Speakers
Profile:
Pat Mackle was inspired to create Avant Card when as a young Aussie Traveler she discovered some free postcards in a café in Europe. She recognised their potential and brought home samples and entrepreneurial ideas. She started Avant Card, a postcard printing and distribution service in 1992.
Avant Card postcards stylishly promote artistic and community events, film releases, products and services, brand awareness, health promotions, environmental concerns and social issues.
Before establishing the company, Mackle was a successful film editor but became disillusioned with the Australian film industry which struggled in the recession of the early ’90s. She launched Avant Card from home with a grant from the Federal Government’s Self Employment Initiative. She had 10 postcard display stands and the enthusiasm to hit the streets and sell a ‘foreign’ concept to potential clients. It wasn’t easy.
"Postcards were certainly outside traditional media categories like magazines and television," Mackle says. "Even though it was so successful in Europe, advertising on postcards and then giving them away seemed obscure. Many companies therefore considered it a big risk."
Nevertheless, a number of businesses appreciated Mackle’s initiative. Her first print run serviced 13 clients and her distribution network consisted of 10 café outlets in Sydney. The momentum hasn’t stopped since.
From a one-person show in Sydney five years ago, Avant Card is now a national company with 16 permanent employees. "We have printed over 2,000 different designs for hundreds of clients. Many are repeat clients, and new ones come in every day," Mackle says. "We also add to our base of display outlets every day. Our current count is more than 600 outlets throughout Australia and more than 150 in New Zealand."
