Schooling future customers

Come school holidays, every parent is looking for ways to get their kids out of the house. Enter small businesses hunting low-cost branding with an eye on the future generation of customers.

School holiday programs are traditionally run by businesses in the educational or childminding space, but now a diverse range of companies are getting in on the action.

Staff at skateboarding wholesaler and retailer Street Machine taught 360 kids to skate at its free summer skate workshops at Melbourne shopping centre Eastland. It was the first time Street Machine had offered the workshops and every class was booked solid.

“We had no idea how it was going to go and we were like ‘What if we get no bookings?’,” says manager Lauren Luff.

The workshops were a hit with 18 per cent of sales coming directly from program participants on the day of the skate clinics and a further 4 per cent contributing to sales after the holidays. It delivered a welcome boost to Street Machine’s predicted turnover of $5 million for 2018-19. Read more

Kate Jones - Brisbane Times - 25 June 2018