With the 2021 Australian Census revealing the significant increase in the immigrant population Down Under, Identity Communications’ Thang Ngo says marketers now need to consider diverse audiences as part of their mainstream campaign.
Young. Diverse. Godless. Behind these headlines from Australia’s 2021 Census are the migrant communities that have driven these Australian trends.
Diversity is now an integral part of Australia’s demography and culture. The latest census tells us that Australia is now a predominantly migrant country. Multicultural audiences are no longer a separate, minor niche. There is no longer multicultural marketing – it’s all marketing. Marketers need to consider diverse audiences as BAU, a part of their “mainstream” campaign.
Migrants make up more than half the population For the first time, more than half (51.5%) of the 25.5 million population was born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas.
Australia’s population has increased by just over two million in the five years between the 2016 and 2021 censuses. Migration accounted for half of that growth and would have been more if it wasn’t for COVID-19 – 80% of migrants arrived before 2020.
Australia is also more linguistically diverse than ever. More than 5.5 million people now speak a language other than English at home – that’s one in five people – more than at any other time in history and up 800,000 from the previous census.
In Australia’s most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, that ratio is one in four. In their capital cities, Sydney and Melbourne, the figure rises to one in three.
The top languages spoken in Australia indicate the rise in Asian languages. Around one million people speak a Chinese language and Punjabi has cracked the top six for the first time. Longer-established groups from Europe, such as Greek and Italian, are on the decline, with Italian no longer in the top six.
Australia’s most spoken languages (excluding English)
In terms of arrivals from a non-English-speaking country, India has overtaken China to be the top source country, with migrants born in the Philippines making up the rest of the podium. Migrants from Nepal are the fastest growing, jumping 124% between the last two censuses.
There is good news in relation to Australia’s First Nations population – it has jumped by 25% to more than 812,000 people. First Nations Australians now account for 3.2% of the population, up from 2.8%.
First Nations population by age group
Much work has been done by governments of all levels over time to close the gap in terms of First Nations disadvantage, including increasing the lower life expectancy. The news appears to be good. There’s been a dramatic lift in the number of people aged over 65, which is a continuing upward trend over the past few census periods.
The rise of the millennials With all their angst, millennials are the group to watch, making up one in five Australians. They are now on par with their parents, the baby boomers. Anxious or not, millennials are having children and Generation Alpha has doubled.
Australia by generation segments (smh.com.au)
Look behind the headlines and it is migrants who are fuelling the growth of both groups. Take, for example, migrants from Nepal, the fastest-growing migrant group – they are squarely in the age group of millennials and Gen Alpha.
Nepali migrants by age segment (SBS Census Explorer)
Australia – godly and godless We are now less religious than ever. For the first time, fewer than half (44%) of Australians identified as Christian and the decline of the past decade has been significant. Within Christianity, Catholicism is the largest Christian religion, making up 20% of the Australian population. Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are the next largest religions.
Today, almost 40% of the population said they have no religion – 20% higher than the previous decade.
The rise in no religion
While Australia generally has been drifting from organised religion, this shift has been made more dramatic due to migration. Over 70% of Mandarin speakers, the most spoken language other than English in Australia, claimed no religion.
Migrants from the Philippines make up the third-largest non-English speaking country of birth – over 76% of Filipino speakers in Australia are Catholic.
There is no multicultural marketing, only marketing Due to the sheer size of the multicultural population in Australia, every statistic we see – millennials, how many cars are purchased, population growth rate, homes purchased, toilet paper bought – all data has been significantly shaped by migrant Australians – over 5.5 million of them.
Multicultural marketing isn’t a different work stream. This audience should be seen as a segment of any mass marketing campaign – a large and highly valuable one. Over one million migrants arrived during the current census period – instant consumers who need to buy clothing, home goods, mobile phones, cars, moisturisers. A migrant typically buys a car within 12 months of arrival, a house within three to four years and an investment property by year five, according to SBS’s Calling Australia Home Research.
Nielsen’s Ethnic-Australian Consumer Report found migrant-Australian FMCG expenditure is growing at a faster rate than Australian-born.
The report predicts migrant-Australians’ spend will grow at a faster rate than their Australian-born counterparts, accounting for over A$4.4 billion in incremental revenue. This will result in the migrant-Australian shopper contributing a total of A$18.7 billion, or 28%, of the total FMCG retail channel.
Brand awareness and loyalty haven’t been built. New migrants don’t yet know the difference between Commbank, ANZ or ING. They haven’t yet developed a preference between Coles, Woolies or Aldi. Category leaders will need to talk to migrants early; if you don’t, you’ll risk a challenger brand getting there first to steal share and loyalty.
Mass marketers are kept awake at night looking for new market segments. The census tells us there are more than 5.5 million reasons to include multicultural Australians into your “mainstream” campaign.
Thang Ngo is a strategist at Identity Communications, Australia’s largest multicultural marketing agency – an IPG Mediabrands company. Twitter @thangngo.
This year’s Australia Day lamb ad from the folks at Meat and Livestock Australia pushed up a lot of people’s blood pressure.
