While the June 12 release date is a few days away, already the interest in and hype around the release of the Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book coins is huge. Calls, emails and texts are coming in at a fast rate to all newsXpress stores.
This interest is in part due to the excellent media coverage in Are Media titles (Better Homes and Gardens, New Idea, That’s Life, Who, Australian Women’s Weekly) as well as TV on a number of shows, radio on a number of shows too as well as other media outlets (Delicious for example..
The story on A Current Affair over the weekend about the Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book itself has fuelled more interest too.
There is no doubt that all the media coverage is driving interest in the Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book, other cookbooks and the soon to be released coins.
The behind the scenes logistics for this release have been considerable. For my own business we have our main website, www.mintcoinshop.com.au, having been re-designed. We are taking it offline for all of tomorrow to stress test it ready for the 6am Thursday launch. Then there is the logistics challenge of getting inventory to 100+ shops across Australia as well as in-store collateral and product training.
The data link between the Tower newsagency software and the websites being operated by newsXpress members will be key to capturing online sales. This will help these newsXpress stores reach beyond their usual local shoppers.
This is all being done under the requirements of the Royal Australian Mint and in consideration of the product licence holders, Are Media. There are people people involved, many requirements to meet.
I can’t recall there being anything like this in the history of our channel. It will deliver many new customers for newsXpress members.
There are some who have questioned why newsXpress got this and not other groups. It was newsXpress that cultivated the relationship with the Mint many years ago, showing what a small and tight group in our channel could achieve in terms of their mission to reach more Australians. In the years since, mutual respect has grown to the point where we are now the exclusive retailer for their most significant release of the year.
Starting June 12, newsXpress stores across Australia will demonstrate to many what collaboration can deliver. The benefits beyond the coin products themselves will be felt by the businesses for ages to come. This is a wonderful moment for these local newsXpress businesses and for our channel.
If you have people asking where they can get the coins, click here for a full list of stockists.