Case study: Going global with Poppy Lissiman

Poppy Lissiman is an Australian born designer. Poppy first started her label in 2008 and opened her first stand alone store in 2011. In 2014, Poppy relaunched her label exclusively as an accessories line, starting off with her street style-famous clutch bags followed by her first collection of sunglasses in 2015. 

With over 210,000 followers on Instagram, Poppy Lissiman is one of Australia’s best known fashion labels whose designs have been worn by the world’s biggest celebrities and influencers including Beyonce, Rihanna, the Kardashians, Jenners, Hadid sisters, Selena Gomez, Emily Ratajkowski, Christina Aguileria, Gwen Stefani, Billie Eilish and more.

How did the Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) help Poppy Lissiman grow globally?

The Federal Government’s Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) is a program to encourage Australian businesses to export by providing cash rebates for 50% of eligible marketing expenses up to $150,000. 

Find more information on the EMDG and discover if your business is eligible.

Poppy Lissiman had a strong international marketing strategy in place and the funding support from the EMDG meant that Poppy Lissiman could pursue new export markets with confidence. 

Knowing they would get a rebate for almost 50% of their overseas marketing costs, Poppy Lissiman could spend more and do more, as a result the USA is now their largest market. 

How did Export Solutions help?

In a short phone call with Export Solutions, the team we were able to determine that Poppy Lissiman was eligible for the EMDG and could claim marketing costs that they had already incurred. 

Through the EMDG, Poppy Lissiman were able to claim expenses including:

Advertising and promotion

• Instagram 
• Facebook  
• Google 
• Influencers
• Photo shoots 
• SEO and website

Travel to overseas markets

• Airfares to attend marketing events, fashion shows, PR events etc. 

Trade Fairs

• Costs associated with fashion shows and promotional events

Patents and IP Protection

• The costs of registering patents and IP around the world. 

Export Solutions have assisted Poppy Lissiman with their EMDG applications for three years now — with the past two years being paid in an average of five weeks after lodgement. 

“We’ve been working with Export Solutions for three years now to access EMDG funding,” says Skip Lissiman, managing director of the brand.

“There are a lot of complex rules, legislation and enforceable guidelines around the EMDG. However, the process with Export Solutions is very easy. Without their help, accessing the EMDG would have been very time consuming.

“Their team is across digital and social marketing. We didn’t have to spend time explaining how influencer marketing or social media advertising works. They just told us which reports to get and what documents were needed for them to prepare a quality application.

“Export Solutions are focused on getting the largest grant possible. They stood alongside us throughout the audit process, and successfully appealed a decision from Austrade to ensure we received the full grant amount we were entitled to.

Export Solutions work on a success fee — so there are no unexpected consulting fees”