Brands that help Australians connect with their community, display optimism and reject the notion of the perfect Christmas are best placed to spread festive cheer, according to Strategy Director for research company The Lab, Rebecca Brody.

During a panel discussing Christmas trends at Nine’s Big Idea Store, Unboxing Christmas, research from Powered by Nine and The Lab shows how the last year has reshaped consumers’ perspectives on Christmas and how marketers can capitalise on these trends

“You can do it beautifully right across the board, and we saw initiatives with companies like PayPal creating a store connecting local artisan small businesses with people at Christmas time. So they’re acting as an enabler of connection, or the big retailers stocking the smaller brands.”

Moderated by Toby Boon, Nine’s Director of Strategy, Insight and Effectiveness, the panel – featuring Associate Editor of Sunday Life magazine Genevieve Quigley, Food Editor of 9Honey and the Today Show Jane De Graaff, and Brody – discussed how the pandemic has caused a seismic social shift in the way Australians perceive luxury and indulgence, yearning for a stress-free Christmas and wanting to embrace imperfection.

The research shows consumers’ top three priorities are authenticity in themselves, and they demand the same of brands; they want to give themselves freedom of choice and support brands that bring those things to life; and they want to take things a bit easier and put a bit more simplicity into their lives.

“What we’re seeing overall in Australia is a real shift in increases in empathy, openness and tolerance,” said Brody. “It’s trickled down into some of the themes around Christmas, especially this thing of a ‘no-worries’ Christmas. We want to practise self-acceptance for ourselves and we want to be more inclusive of our community, which comes down to what we buy.”  

Our idea of luxury in particular is being reframed and we’re being more thoughtful of what constitutes the idea of luxury and indulgence. Sustainability is increasingly becoming intertwined with luxury.

“I think when we’re talking about luxury, it’s not flashy luxury,” said Quigley. “Luxury is now more about you thinking about that particular gift – that it has meaning, and that’s it quality and will last, which feeds into sustainability.”

Boon added that a wonderful example of brands merging key consumer values is British retailer Primark, who provided paper shopping bags that could be used as wrapping paper to then go on and be recycled.

The research shows that this year Australians are giving themselves permission to go with the flow. Forty per cent of us are looking at a simpler Christmas, and a quarter of us will remain adaptable to changing circumstances and commit to remaining calm.

Nowhere is this more visible than in the kitchen. One in three Australians want to minimise stress in their approach to Christmas cooking and two-thirds of us are willing to take short-cuts in the kitchen to reduce stress. We no longer want to feel ashamed for not having the perfect roasted potatoes or the Insta-worthy table setting.

“It has to be easy this year,” said De Graaff. “I don’t think anyone has really had the perfect Christmas. It doesn’t exist, so stop trying to strive for it and embrace all the stuff around it.

“I remember one Christmas I had this perfect idea in my mind what that was, and I was determined to execute it. In my head it was a disaster on the day. My husband found me in the kitchen with a glass of champagne, shaking that it was disaster. He told me to look through the door at everyone having fun – the only person that could see that particular version of Christmas was me, in my head. I think I had collected all these moments over the years that formed a collage in my head of what a fantasy Christmas looks like.”

After a tough year, Australians no longer want to feel pressured to emulate the cookie-cutter, advertising version of what Christmas should look like. Brands need to better reflect a multicultural view of what the festive season looks like.

“I think it starts with brands diversifying how we represent Christmas and what a good-looking Christmas should look like,” said Brody. “There’s a very singular idea of ‘this is what a Christmas lunch looks like, what your house or tree should look like’. The more that brands can be showing a broader range of what Christmas might look like, it will move some of the expectation that everyone has to align to this one singular view.”

As marketers sit down and prepare for Christmas, they should focus on the real, honest experience of what the festive season really means for the average Australian.

“I think the main trend we’ll see this year is about being connected,” said Quigley. “Last year we felt so disconnected and this year will be all about being connected, and a focus on how we can come together.”

Brody agreed, adding that brands should “lead with optimism” this Christmas.

“Last year everyone was a little bit cautious and asking if it was a bit insensitive to be too festive,” she said. “We’re seeing signs of a real buoyant Australian community. People are feeling really optimistic and grateful of where we are in the world and what we have available.

“If you can connect into some of the core values around community and simplicity that people will be prioritising more this year, then that will be a winner. Keeping it local, keeping it connected and helping people maintain what’s really important will be the main focus.”

