, including all the big loyalty platform providers. Overall the show was a huge success!
o a local IT/business event put on by 
