In a research first, realestate.com.au and media agency OMD have come together to undertake a national study to understand how Australians consume media in the different rooms of their home.
The research, “Room to Roam”, involved more than 1800 participants and explored home owners’ intentions to upgrade and renovate, Australians’ emotional connections to rooms in the house and how this impacts media behaviours and consumption.
“We wanted to understand consumers’ emotional connection to their home and the rooms within it. A number of our clients operate in the home improvement space and we were keen to see how we can use these deeper consumer insights to better inform client campaigns and planning,” Carl McLean, OMD Insights Director said.
Elizabeth Minogue, realestate.com.au Executive General Manager – Media & Content, said: “This robust research reinforces our understanding of how consumer behaviour is changing, while also complementing what our data and insights tell us about how Australians interact with property.
“For Australians, the home is so much more than just bricks and mortar, it’s a place where we create memories. As Australia’s most popular place for property, we continually want to understand how people feel and interact within their homes,” Ms Minogue said.
Beyond demographics, the study identified deeper psychological differences in Aussies’ relationship to the home. The research team ran ethnography to bring three personalities to life – Comfortable Nesters, Home Lifestylers and Functional Extroverts. The personas are split fairly evenly across the population, although women (44 per cent) are more likely to be ‘Home Lifestylers’ than men (33 per cent).
“By exploring the mindsets of comfortable nesters through to functional extroverts by room, our deep understanding of consumers enables us to create engaging, relevant content and media products across our experience. With this knowledge, we’re able to provide unique benefits to our brand partners on realestate.com.au,” Ms Minogue said.
“As the way we consume content has extended well beyond the living room, we were keen to expand our knowledge beyond the household level. It has been crucial for us to build a detailed room-by-room picture of contemporary Australians’ media consumption,” said Mr McLean.
The research was just launched in a closed Melbourne forum to key OMD clients including Target, Beacon Lighting and Dulux. A national roadshow will commence in late November.