Some were indignant that it tells us to eat lamb on Australia Day, without mentioning the words “Australia Day”, while others objected to the comparison between newly arrived boat people and the First Fleet settlers who killed many Aboriginal Australians.
First Australians have never welcomed Australia Day on January 26, and the vegans probably don’t like the cheeky dig. Though, I reckon it’s safe to say the Indians, Serbians and gays are ok with it.
Personally, I love it, especially the Haddaway ‘What Is Love’ backing track. But I don’t want to go there, today.
I love food as much (and probably more, judging by the scales) than the next person. The national debate sparked by the lamb floggers has got me thinking: what is Australian food? Do we have a national dish?
For those from India, there’s no shortage of distinctive food from their culture. I’m addicted to dosa at the moment.
Chinese – where do we begin? I’d begin and end with dumplings.
Japanese ramen; Yorkshire pudding comes to mind for the English; and the mere mention of Vietnamese pho and pork rolls instantly make me salivate.
Veteran food critic and author, John Newton, says Vegemite comes closest – and in incredible timing, it’s back in Australian hands after Bega bought it from the Americans.
For him it’s not “the Pavlova, whose provenance is hotly contested… not Peach Melba which, although named after an Australian, is not Australian. None of these justly celebrated desserts/cakes – with the possible exception of the lamington – came from Australian domestic kitchens. And none are associated with one place.”
Other favourites such as damper, lamb, steak and eggs, and pies aren’t uniquely Australian, he laments.
Newton says, just maybe, the Adelaide pie floater – “meat pie island in a pea soup sea” – qualifies. While people have served peas with pies, the “floater” is an original idea fresh from pie carts in Adelaide.
Food and drink are key ingredients of any celebration. So on Australia Day, what should we eat?
And this year, Lunar New Year is just two days after Australia Day. The Year of the Rooster falls on Saturday, January 28. With around one million Australians from Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean backgrounds, and the New Year falling on the weekend, the shindig will be huge.
But there’s no confusion when it comes to what food will be on the party table. If you want good luck, eat these lucky Lunar New Year dishes:
Spring rolls and dumplings: is all about wealth. In addition to being delicious, their shapes resemble ancient Chinese gold ingots.
Fish: for prosperity. As it sounds like “abundance” in Chinese, eat whole fish for wealth all year round.
Noodles: if you want long life, choose dishes with long strands of noodles. Cut them and you risk cutting short your life!
Tangerines and oranges: believed to bring wealth. In Chinese tangerine sounds like “luck”, while orange sounds like “gold”.
Mut (candied fruit): according to the Vietnamese, sweetness brings a sweet life and candied seeds such as lotus bring family happiness through having more children.
Watermelon: Vietnamese believe good luck comes to the household if a watermelon is cut during New Year. The inside is red and the darker the red, the greater the prosperity.
Lettuce: sounds like “growing wealth” in Chinese. That’s why lettuce is always ripped and thrown to the crowd at the conclusion of lion dances.
Whole chicken: including head and feet is symbolic of family reunion, togetherness and happiness. Make sure the chicken is as “whole” as possible, including head and feet.
Don’t ask me if I’ll be celebrating Australia Day or Lunar New Year this year. Why the either, or? I’ll be feasting on both.
In 2028, Lunar New Year falls on January 26. If we haven’t sorted out a national dish by then, it might be dumplings and noodles all round, mate!
Thang Ngo served as a local councillor in Fairfield for nine years (1999-2008). He is managing director of IDENTITY Communications, a multicultural marketing agency that is part of the global IPG Mediabrands network. He also publishes the noodlies food, travel and lifestyle blog.
Originally published by SBS, header image courtesy of SBS.
The winners of the 2016 Australian Multicultural Marketing Awards (AMMAs) were revealed at the Sydney Opera House last night, with the latest lamb campaign by Meat & Livestock Australia and independent agency The Monkeys receiving a double dose of recognition with two gongs.
The ‘Bringing EVERYONE together over lamb’ campaign, which also had contributions from UM, One Green Bean and Identity, won the Communications category as well as the People’s Choice Award.
SBS Radio and Access Community Services were the other big winners on the night, both receiving two awards.
SBS Radio took out the Communities category for its SBS Arabic24 station and the Youth category for its National Languages Competition, while Access Community Services won the Business Diversity award for its ‘#OurStories campaign’ and the Arts and Culture award for its Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre.
Telstra denied Access Community Services a third award win with its ‘A place to belong’ indigenous recruitment campaign in the Big Business category, while Why Documentaries won the Small Business award for its film From Foe to Friends.
Western Sydney University’s popular ‘Unlimited’ campaign featuring Sudanese refugee Deng Adut claimed the Education category, while Cricket Australia won the Sport category.
The Public Sector award went to the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service and the NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service for their multi-platform campaign which aimed to raise awareness of organ tissue donation among the state’s different cultures.
NSW Minister for Multiculturalism, John Ajaka, said the outstanding quality of this year’s winners is a testament to all the creativity and imagination of marketing and advertising professionals who are breaking barriers and promoting diversity on screens and across society.
