Sizzling summer success

The ARC’s summer online consumer campaign has been a huge success for licensed technicians and authorised businesses. While there are still a few weeks for the campaign to run, we are happy to report a bumper set of numbers for our members.

Since 28 October 2020:

• Over 65,000 people have visited www.lookforthetick.com.au
• Online advertising has generated 23.4 million impressions.
• Over 3,500 people have used the RTA business directory to find authorised businesses near them.

What these numbers represent are real benefits for refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) businesses - increased exposure for the industry, educating consumers about the licence and creating leads by linking customers to licensed businesses.

This campaign targets air conditioning and refrigeration consumers in the areas of purchase, installation, servicing, repair, maintenance and decommissioning (RAC and Auto).

This year we have focused our messaging on:

• Discouraging ‘Topping up’ in the automotive sector.
• Encouraging use of full licence holders for service and maintenance.
• Encouraging regular servicing of cooling systems – increasing work for industry.
• Encouraging consumers to ask for a technician’s licence card.

We are using online channels such as – Google AdWords, Facebook and digital advertising platforms.  ARC started on this path five years ago, where we invested in social media advertising and the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. Since then, it’s been great to see so many businesses jumping on board, promoting their services on social media and generating leads.

R32 ‘tech-packs’ hit the spot with licence holders

ARC’s recent mail out of R32 tech packs seems to have hit the spot with licensed technicians, with an overwhelmingly positive response so far and requests for even more materials to be printed and posted out.

In December 2020 the ARC and the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment created free ‘tech-packs’ on R32 refrigerant for licensed technicians and authorised businesses. These ‘tech-packs’ contain R32-specific information on: refrigerant characteristics and properties, equipment requirements, safety, relationship to R410A, plus more. The tech packs included:

• Education booklets for technicians: A handy resource at work, or when you are working off-site.
• Refrigerant safety service stickers: These stickers will help you, and future employees, identify the refrigerant and its basic characteristics, before you work on the system.
• Links to a dedicated webpage and video at https://www.arctick.org/information/r32/

Thanks must go to the following organisations and groups for their input and review in the development of these materials – RACCA, Refrigerants Australia, Temperzone, TAFE NSW, Box Hill TAFE, Mitsubishi Electric and the RAC Industry Advisory Body.

A symbol of support

You may have noticed a new ARC logo doing the rounds recently.

ARC has made a change to our branding to better represent who we are and the people we represent. It reinforces ARC’s commitment to industry and highlights our role as a support-based organisation for the sector.

These logos have a real significance for ARC as an organisation:

• The snowflake symbol is synonymous with refrigeration and air conditioning and represents our core customers - the stationary RAC and automotive air conditioning sectors.
• The map of Australia represents our national coverage.
• The modern design reflects ARC as a modern and innovative organisation – one which is not just defined by the licence scheme, but much more.

We will continue to support the refrigeration and air conditioning industry (both stationary and automotive) and our members, through a variety of self-funded support services and value-adds for businesses and individuals.

A message for retailers

ARC has written to big-brand retailers of air conditioning equipment to ensure they are communicating to their customers that split system air conditioners must be installed by ARC-licensed technicians.

The letters raise the issue of not using appropriately licensed technicians to install split system air conditioners potentially leading to safety and warranty issues for customers. We plan to follow up these head office communications, with similar communications to all outlets and stores across Australia.

ARC Field operatives regularly visit retail stores and we have implemented a number of point of sale campaigns with retail outlets promoting the use of ARC-licensed technicians for installation, repair and maintenance.