With Gen Z entering the workforce en masse, Australia forming closer ties to Asia and more accessibility to global media platforms than ever before, once-rusted-on cultural influences are getting a shake-up. Regan Hancock explains what that means for brands.
Australia has long taken its cultural cues from its older siblings in the Anglosphere. Starting life as a British prison colony, it was only natural that our social structures, practices and beliefs would mimic those of the UK. And for more than a century, this held true.
World War II saw a change in the global power structure, and, over time, we developed closer military and economic ties with our friends in the United States. This led to following American culture and its content. Case in point, in 1997, a University of Queensland study found that Gen X’s cultural identity was more shaped by the USA than the UK.
Today, with shifting demographics, the tides are changing again and with that, so are our cultural preferences. So what comes next for Australia’s cultural sensibilities? And what will that mean for brands?
The rising force of Gen Z
Given the prevailing culture is heavily influenced by the young, it’s impossible to ask where our cultural compass may swing without consulting Gen Z.
According to Roy Morgan, 27 per cent of our workforce now comes from this cohort, and this generation is 58 per cent more likely than Gen X to speak a language other than English at home.
Since birth, they’ve had digital access to almost every culture on the planet, so it would be naïve to assume Australia’s cultural future will be all Vegemite and TimTams.
While Gen Z is driving culture in the form of fashion, music and content consumption, at the top end of town, our compass is likely to be swayed towards our core economic partners, namely, Asia.
Regardless of age, our travel interests are pointing that way with data from Roy Morgan showing travel to Asia increased 12.5 per cent in the last 12 months, with Aussies increasingly heading to Japan, Vietnam and China.
We’re already seeing the rising cultural influence of Japan on Australia, with the country fast becoming the travel destination of choice. Japanese influences such as anime, manga and J-pop have become mainstream. Couple that with the cultural force that is Korea, with its popular exports of K-pop, beauty, film and television and cuisine and the stage is set for Asia to have even greater sway on Australians.
We only need to look to the explosive growth of Uniqlo in this market for proof. Since opening its first store in 2014, the brand has launched 39 Australian stores, bringing minimalist Japanese style into the Aussie mainstream. Locally, in-store collabs help the brand lean into pop culture as it continues to celebrate its heritage, layering in traditional Japanese elements, creating buzz around the brand’s roots and future.
The implications for Australian media
As a media strategist, my role depends on understanding how culture is shifting and what it means for how our clients show up.
You don’t have to look far to see just how quickly a slight misreading of the culture can take a brand from selling jeans to promoting eugenics, whether they meant to or not.
Australian brands – and their agency partners – can’t afford to take their finger off the cultural pulse, particularly at this time. As eyeballs shift, our existing playbooks will need updating.
From Britbox to Squid Games (shame about season 3) and KPop Demon Hunters, brands follow audiences.
But this goes beyond the content we show up in. The influence will also be seen in how brands look and feel in those environments.
For example, a TVC produced in Japan or Singapore feels very different to one produced in the US or Australia. Think faster cuts, layered visuals and more than just the standard Western “punchline at the end” formula.
Over time, these influences establish expectations. To meet those expectations, brands will need to evolve.
They will also need to rethink where they draw authority from. If your target audience thinks “cool” comes from Tokyo or Seoul, you may need to partner with Asian creators, influencers and lean on different cultural touchpoints to earn legitimacy.
Brands like McDonald’s are dipping their toes in already. Last year, the QSR partnered with manga artists and studios to produce anime shorts aligned to specific products, incentivising customers to come back weekly for new episodes with each purchase.
I’m not suggesting that RM Williams give Hugh Jackman the boot as its brand ambassador in favour of someone like the Korean-based Aussie rapper Felix, but quintessentially ‘Australian’ brands that have long functioned in multicultural Australia should already be thinking about how to reflect this if they are not already.
What does a truly Australian culture look like in 2025?
Wherever we seek our influence from, Australia needs to decide what its culture is and will be going forward.
Once, it was the Aussie larrikin. But that version of Australia doesn’t resonate anymore. What’s our new exportable cultural identity? Somehow, I don’t think it’s a bloke wearing an Akubra playing knifey-spooney in a pub.
We only need to look at the success of Bluey to see the value in having our own identity and sharing it with the world.
There’s an opportunity to create cultural bridges and export Aussie creativity and products further throughout Asia, but it will look less like Crocodile Dundee and more like multilingual campaigns that own a niche and accept they’re not for everyone.
My prediction? As we head into the 2030s, Australia is set to become less about cultural monoliths and more about identifying which subcultures hold more space. The trick for brands is to decide if or how they can lean into them.
Regan Hancock is the Head of Planning at media agency Hatched.