“The large spike in nominations this year is a testament to marketers increasingly exploring the Australian identity in new and innovative ways,” he said.
“I congratulate all the winners and finalists for their vision, passion and commitment to their field.”
IDENTITY is a specialist multicultural marketing agency that is part of IPG Mediabrands.
“SBS should move to Parramatta. That should be their head office. They could clearly differentiate the organisation and go to the – as we know – absolute centre of Sydney, which is the centre of all sorts of ethnic groups.”
With this statement, the chairman of FreeTV, Russel Howcroft, set the cat upon the pigeons. Howcroft, also GM of Network Ten and panellist on ABC’s ‘Gruen Transfer’, was defending SBS from a merger with the ABC.
SBS responded, telling advertising industry publisher Mumbrella: “With employees across different cities, SBS tells stories from around the nation. The location of our headquarters is of no consequence. We’re focused on investing our resources in great programs, not moving offices.”
As a Western Sydney resident and former SBS employee, I would love to see SBS jump at the chance to move to where its constituents live, to showcase the diverse voices in the West.
The argument against the move included the usual: Parramatta is too far to travel. Really? You’d queue 30 minutes for a Messina gelato in Surry Hills but a 23-minute express train from Redfern to Parramatta is too far?
…if you want a workforce that reflects Australia’s diversity, Western Sydney is a recruiter’s paradise.
And then there’s the argument that a Western Sydney location makes it’s harder to recruit good staff. Bearded inner-city staff sporting tattoos and ironic long tees with dreams of directing an indie movie or at least produce a ‘This American Life’-style podcast, maybe. But if you want a workforce that reflects Australia’s diversity, Western Sydney is a recruiter’s paradise.
Western Sydney is one of the most diverse areas of Australia, with 38 per cent of the population speaking a language other than English at home, and up to 90 per cent in some suburbs according to the Centre for Western Sydney’s profile of the Greater Western Sydney region.
According to the study, 87.7 per cent of the residents in Cabramatta speak a language other than English at home – the highest anywhere in Australia. Other Western Sydney suburbs Bankstown and Canley Vale (my home) are also over 80 per cent.
Diversity is more than reflecting it from the North Shore or inner city.
Brexit and the Trump election clearly demonstrate that much of the media is living in one huge echo chamber. Their values don’t necessarily reflect Australia’s views. People are rejecting the establishment and will vote for change that reflects them and their values.
Western Sydney is home to 44 per cent of Sydney’s population.
Diversity extends to understanding the day-to-day experience of Greater Western Sydney residents. People like me who get up at 6am to catch a packed train and don’t get home until dark, and who still aspire to a green lawn while greenies in the inner city think it’s a drain on the environment. Others who brave Parramatta Road, the Great Western Highway, the M5 or M7. People who eat at modest Ma and Pa restaurants who have never heard of heirloom tomatoes and don’t get excited about foraged food.
But arguments against moving away from the city are not new.
Earlier this year, Sydney’s elites came out against the NSW Government’s relocation of the Powerhouse Museum from Ultimo to Parramatta. They claim the move would ‘destroy’ the Powerhouse.
That’s insulting.
Other supporters of the status quo banded together to form the Powerhouse Museum Alliance. Collectively, they workshopped 10 Reasons to Save the Powerhouse Museum (presumably from the clutches of Western Sydney).
None of these reasons address why cultural institutions such as the Powerhouse Museum shouldn’t relocate to the West and be accessible to families and school children of the West. Isn’t Parramatta the geographic centre of Sydney anyway?
Sugar-coat the defence of keeping services inside the echo chamber all you like. The glaring truth is the media and advertising industry live in an inner-city bubble. And they want to keep it that way.
Outdoor company Adshel commissioned a survey of advertising agency staff which found “only 24 per cent of people have been to Parramatta while 62 per cent have been to North Bondi Italian”.
According to the survey:
41 per cent of Sydney agency folk live in the city or inner city, compared to just 4 per cent of the public.
Another 25 per cent of agency staffers are in the eastern suburbs, compared to just 5 per cent of the general population.
Agency people travel 6.8km to work on average while the general public commutes 21.7km.
A survey of the wider media industry would show similar results, I reckon.
In the end, opposition to relocating services comes down to self-interest. The argument is the same whether it’s in Melbourne, Adelaide or Brisbane.
Now is the perfect timing for SBS to go west. Next month, Multicultural NSW is relocating from the CBD to Parramatta to join many other NSW Government agencies including NSW Police and Fair Trading NSW.
Out here, in the West, the struggle is real. And location is everything.
Thang Ngo served as a local councillor in Fairfield for nine years (1999-2008). He is managing director of IDENTITY Communications, a multicultural marketing agency that is part of the global IPG Mediabrands network. He also publishes the noodlies food, travel and lifestyle blog.
Australia’s most spoken languages (excluding English)
First Nations population by age group
Australia by generation segments (smh.com.au)
Nepali migrants by age segment (SBS Census Explorer)
The rise in no religion
