The Creative Collective is a creative / marketing agency based on the Sunshine Coast and services clients throughout Australia and New Zealand. It provides online marketing services such as website design and development, search engine optimisation, pay per click, branding and social media, as well as consultancy and strategy. In short we help our clients achieve online success.
Founder & Partner Yvette Adams moved to Sunshine Coast in 2004 to be near family here. She started The Creative Collective in 2007 which now has five staff, 30 contractors and five trainers.
What are the operating advantages and challenges to being based on the Sunshine Coast?
The advantage is the lifestyle here. As a Cloud-based business, I can work from anywhere so I might as well live somewhere nice like the Sunshine Coast!
The challenges are the quality of the internet, poor flight times for business travel out of the local airport, and talent recruitment (finding people with the right skills and experience to hire for our team).
How are you using digital technology and systems to evolve your business practices?
Digital technology underpins our entire business. We teach digital technology, so we work hard to be at the cutting edge of what’s coming out, how it can be used, and once we are confident of its potential, we roll it out to our clients.
We have been fully Cloud-based since 2009, which has allowed me to run the business from home in the early days while I was raising my children, before purchasing a commercial warehouse in Maroochydore in 2011 and moving the business out of home.
What are the key digital innovations changing your industry sector?
Constant developments in online learning are changing the options we have to deliver training, eg we now use a learning management system we developed quite heavily. There’s also a lot of change happening in Google products, social media products and the online advertising options available to our clients.
I have a personality which gets bored easily, so the constant developments in technology keep me interested and challenged. I realise it can be overwhelming for people – it’s overwhelming for me too at times. So I tell people to try and change their perception from being overwhelmed to embracing the constant change as part of the package and to be curious and excited about the possibilities the new innovations offer. I tell people digital literacy is the new financial literacy and they must upskill in this area to improve their employability, and their ability to run businesses productively and profitably.
Do you have sufficient access to broadband and/or WIFI facilities for operational purposes?
Broadband access is ok, but it could be better. We are having capacity issues when we have a lot of people in at our offices, and if it rains the connection can also be intermittent!
How do you think the expanding digital economy will benefit the Sunshine Coast region for businesses, families and communities?
Having the right digital infrastructure in place such as quality internet makes the Sunshine Coast a more attractive place to live and work.
We’re starting to see some great initiatives get off the ground, such as the first Start Up Weekend, a global movement happening here in May, and The-Core’s global initiative encouraging Minecraft gamers around the world to imagine and design the new Maroochydore CBD. I think the more of this that comes through, the more our digital economy and people’s involvement in it will grow.
Recent achievements
- 2013 Winner of ICT Woman of the Year at the National iAwards
- 2012 Winner of Entrepreneurial Award at the Women in Technology Awards
- 2012 Winner of Employer of Choice Award at the Women in Technology Awards
- 2010 & 2012 Winner of Creative & Knowledge Based Industries Category – Large Business – Sunshine Coast Business Excellence Awards
For more details about The Creative Collective visit www.thecreativecollective.com.au
