People are happier in regional Australia than their city cousins and have a stronger connection to their local news source, according to a new study ACM Heartbeat of Australia.
"Metro Australians are more anxious, stressed and pessimistic compared to regional Australians, who are happier, more hopeful, content and optimistic,” said ACM Research Director Alex Mihalovich.
“This trend is more prevalent when we compare younger to older Australians, giving us a powerful insight around the need to support and nurture our next generation.”
Regional audiences have a higher Life Satisfaction based on how safe they feel, standard of living, life as a whole, personal relationships, health, what they are achieving in life, feeling part of the community and financial situation.
The study confirmed that quality local news drives connection to a community, which in turn has a direct impact on people's positive wellbeing.
Those that don't consume local news have significantly lower life satisfaction (62%) versus those that consume newspapers in print 87% (digital 86%). Heartbeat has also discovered that ACM readers have higher life satisfaction compared to non-ACM readers and are 14% happier than non-readers.
Mihalovich said “local news is powerful in fostering a person's well being and print and digital mastheads are the most trusted sources of news and contribute to one's sense of connection and wellbeing.”
The findings show that ACM in particular is the leader in terms of trust with readers of ACM mastheads trusting their news source 20% more than non readers trust their news source.
While social media has high levels of distrust with 52% of people stating they distrust social media as a news source, TV is the next most distrusted (21%) followed by podcasts (18%).
“These results beg the question; why does the industry continue to over invest in non-trusted news sources such as social media? Just because the audience is there doesn’t mean your brand is in the right environment to resonate with that audience,” said Mihalovich.
Staying informed with local news and stories is the most influential factor in feeling connected to a community which is why ACM readers score so high on this metric. They consume the content that fuels connection and in turn positive well being.
The flow on effect of the community connection and positive well being that local news provides results in a higher likelihood of audiences taking action; whether that be buying or doing more. And this is even more so when you overlay it with consumption of credible and trusted news sources such as ACM.
"The Heartbeat study highlights that regional Australians are much more likely to plan domestic travel, buy furniture, home appliances and renovate their homes in the next 12 months,” says Mihalovich.
Heartbeat also took a deep dive into the role of advertising and it found that readers want to see national brands support their local community and enjoy advertising that is localised to where they live.
Mihalovich went on to say that “localised content is what builds trust so it’s not surprising to see audiences beyond metropolitan areas with access to such content having a stronger relationship with their news brands. The same applies to advertising: regional audiences want to see national brands being present in their market and want to see localised messaging.”
"More than half of the respondents believe big brands place more value on people from capital cities (52%) and as a result are seeing a lack of big brand local advertising, yet 67% value those brands that support their community and 70% prefer advertising that is localised," said Mihalovich.
ACM Heartbeat of Australia reinforces the opportunity for national brands to ConnectNow with the 9.2 million* Australians living in Regional Australia.
“Regional audiences are happy, content with their lives and ready to spend; brands just need to get more active in the regions and get their messaging right,” Mihalovich finished.
Methodology:
This online survey was conducted by McNair Yellow Squares through the University of Canberra. The sample was made up of the McNair panel: n=1,066, Unique URL eDM: n=3,491 and Open URL: n=1,810
Source: ACM Heartbeat of Australia, May 2022. *ABS, Regional Population, Aug 2022.
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