Narrabri Shire Council has launched cheeky new campaign calling for major retailers to close the regional retail gap.
Despite a decidedly tongue-in-cheek tone, the regional NSW council’s new campaign spotlights a very real problem. Despite being one of Australia’s top cotton-producing regions, residents of Narrabri Shire can’t buy basic affordable cotton essentials like bras, socks or jocks in their own town. This problem began at the end of 2020 as a result of the town’s main retail store, Target, closing.
As a result, residents of Narrabri Shire are heavily reliant on online shopping, or have to drive more than an hour to Tamworth just to buy socks and jocks.
The regional NSW town is home to nearly 13,000 people, generates an annual economic output of almost $6 billion and supports over 6,900 jobs across key industries including cotton, grain, wool, beef, coal mining and gas. The region contributes approximately 11.6 per cent of the national cotton production—a crop valued at nearly $4.1 billion nationwide, highlighting “economic strength doesn’t always equal retail presence”.
In a new promotional video titled ‘#BringBackSocksAndJocks’, the Council presents a tongue-in-cheek scenario where locals are forced to take drastic steps in making their own clothes from the ample raw cotton available in the region.
Specialist regional and rural marketing and communications agency C7EVEN was approached by Narrabri Shire Council, to help them achieve its goal of not only spotlighting the regional gap, but also to get a major retailer to open back up in the NSW regional town. B&T sat down with C7EVEN’s MD Adam Arndell, to get this yarn on the campaign and why the humorous approach was taken.
“We saw it as an opportunity to have a bit of a stand for regional Australia… this is about Narrabri and regional areas do authentically have a great sense of humour,” said Arndell.
“It’s such a peak production area for cotton, to actually bring this tongue-in-cheek way of saying that how we’re forced to make our own clothes from raw cotton here from the paddocks, as opposed to having a store that we could go to. It’s really about using humour to drive home what is essentially a higher, more serious message in that for a lot of regional centres and towns is that they’re becoming almost like retail deserts.”
With such a thriving community C7EVEN wanted to unite the town and show off the towns pride to gain more traction for the campaign. This was deemed the most effective way to gain traction with the small media budget they had access to.
“It’s been getting a fantastic pick up. Since last week, the long form video that we had, had over 30,000 or nearly 40,000 views and, 1000 shares,” said Arndell
“We’ve also got a number of shorter form, snippet videos as well, teaser ones that have also been gaining traction… the truth will be, or the success of it ultimately will be, to get the interest from some of these retailers and be able to open the discussions.”
Narrabri Shire Mayor Darrell Tiemens shared that the campaign is about more than socks and jocks, it’s also about closing the retail gap between regional and metro areas.“It’s time retailers recognised the growing need in regions like ours. Narrabri Shire produces the cotton that clothes the country, yet our families are driving hours just to buy socks and undies. We’re not asking for luxury—we’re asking for basics,” Tiemens said.
The lack of a large-format clothing retailer in Narrabri has left many residents without access to affordable, quality essentials. Parents face hours of travel and expense just to clothe their children, while older people, many of whom are not confident online, are left without practical means to shop for basic necessities.
Beyond attracting more retailers to Narrabri, the Council hopes the campaign will spark a larger national conversation about access and equity. The campaign asks why regional and rural Australians, who help drive billions in export and industry value, should be left behind when it comes to something as basic as buying clothes in their own communities.
“Narrabri grows the nation’s fibre, quite literally. So, the idea that we can’t even buy socks and jocks in town? It’s laughable,” Tiemens added. “We’ve had a bit of fun highlighting the issue, but the message is serious: it’s time for a major retailer to come back and support us.”
With the #BringBackSocksAndJocks campaign, Narrabri Shire Council is urging major retailers to see the opportunity and meet the demand in regional communities that help power the national economy.
