If you’ve been shopping for groceries – or just about anything, really – lately, you’ll know that everyday cost of living expenses are at an all-time high. The average Australian household spent $120k in 2022 on everyday living expenses, equivalent to $2,316 per week.
Newsamp’s new thought leadership piece Navigating The Mindset Divide, taps into the News Corp Australia Growth Intelligence Centre’s latest research, to explore the story of two distinct mindsets and how brands can connect with them, or risk being ignored.
Mediaweek spoke to Renee Sycamore, executive general manager of Newsamp, about why they undertook the research, and the difference between owls and ostriches.
Whilst the final product is now out to market, Sycamore says that the background for the research began last year.
“This is not a first iteration, this is our second iteration now. Last year, the impact of the cost of living on consumers was starting to really be felt by all Australians – and we’ve seen it impacting all Australians, but in different ways. We took on investigating, and getting underneath the hood of that impact by state, by demographic, by mindset, because we wanted to help our customers and our clients be able to navigate it.”
Ultimately, the Newsamp team decided to tackle the research with a seemingly impossible goal in mind – find a silver lining for brands in amongst the current cost of living crisis.
“We wanted to see if there were any positives – and I know this sounds wild – and how we could even help marketers find growth with such strong headwinds,” says Sycamore. “With such an increased cost of living, and now the perma-crisis, it sounds very ambitious.
“But the reality is that we have partnered with clients, and we have been able to share data and insights to help them find growth, because this is a time when client loyalty can wane. It can be up for grabs, and we wanted to help our clients navigate that, and see the situation as a glass half full.”
The research found that Australian consumers can largely be placed in one of two categories: The Owls and The Ostriches.
Both birds represent a mindset, with Sycamore saying that each category is dealing with the economic conditions by either leaning in or leaning out.
First up are The Owls.
“The leaning in mindset is trying to find opportunities, or different ways of doing things in the crisis. They are calmer in their approach, they’re quite considered. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the wealthiest, that’s really important – it might just be the average household that’s going to Coles or Woolies when meat is on sale, things like that.
“They’re leaning into the situation, they’re leaning into the challenges, and they’re trying to find new ways of doing things in order to alleviate some of that pressure. That’s what we call the owl.”
While the Owls take off, their flightless counterparts, The Ostriches, have a different view of things.
“Then we’ve got those that are leaning out. They’re a little bit in denial, head in the sand like an ostrich,” says Sycamore. “They’re not as calm and considered. Again, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve got a lower average income.
“The ostrich could be again an average Australian that thinks ‘This might just disappear next week, so I’m going to go out and have a bender with all my mates and rack up way too many drinks on a credit card’. They’re just hoping that they’re going to wake up next week, and it was a bad dream.”
With each person assigned a feathered friend, Sycamore and the Newsamp team now get to work on what to do with this information.
“Those are the two mindsets that our team have identified. Now we ask, how do we connect with those mindsets? How do we engage with those mindsets? How do we help businesses connect with them and find ways to operate with them?”
For brands, this research is the latest addition to the pile of research done by the Newsamp team. For Sycamore, bringing brands into the treasure trove means providing them with the best information to grow their business.
“With the Growth Intelligence Centre, we are sitting on the most robust set of data information, insights, and intelligence. What we’ve done recently, is we’ve set up a bit of a depository of intel – and for our top clients, we’re giving them logins so that they can jump into, and access this information.
“There are two ways we’re doing it. One, there’s a bit of an open depository for our core clients. The other though, is that it’s one thing to access this information with no guidance – and sometimes that is what a client or an agency might want – but by and large, what we found is that clients want to sit with us and with our experts to really try and understand it.”
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Top Image: Renee Sycamore