Our Story
Thirty years of the print people keep.
Z-CARD Australia is the sole Australian producer of the original folded pocket-media format. This is how it got here.
2.5B
Cards produced in Australia
30yr
Australian owned and made
95%
Of recipients keep their card
47
Countries in the global network
The timeline
From a travel writer's
idea to 2.5 billion.
1983
The format is invented
George McDonald, a travel writer and consultant for British Airways, sets out to pack a large amount of information into a pocket-sized marketing tool.
1992
Z-CARD comes to Australia
Rob Fraser partners with McDonald and establishes a production facility and sales office in Sydney to supply the Australian market.
1993
The first blue-chip clients
The NRMA and a run of major corporations and government departments come on board. Sales growth is rapid.
2012
The patent expires
The format becomes widely copied. The brand, the relationships and the trademark become the moat.
2026
Thirty years, still made here
Australian owned and locally produced, with 2.5 billion cards made and a client list most agencies would envy.
Local production,
global network.
Made in Waterloo, part of the international Z-CARD and PocketMedia family: 47 countries, 18 production hubs, and roughly two Z-CARDs produced somewhere in the world every second.