blueAPACHE's 'Kick-aaS' Campaign Hits the Gold Coast

blueAPACHE's Kick AAS campaign hits the Gold Coast

In September, blueAPACHE introduced its IT as a Service (ITaaS) capabilities to the Gold Coast through an out-of-home advertising campaign, supported by HPE Aruba.

The campaign name — Kick AAS — is a deliberately cheeky play on "as a Service", and it did the job an outdoor campaign has to do: say one thing, memorably, to people who have three seconds to read it.

What "AAS" actually stands for

The joke works because the industry acronym is genuinely everywhere: SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, DRaaS, DaaS, and increasingly XaaS — anything as a service.

Underneath the alphabet soup is one idea: stop buying technology as capital equipment and start consuming it as a service, with the provider carrying responsibility for the platform, the capacity, the currency of the software and the availability of the whole.

blueAPACHE has a longer history with that model than most. emPOWER Facilities Management and emPOWER Managed Services launched in 2003 — years before "as a Service" became standard vocabulary in the Australian mid-market, and at a point when most organisations still assumed IT meant capital purchase and internal operation.

Why the Gold Coast, and why out-of-home

South East Queensland has been one of Australia's fastest-growing commercial regions, and the Gold Coast in particular has a substantial base of mid-market businesses — in construction and property, tourism and hospitality, health, professional services and logistics — that are large enough to have serious technology requirements and rarely large enough to run a full internal IT capability.

That is precisely the profile ITaaS is built for.

Out-of-home advertising suits the message better than it might appear. Technology marketing usually assumes a reader in a considered, research-oriented frame of mind. Outdoor works differently — it builds recognition among decision-makers who are not researching anything, so that when the need arises months later, the name is already familiar. For a services business selling a long-term relationship, that recognition is the asset.

The campaign complemented blueAPACHE's Queensland presence on the ground, delivered from its Brisbane office at Level 2, 16 Marie Street, Milton.

The HPE Aruba connection

The campaign was supported by HPE Aruba, and the co-marketing relationship reflects a genuine technology one. blueAPACHE's platform investment across the HPE portfolio — GreenLake, Primera, Synergy and ProLiant — sits underneath its cloud and infrastructure services, alongside a $6 million multi-phase Cisco ASR 9000 core network refresh that began from late 2020.

HPE Aruba's own domain is enterprise networking and wireless — directly relevant to the connectivity and modern workplace elements of an ITaaS offering.

Why the model displaced the alternative

The traditional approach had four structural problems, and they were not solved by better project management.

Capital lumpiness. Infrastructure refreshes arrive as large, infrequent, awkwardly timed capital events. Businesses defer them for cash-flow reasons and end up running critical systems on equipment past its supported life.

Capacity guessing. Buying infrastructure means forecasting demand three to five years out. Over-buy and you have paid for capacity you never use; under-buy and you constrain the business at exactly the point it is growing.

Skills concentration. Running your own platform requires depth across storage, virtualisation, networking, security and backup. Most mid-market organisations cannot justify or retain that depth, so it ends up resting on one or two individuals — which is a business continuity risk, not a staffing arrangement.

Attention. Every hour an internal team spends patching hypervisors is an hour not spent on work only they can do, because they understand the business.

What blueAPACHE delivers as a service

All of it under one accountable operating model — the part that matters most and gets discussed least. Consuming eight services from eight providers reproduces the coordination problem the service model was supposed to remove, and puts the client in the middle of it every time something breaks across a boundary.

About blueAPACHE

Founded in 1998 in Vermont South, Melbourne, blueAPACHE is an Australian-owned IT services provider with more than 280 staff across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, London and Miami. Founder Chris Marshall remains sole proprietor — no external shareholders.

The company has received more than 90 industry awards, including ARN Mid-Market Partner of the Year for seven consecutive years to 2025, the ARN Channel Choice Award 2025 and the Canalys APAC Innovation Award 2023.

To speak with the team, call 1800 248 749.

Frequently asked questions

What was the Kick AAS campaign? An out-of-home advertising campaign run in September introducing blueAPACHE's IT as a Service capabilities to the Gold Coast, supported by HPE Aruba. The name is a play on "as a Service".

What does "as a Service" actually mean? Underneath the acronyms — SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, DRaaS, DaaS and XaaS — is one idea: consuming technology as a service rather than buying it as capital equipment, with the provider carrying responsibility for the platform, the capacity, the currency of the software and the availability of the whole.

How long has blueAPACHE delivered this model? Since 2003, when emPOWER Facilities Management and emPOWER Managed Services launched — years before "as a Service" became standard vocabulary in the Australian mid-market, when most organisations still assumed IT meant capital purchase and internal operation.

Why the Gold Coast? Because South East Queensland has been one of Australia's fastest-growing commercial regions, with a substantial base of mid-market businesses in construction and property, tourism and hospitality, health, professional services and logistics — large enough to have serious technology requirements, rarely large enough to run a full internal IT capability.

Why use outdoor advertising for a technology service? Because technology marketing usually assumes a reader already researching, while outdoor builds recognition among decision-makers who are not researching anything — so the name is familiar months later when the need arises. For a business selling a long-term relationship, that recognition is the asset.

What are the structural problems with buying infrastructure outright? Four, none solved by better project management. Capital lumpiness, where refreshes arrive as large infrequent events that get deferred until critical systems run past supported life. Capacity guessing, requiring a three-to-five-year demand forecast. Skills concentration, where depth across storage, virtualisation, networking, security and backup ends up resting on one or two people — a continuity risk rather than a staffing arrangement. And attention, since every hour spent patching hypervisors is an hour not spent on work only the internal team can do.

What does blueAPACHE deliver as a service? emPOWER Cloud at 99.999% availability across three geographically diverse Australian data centres; the emPOWER Network at 99.99% under a redundant design, reaching 165+ data centre locations; managed services with 24/7 monitoring and service desk; cyber security from an ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified organisation; backup and disaster recovery including Veeam Cloud Connect; voice and collaboration; modern workplace and Microsoft technologies; and procurement through the blueAPACHE e-Store.

Why does the page stress "one accountable operating model"? Because consuming eight services from eight providers reproduces exactly the coordination problem the service model was meant to remove — and puts the client in the middle of it every time something breaks across a boundary.

Related

Knowledge Base

What is blueAPACHE's 'Kick-aaS' campaign?

The 'Kick-aaS' campaign is an out-of-home advertising campaign that blueAPACHE launched in September 2023 to introduce its ITaaS (IT as a Service) capabilities on the Gold Coast, supported by HPE Aruba Networking.

What was the purpose of the Kick-aaS campaign?

The campaign aimed to educate attendees of the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo and Lawtech Summit about blueAPACHE's 'as a Service' offerings.

Which partner supported blueAPACHE's Kick-aaS campaign?

The campaign was supported by HPE Aruba Networking.

Where did the Kick-aaS advertising appear on the Gold Coast?

The advertising appeared at key traffic locations including Gold Coast Airport, Broadbeach, Main Beach, and streets near The Star Gold Coast and Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort.

When was the Kick-aaS campaign launched and when was the article about it published?

The campaign was introduced in September 2023, and the blog article about it was published on September 12, 2023.

Who wrote the blog post about the Kick-aaS campaign?

The blog post was written by blueAPACHE.

What events were targeted by blueAPACHE's Kick-aaS campaign?

The campaign specifically targeted attendees of the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo and the Lawtech Summit.

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