Tune is this week to AdNews L!VE: Regional Reignited as we dive into the whole gamut of opportunities regional Australia presents to adland.
If there were ever a moment to explore the opportunities to reach consumers living in Australia’s regional areas it’s now. Connecting with regional Australia is something we’ve been focussed on for some time at GroupM. We launched Out of Towners, an immersion in regional Australia for clients, in 2017 and it was a unique opportunity for our clients and our teams to connect with people and places in Australia outside of the metro bubble.
Over four weeks we took people on a minibus from Townsville to Tasmania via Rockhampton, Wagga Wagga, Dubbo, Ballarat and beyond. At the time, I was editor of AdNews and a guest of GroupM top report on the initiative, but now I see its legacy and impact on clients and agencies from within GroupM.
The teams from Mindshare, Wavemaker and MediaCom and their clients stayed in local motels, ate at RSL Clubs and talked to people in pubs and shopping centres. We visited the local radio networks and newspaper publishers. We were able to hear directly from people in these regional towns, get insights about their media consumption, and consumer behaviours. It wasn’t focus groups – it was real life and it was incredibly valuable for our clients and teams.
What was common across all the clients and the strategists, planners and activation teams that joined the Out of Towners trip was the realisation that there is a tendency to make assumptions about regional communities and hubs in Australia and what their behaviour and consumption habits might be. Regional has always brought up imagery of farmers and tractors, but really, that’s a lazy and inaccurate stereotype. We found communities with high disposable income, investing in their homes, in renovations, new cars, growing families and lifestyle aspirations with multiple pets, with plans to take multiple overseas holidays that year.
There’s always been a richness to regional Australia, that perhaps hasn’t been recognised in the way it should. What Out of Towners gave us was a first-hand education and a reminder of the full breadth of investment opportunities for advertisers across Australia. Many of the clients that joined us had ‘Ah-ha’ moments of where they could better utilise their spend in regional areas and connect to consumers.
During 2020, Australian communities have experienced shifts and challenges unique to this year.
The tragedy of the bushfire season last year, followed by COVID-19’s travel restrictions means that we are all holidaying in our own backyard and finding ways to make the most of, and support the communities in our own states. The economy may have been buoyed by international travellers and tourists in previous years, but this year and well into next year those tourists will be Australians which means further opportunity to target home grown consumers who will continue to be customers of Australian brands locally.
By virtue of the flexibility that has come with the sudden shift remote work, people who lived in apartments in the city and previously commuted to a city office five days a week have discovered the joys and relative affordability of regional towns. And that may not go backwards. As businesses embrace flexible working and a hybrid of office based and remote work becomes normalised and accepted, that trend will likely remain, beyond COVID-19, and could even cause a permanent shift to Australia’s populations. Advertisers will need to keep those shifting demographics in mind and seek out partners that really understand the nuances of Australia’s population.
Rosie Baker is Group Communication Director at GroupM.
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