The Big Ideas Store finished a stellar two weeks with a battle royal Great Debate with some of adland’s biggest names facing off.

At stake was a combination of professional reputations and pride mixed in with a doze of codral (for at least one of the speakers) as the two sides went head to head.

The debate question: can great advertising can open our eyes to new products, new categories and new ways of living. But does advertising really hold sway over our culture, or is it cynically raiding the zeitgeist and exploiting the human experience for commercial ends.

Adjudicator
• Tim Burrowes, Editor-at-Large, Mumbrella
The affirmative
• Rachel Fraser, Head of Strategy, M+C Saatchi
• Roshni Hegerman, Chief Strategy Officer, McCann
• Toby Boon, Director of Strategy, Insights & Effectiveness, Nine

The negative
• Andrew Wynne, CEO, Joy
• Michele O’Neill, Director, Powered Enterprise
• Camille Gray, Strategist, Rufus

When it comes to Australian advertisers taking risks and placing big creative bets, Chief Creative Officer of Howatson+White, Ant White, says it shouldn’t even be a question. In the attention economy, brands now have a maximum 30 seconds to a minute to make an impact on audiences and cannot afford to play it safe.

Speaking on a panel at The Big Ideas Store session, Placing Big Creative Bets, White said: “I have a real issue with the title of this session because I don’t think it’s a gamble – we have to be distinctive and we have to stand out, because so many don’t.”

The panel, made up of White, DDB Chief Strategy Officer Fran Clayton, Howatson+White CEO Chris Howatson, and Optus Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Hopkins, lamented the lack of originality  in Australian advertising over the past 18 months, agreeing “everyone did a COVID ad”.

Mel Hopkins said: “The role of any brand is to be distinctive, to stand out, and to have a different reason or purpose for being. So I found it quite depressing – particularly last year, both Australia and globally – to see this sea of sameness in advertising, when you could pretty much whack any brand off the back of it. That to me is lazy marketing.

“Building distinctiveness is probably the toughest thing you could do, but it’s what builds brands. Ultimately, what I see as the role of marketers is to create tomorrow’s cash – you’ve got to do that by being distinctive.”

Reflecting on the trends on the rise in advertising at the moment, Chris Howatson said advertisers and marketers are playing with context a lot more, and finding the environments.

“Forever we’ve been buying media at the point of diminishing return, and that naturally spreads you across lots of different places rather than just focusing on the most impactful message you can give in the moment when it matters. A lot of clients are now saying, ‘I don’t just want to do one plus 55, or three plus 55 – let’s do a three-minute ad and put it in a place where everyone’s going to see it. Let’s create some fame’.”

Howatson pointed out, however, that being distinctive is not just about following the latest trends – it is much more important to play to the strengths and identity of your brand.

“Context is playing a much bigger role, as is emotion, but we need to make sure we don’t just all start doing emotion, because then it’s not distinctive. What a lot of brands are looking at now is, if they’re a super-rational brand, then they’re doing rationality really well, and if it’s a brand that can play emotion then they’re leaning into that, and maybe doing it through comedy.” 

By remaining true to the authenticity of your brand, Hopkins says there is a much greater opportunity to create “brand memories”, which stick with audiences long after the creative has ended.

“At Optus we’ve changed part of our measurement model, and instead of brand awareness or brand consideration we look at creating brand memories. That’s important because, to use a Telstra example, they spend three times as much as us on media and our results have just come back and said we create the same amount of brand memories. That goes to show you our work is more efficient and effective and impactful.”    

Fran Clayton agreed, saying: “Emotion encodes memory, whatever your emotion is.”

Director of Powered and panel host, Liana Dubois, said the upcoming launch of Nine’s State of Originality – Australia’s richest creative prize – is the perfect opportunity for Australian brands to create brand memories and showcase their creative distinctiveness.

In order to create big advertising moments however, advertisers and marketers first need to sell their idea to brands, which can be more difficult than it seems. 

Howatson says metrics and effectiveness are key to getting the decision makers on board.

“Working in agencies, you’re told creativity works and you believe it, but it’s really only been in the last five years that we’ve built the empirical evidence that stands up to a boardroom conversation.

“My positivity around creativity now stems from the fact that more than any other time in history, we’ve got the tools to sell the business critically around creativity into the C Suite. I’ve found when you have that conversation, it’s a lightbulb that goes off, and all of a sudden the reorientation is around those rules.”

