Are You A Happy Camper?
January 27, 2005
At the launch of the Mintel Irish Lifestyles report, "The Cost of Being Irish", I discovered that I am a Happy Camper. In the report, Irish consumers are classified as happy campers
if they feel their lifestyle is better today than it was 3 years ago. And if their financial situation has improved over the last 3 years. In addition, Happy Campers are more convinced that Ireland is a better place to live.
People are working harder, with less job security, and less free time.
In terms of how we spend our scarse leisure time, we are going to the pub less often, eating out less, and watching less television . . .Our leisure time is spent on short breaks and attending sports matches. But this begs the question of what are people actually doing on those evenings when there is no match on and they are not on a short break to Ballyshannon or Berlin? They're not watching telly, or drinking or eating, and since family sizes are getting smaller, that doesn't seem to be an alternative leisure option either.
Ah well, we'll just have to wait until Mintel release the "Men's Lifestyles" report in July to find out more.
An interesting result for advertisers - it seems that it's the over 45's who are doing the bulk of the TV-watching on this island. That would be consistent with my own experience; my parents are well up on the latest forensic techniques and psychology of crime from a diet of UK and US drama series. If you're looking to advertise to younger people, the internet is the way to go.
The Mintel report notes a sharp increase in the Internet as a leisure activity, with a fifth of under 25's stating it as a lesiure activity. God bless broadband!
Incidentally, I'm still flabbergasted by the fact that the people who manage the Dublin Portal Website, Dublin.ie still haven't put anything up about Dublin being nominated as the top city to live in based on quality of life! When I was in Australia, a lot of Sydneysiders had their noses considerably out of joint about this. I would have thought that it was something to brag about on a website? Maybe those webmasters just don't have the same Braggability as me.