Published on Thursday, 1 May 2025 at 9:00:00 AM
Caption (L-R): Tony Brown (Executive Director Member Services WALGA), Darren Lee (Managing Director, Market Creations Agency), Nick Sloan (CEO, WALGA), Alice Jeffcott (Director of Client Services, Market Creations Agency).
A highly successful ten-year partnership between the public and private sector will soon transition to a new chapter. The Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) and WA-based private business, Market Creations Agency will enter a new agreement in the delivery of the website design, development, and hosting platform, CouncilConnect, at the end of this financial year.
CouncilConnect provides secure, reliable, and easy to maintain web solutions for Local Government authorities. Over 180 CouncilConnect websites have been delivered to date including corporate websites, intranets, councillor portals, tourism websites, as well as sites that promote core Local Government facilities such as recreation centres, libraries, museums and art galleries.
Whilst CouncilConnect services will continue to be delivered by Market Creations Agency in the 2025/26 financial year, WALGA will no longer transact the annual subscription to members in a partnership model. As of 1 July 2025, Local Governments will be able to access CouncilConnect through the WALGA Preferred Supplier Program, with Market Creations Agency transacting directly with each Local Government authority.
Speaking on behalf of WALGA, CEO Nick Sloan praised the efforts of Market Creations Agency over their 10-year relationship.
“We commend Market Creations Agency for their commitment to our members throughout Western Australia, particularly those in regional and remote WA. Their continued efforts to innovate and tailor solutions for Local Governments of all sizes ensure the changing needs of the sector are met in a responsive way.
To grow from servicing 35 Local Government clients in Western Australia in 2014 to more than 100 clients and deliver over 180 internet and intranet sites throughout WA is a huge achievement.
Their commitment to regularly meeting their clients, wherever they’re based in WA has been a key point of difference.”
The impact of the CouncilConnect program is significant, with over 110 million page views and 28 million unique users visiting the sites since 2017. This reach, paired with an up-time of 99.9%, demonstrates the robustness of the solution that Local Government authorities have come to rely on.
With the CouncilConnect service now expanding interstate with clients in the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales, Managing Director and Founder of Market Creations Agency Darren Lee sees the move as positive for his Agency.
“We couldn’t be prouder of our business journey, starting as a home-based business in Geraldton in 1997, expanding to Perth in 2015 and scaling since to continue to support the needs of Local Government. The opportunities this has created for our talented team of graphic designers, web developers and marketing professionals is something we collectively hold very dear to our hearts.
We believe you get back what you put in as an effort-based business that truly cares and seeks to understand our client’s needs and pain points, and act as an extension to their team. Our Director of Client Services Alice Jeffcott and I have visited more than 50 Local Government clients throughout WA in the month of February alone, from the northern reaches of the Pilbara to as far south as Albany and Denmark.”
Shire of Narembeen Chief Executive Officer Rebecca McCall said that Market Creations Agency’s personal touch set them apart.
“Market Creations have grown and flourished while maintaining a commitment to excellence. It's been wonderful to see a regional business grow without losing its identity. It's the personal touch from Darren and his team, with annual face to face meetings that enables his team to gain an insight into an individual organisation's dynamics, team and challenges.
“It is great to work with the team with their friendly but down to earth approach, delivering pragmatic solutions tailored to our needs.”
Darren went on to add, “whilst the partnership with WALGA transitions to the Preferred Supplier Program environment, of which both Market Creations Agency and sister company Integrated ICT already reside on across multiple service categories, we will continue in our efforts to ‘Make a Difference’ wherever our services are needed, a founding philosophy the company was originally created on 28 years ago.”
There will be no changes to the delivery of CouncilConnect in FY2025/26 and Market Creations Agency looks forward to continuing to deliver best practice digital solutions for Western Australian Local Governments for many years to come.
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