White agreed, adding: “We need to give [brands] the tools, the data, the media plan to make sure it’s going to work. When you do that, it opens up their appetite to do more creative work because the shackles are off and there’s a confidence there.”

More information on Nine’s multi-million dollar challenge to marketers, State of Originality can be found here. Submit your entries at www.stateoforiginality.com.au.

Marketers are being told to prepare for the launch of a whole new category as momentum grows towards expanding the cannabis market in Australia.

Sam Geer, Managing Director of Initiative, led a discussion at a joint session for Initiative and Nine’s Big Idea Store, exploring what the growth of the cannabis market would mean in this country for brands in the sector and other related industries competing for consumers’ disposable income.

“Today we are talking about cannabis and the business of cannabis,” said Geer. “Professionally speaking [the marketing industry] needs to be thinking about this and we need to be understanding it. Globally, the legal cannabis market is $100 billion, there are 300 publicly listed companies, and in North America there are five times the number of employees in the cannabis market than the mining market – just think about that.

“Locally this is also happening. Australia is the fastest growing medical cannabis market in the world per capita and the fifth largest market globally. Queensland is ahead of the game. They have built the world’s largest cannabis greenhouse and Victoria is trying to one-up them with a new $130 million facility currently being built.”

Geer noted that 42 per cent of Australians already support legislation of cannabis but the path to legalisation would be complex.

Martin Lane, co-founder of local cannabis news website Cannabiz, said he unexpectedly found himself entering the space after seeing the market overseas and that the pathway for Australia was clear.

“I went to Advertising Week in the UK in 2017 and there was a whole stream dedicated [to the business of cannabis],” said Lane. “It’s important to prepare now, [for] when we become the US and the UK.

“There’s a path in terms of Australia. In the US it is legalised in 16 states, in the UK it is classified as a food, in Canada you have both medicinal and recreational. What will happen in Australia? It is now possible to buy CBD [cannabidiol] over the counter in pharmacies, but there isn’t currently a medicine available to be sold.

“We’re 12 to 18 months away from being able to go into Chemist Warehouse and buy CBD. When that happens and the price comes down, it will begin to compete in the complementary medicine stage. That gets you another couple of million, then you get to recreational, probably five years away in my opinion.”

Australian Financial Review reporter, Natasha Gillezeau, noted new research from IBISWorld which noted the local sector was still very much in “start-up” mode but would move swiftly from infancy.

“Where the business leaders are at is quite far away from where the consumer is,” said Gillezeau. “But the expectation is that revenue for the whole sector will go up 79 per cent year-on-year, so there is opportunity.”

Many marketers will be watching which existing brands seek to enter the space and capitalise on the growth, but Eric Thomson, Sydney-based Global Marketing Director Winemakers for drinks giant Pernod Ricard, warned that cultural acceptance was the key overhanging question.

“The cultural context is really important,” Thomson said. “Medicinal will be the first cab off the rank and 42 per cent of Australians favour legalisation. In Canada and the [United] States it was 80 to 90 per cent in favour before it was legalised. It stopped being a political discussion. Here it remains political.

“I struggle to think of a brand or a product or a category so consistently demonised in culture that has been turned around. Anywhere there is money, people will take the opportunity. The culture has started to shift from demonisation to business opportunity.”

Thomson said his brands were reluctant to become players.

“We had a lot of think-tanks and workshops to establish the impact we thought [cannabis] would have on the market. However, we haven’t really seen the material impacts in terms of overall consumption declines in the alcohol beverage sector, premium wine and spirits.“It’s very difficult to replace sharing a glass of wine over a meal. I don’t see cannabis ever being able to do that – and that’s why I’m confident that our category will continue to thrive alongside whatever [de]regulation happens.”

Lane noted that a key question would be how the cannabis market was sold from a brand perspective, and whether the industry could shrug off its “stoner” image.

“Another key question is what’s going to happen with the [marijuana] leaf? The leaf is the golden arches of the cannabis industry. There is a theory that is a bit throwback – the use of green colours, it’s all a bit stoner. So many cannabis companies start with the leaf and that disables them from putting the product in a wider cultural context.”

Real estate is a national obsession and owning your own home is regarded as the great Australian dream. But with a crippling stamp duty tax and a deposit that takes an average Sydney couple six-and-a-half years to save, a panel of experts argue that marketers need to recognise that Australians may not automatically pursue home ownership.

