Nine’s marketing solutions division, Powered, has partnered with The Lab for the second year running to research the big trends in retail, food and culture which will influence consumer purchasing decisions during the 2021 festive season.

The key themes revealed in the new research that brands and marketers should capitalise on include: a rejection of perfection and anxiety; luxury and self- indulgence; community and environmentally conscious giving; and exploring and honouring our own Aussie backyard.

This research builds on the foundations laid in 2020 when Powered and The Lab launched “Unboxing a Christmas Like No Other”, which looked at the challenging and highly unpredictable 2020 festive season.

Nine’s Director of Strategy, Insight and Effectiveness, Toby Boon said, “The past 18 months have been some of the most challenging in our lives and have fundamentally changed the way Australians celebrate major moments. It’s forced us all to think differently and re-evaluate what’s important – and it’s no different for brands and marketers”.

The Powered 2021 research with The Lab rewinds and reviews the consumer experience from last year’s Christmas and to achieve four key objectives: better understand consumer responsiveness; reflect on core values, priorities and ambitions moving into 2021; understand how the shifting consumer mindset will be reflected in the upcoming festive season; and highlight the major opportunities for brands and marketers.

Strategy Director for The Lab, Bec Brody, said a combination of several methodologies were used to deliver a holistic understanding of cultural insights, brand effectiveness and consumer sentiment.

“We undertook an extensive cultural investigation which drew on artificial intelligence, consumer insights from more than 1600 Australians, findings from The Lab’s proprietary cultural intelligence study, The Australia Project, and qualitative Christmas reflection diaries from ordinary Australians”, said Brody.

“This research was distilled into four key trends for the 2021 festive season, which we’ve titled ‘No Worries Christmas’ which takes the anxiety of out the holidays, ‘The Indulgence of Time’ which focuses on gifting luxury and self-indulgence, ‘Considered Christmas’ which is about community giving and sustainability, and ‘New Aussie Pride’ which leverages the trend of living local”.

Boon said there are myriad insights brands and marketers can take from the research. “One of the biggest and most valuable take-outs from this research is the expectations for glossy perfectionism traditionally associated with Christmas are drastically reducing. Brands now should focus on showing the real, raw, honest experience that it is”.

“Australians are also becoming much more localised, so brands need to speak in terms of localism, show how they can give back, as well as celebrate the great produce we have on our doorstep, and inspire consumers to discover the diversity of our unique Aussie landscape over the festive season.

“Finally, I think we can all agree we deserve a little luxury after a tough 2020. Our research found brands and marketers need to give consumers permission to reward themselves at Christmas, make meals more of an experience in terms of time, quality and effort, and emphasise and personalise the gifting experience”.

The research conducted by Powered and The Lab will be presented at The Big Ideas Store in the session ‘Unboxing Christmas 2021’ on Thursday 20 May 11:30am- 12:30pm.

To watch a full video of the session click here.

For more information:
Nic Christensen
Head of Corporate Affairs 
nchristensen@nine.com.au