Albert Einstein once said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” And who are we to argue? Today, we’re drowning in a sea of information. It takes a whole weekend just to read the Saturday newspaper. The internet would now take several lifetimes to scour. In these time-poor times, how do we cut through the detritus of daily life and find the knowledge we’re after? The answer, of course, is by using our imagination. And the Yellow Pages® products and services. Over the years, the Yellow Pages directory has come to be the most effective distiller and provider of information commonly available. Now, with the march of technology, the Yellow Pages brand has expanded to include the Yellow Pages® Direct service, Yellow Pages local directories, the Yellow Pages® Internet Site, a Chinese Directory and the Sydney Visitors’ Guide®. So Yellow Pages has grown into an ‘information brand’ - rather than just a book with yellow pages.
	The logistics of servicing the billion dollar directories market are truly staggering. Pacific Access (formerly trading as Yellow Pages Australia) produces over 70 Yellow Pages directories nationally. Each year, they somehow manage to deliver more than 13.3 million copies - that’s at least one to practically every home and business in Australia. Combined, those directories provide over 40,000 pages of advertising for over 200,000 customers nationally - with 80% of them small businesses. For these customers, the Yellow Pages directory is a powerful selling tool. More than five million people in Australia use it every week, directly resulting in some 3.0 million purchases. Add to this the fact that for every 100 people who use it over a fortnight, at least 82% contact the business they find there and 65% then make a purchase. With results like these, it’s not surprising that about 40% of small businesses use Yellow Pages directory as their sole marketing activity. But it only works this well for businesses because it works so well for Yellow Pages directory users. Research shows that as many as 83% of Australians find the product to be the best source of shopping information available. And every year, the Yellow Pages brand seems to find another way to make information available. In the 1980s, for instance, Pacific Access decided to create the Yellow Pages7 Small Business IndexTM: a quarterly survey that measures the current climate of small business and reports on projections for the forthcoming quarter. Today, it’s accepted as a leading and truly independent barometer for this sector of the Australian economy. In 1983, Pacific Access also came up with the idea of installing Survey Phones and thus became the first company in the world to introduce this advertising effectiveness monitor. Another world-first was the Yellow Pages7 Internet Site which led every other business directory publisher into cyberspace. Other new products like Yellow Pages® Consumer Tips and Yellow Pages® Talking Guides continue to give consumers more user-friendly ways to find what they’re looking for. On top of all that, Pacific Access takes its environmental responsibilities seriously too. All the inks, glues and dyes chosen are environmentally friendly. So outdated directories can be recycled into housing insulation, animal bedding, horticultural and agricultural products and packaging. Meaning ‘useless’ directories get another use. And generate another source of income instead of waste.
	The world’s first telephone directory was published in Connecticut in 1878, only two years after Mr. Bell made the first phone call. As telephone usage began to grow and spread, naturally so did the directories. In some cities, what began as a humble sheet of paper, now requires two comprehensive volumes. Australia had to wait until the 1920s before we received our first Yellow Pages directory. Except back then it was actually pink. And all 40 pages were neatly contained within the standard telephone book. In 1973, it was finally big enough to demand its own volume. That’s when it also changed its hue. Only a couple of years later, the Yellow Pages directory achieved almost 100% coverage nationwide.
	The Yellow Pages directory today is - beyond doubt - Australia’s most comprehensive information directory. It offers consumers easy access to the facts they need to know before choosing a supplier. (And it now offers suppliers the opportunity to use colour advertisements and help influence that decision.) Through an extensive and ongoing advertising campaign, consumers are reminded that the Yellow Pages directory is not just for emergencies but a very handy, everyday problem solver and source of general information. For example, all Yellow Pages local directories feature an information section on community services and special numbers for most product categories.
	Two years ago, the Yellow Pages® Direct service was launched. This national dial-up directory service provides up to 200,000 referrals each week for mobile phone users and those without access to the printed directory. So far, it’s exceeded all expectations. Even those of advertisers who can purchase a priority listing on the Yellow Pages® Direct service based on a rotational reference system. Another recent development is the world-leading Yellow Pages® Internet Site mentioned earlier. This is now one of Australia’s top 10 most-visited sites, hosting more than 230,000 searches weekly. The range of products on the Yellow Pages® Internet Site also provides opportunities for cost-effective online advertising. The Yellow Pages® Internet Site is constantly updated to incorporate leading-edge internet technology. In 1998 Pacific Access launched an e-commerce pilot on the site, called the Yellow Pages® Shopping Guide.
	In the 1980s, Pacific Access rightly divined that the future for the Yellow Pages brand would rely on it being a brand people liked to use, rather than had to use. To create that image, we’ve witnessed an almost constant stream of very humorous and creatively outstanding advertisements which have won a place in the hearts and minds of many Australians. Not surprisingly, these ads have also justifiably won a number of prestigious awards. Over the past decade, 10 Yellow Pages advertisements have been recognised at the Cannes International Advertising Awards - an achievement unprecedented in Australian advertising history. Remember that early TV commercial with Tommy Dysart trying to locate a part for his Goggomobile? “G-O-GG-O” became part of the vernacular and the Yellow Pages directory proved it could help find the impossible. (This commercial was so popular, in fact, that a new one featuring the Goggomobile was produced in 1998.) To further promote the directory as the source of hard-to-find buying information, we were recently treated to a TV commercial featuring an athlete from some obscure country named Robota. As a result most of Australia now knows the Robotan national anthem, which has an uncanny resemblance to ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’. A simple print advertisement titled ‘Short and Curlies’, created to promote advertising in the Yellow Pages directory, won the Best of Show for Newspaper Advertising at the New York Festivals Print Awards. That means it was judged the best newspaper advertisement out of 6,300 entries from 60 countries. You can add to that another success at the recent Yellow Pages Publishers’ Association’s YPPA Awards in the US, where Australia accepted the award for the most effective business-to-business directory advertising in the world. A wonderfully subtle but effective advertisement that appeared both in magazines and on outdoor sites was the ‘Yellow Book Road’. Inspired by the Wizard of Oz, the road in the ad was made entirely of Yellow Pages directories - and led to even more awards. A series of four TV advertisements to build awareness for the Yellow Pages® Internet Site starred an 83 year-old man who helps de-mystify its technology and jargon. More recently, to promote the Yellow Pages® Direct service, we found ourselves sympathising with a man who is trapped in a lift as ‘A Walk in the Black Forest’ plays on and on. By using the new service on his mobile phone, he tracks down a home-delivery hardware store and eventually finds salvation in the form of a hammer.
	As a result of this brave innovation and commitment to outstanding advertising, research confirms Australians regard the Yellow Pages brand as being helpful, entertaining, time-saving and a necessary part of their everyday lives. People believe that it delivers on its promises, is credible and reliable. And you don’t have to be Einstein to work out that’s exactly the result Pacific Access was hoping for. Pacific Access (formerly trading as Yellow Pages Australia) has responsibility for Yellow Pages and White PagesTM directories and related products for Telstra Corporation Limited. ® & TM Registered trade mark and trade mark of Telstra Corporation Limited. Pacific Access logo - Registered trade mark of Pacific Access Pty. Ltd. ACN 007 423 912. 8 Telstra Corporation Limited. 1999.

YELLOW PAGES DIRECTORIES
		Advertising in the Yellow Pages directory began in 1924.
		More than five million people in Australia use the Yellow Pages directory every week, resulting in over three million purchases.
		All inks, glues and dyes in the Yellow Pages directories are environmentally friendly, ensuring they can be recycled into housing insulation, animal bedding, horticultural and agricultural products.