Speaking on a panel discussing the Changing Australian Dream at Nine’s Big Ideas Store, Dr Nicola Powell, Senior Research Analyst at Domain, Money News host Brooke Corte and Business Insider editor James Hennessy told the room that with Australians buying their first property at an older age than ever before, we need a complete overhaul of how we view property ownership.

James Hennessy, editor of Business Insider told the room that with younger generations struggling to gain a foothold on the property ladder, marketers, brands and in particular property developers must concentrate on making renting a more desirable lifestyle option.

“Younger Australians wanting to live close to the city can only often rent due to the incredible price of inner-city property,” he said. “Renters tend to be forgotten in the property conversation. If we are willing to accept that a higher proportion of Australians will be renting then there needs to be a lot more focus on giving them liberty to be able make a house their home – can they make mild alterations like hanging pictures up on the wall, and have a pet?

“If the Australian dream of owning property is out of reach for a growing section of the population and people will be renting permanently, let’s make that a lifestyle that works.”

Money News host Brooke Corte said the generational divide was becoming quite clear.

“Our whole income support system relies on this idea that by the time we get to retirement we own our own home, and I think that’s where the generational divide of home ownership and being able to get into the market is a big conversation we need to have,” said Corte.

“If the younger generations get into retirement without owning their own home there’s not a lot of support for them. And that’s why there’s a lot of concern about the fact that the fastest growing group of homelessness is in older females. There’s some serious cultural and societal issues we need to discuss.”

Dr Nicola Powell agrees. With Sydney house prices rising by $1145 a day for the first three months of 2021, getting onto the property ladder is now harder than ever.

“The average age for an Australian to purchase their first home is 35 and that’s tracked older and older in recent years. Look at the government’s super deposit scheme where there were 10,000 places for a low deposit of 5 per cent loan, and 10 per cent of people who took up the scheme were over 40.

“We need to think about affordability differently. It’s about the type of stock we are building, and it’s about that missing level of affordability. For example, 3D printing of homes uses 30 per cent less materials than traditional building and is much cheaper. It’s being used in the US to build villages to house homeless people, but it’s also used in European countries for tenants and producing affordable housing.”

But structural change in government policy is needed, said Corte.

“If we want to talk about what government can do to help first home buyers get into the market, we need to talk about stamp duty. That is the biggest roadblock. It’s a massive cost and it has stopped older people moving out of big homes into smaller ones, and it’s stopping people getting that extra amount of money to get into the market in the first place.

“Every time I see the government coming up with an incentive for first home buyers it’s something that stimulates demand, so everyone rushes into the market and property becomes more expensive. The only incentives that will work to make things more affordable are to increase supply, and there hasn’t been a lot of focus on that.”

As editor of Business Insider, which is read by an affluent young audience, James Hennessy said developers need to step up and listen to what people want in a development post-COVID.

“Young Australians want to own a home, but what has changed is their expectation. There’s no longer an inherent expectation within young people that one day they will own a home. There’s an understanding that it’s difficult to get onto the ladder, but COVID has changed that too. As many young people were working from home they’ve realised that, sitting in a rental that was their home, study, office and gym, they do want to spread their wings a bit and move into ownership.

“But that dream of owning a quarter-acre block has definitely shifted. There needs to be more of a conversation around what type of developments and housing we’re building. Are these being targeted at first home buyers, and is it what they want in housing?”

Dr Powell said one way of addressing the insecurity of renting is taking a long-term approach.

“Not only do we have to address affordability of purchasing property, but we also have to look at our rental market. We don’t have long-term leases here, the standard is 12 months. We need to have tenants who can make their rental their home. We can learn a lot of lessons from Europe, where they have long-term leases of five or even 10 years. It’s not for everyone but it’s about having options.”

And while it’s easy to think that housing affordability ends once you’re in the market, a combination of interest rate rises and people refinancing older in life may mean choppy waters lie ahead.

“As people buy houses later in life, when you get into your 50s if you go to refinance, the banks won’t be talking about 30-year loans,” said Corte. “As that timeline [of a loan] gets squeezed in, it becomes more expensive.

“In terms of preparing for what lies ahead, we have interest rates at a record low and I saw a figure the other day that said one million people currently in the property market have never experienced a rate rise. They’ve only experienced rate cuts. People need to start preparing themselves for rate rises.”