NEO Lifestyles (Australia) 

• Politics
• Self Image
• Sport
• Spectator Sports
• Home Entertainment
• Going Out

Politics

When it comes to federal politics, NEOs were responsible for voting in the Rudd Labor government. Life's economic rationalists, they have a natural preference  for economic conservatives, and Rudd managed to project a perception of economic conservatism. NEOs are, according to political analyst Steve Burrell in his feature in The Age & Sydney Morning Herald , ‘the new constituency’, in that they also have well evolved social and environmental beliefs and are therefore sceptical that the coalition can deliver on those issues as well as the ALP. And their openness to ‘new things’ provides an opportunity to all political parties to take a reformist agenda.

They are significantly more likely to vote for specific issue parties and to give their first preference to the Liberal Party ahead of the Australian Labor Party.

These drivers make them essential and available to either major party to attract them.

NEOs are deeply influenced by social issues - almost half have progressive social attitudes while less than one in five has traditional social attitudes.

Half (47%) of NEOs are attracted to ‘new things’, ahead of 33% of the population and 25% of Traditionals.

Combined, these factors provide an opportunity for the ALP to keep NEOs both direct and via preferences from minor parties. To do so in sufficient numbers however, they will need to maintain sound economic and business credentials to complement their social policies. Conversely, the coalition could enhance its attraction to NEOs by extending its social policies.

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Self Image

Typically, NEOs are outgoing and feel good about themselves, their leisure activities and their jobs. They like what they do professionally, with 60% saying they are satisfied by their job. This is in contrast to 43% of the general population and 34% of Traditionals.

NEOs like to look stylish, are often extroverted, consider themselves ‘a bit of an intellectual’, believe that success is important and consider it important to have responsibility in their job.

NEOs’ high locus of control ensures they love the internet, computers and technology – not because they are early adopters, but rather because technology gives them more control in their lives:

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Sport

NEOs are likely to ‘take risks’ and to test themselves with intellectual or physical challenges. NEOs are more likely than Traditionals to fly a plane and, of all people who compete in triathlons or marathons, NEOs are twice as likely as the population and four times as likely as Traditionals to participate.

Note: Low sample size

Triathlon or marathon competitors are, of course, small in absolute numbers (1.0% of society). Walking for exercise, jogging and gym work are the most popular activities in absolute terms with 47% of NEOs participating in those forms of exercise compared to 42% of the Australian population and 40% of Traditionals.

Overall, NEOs are around 35% more likely to participate in any sport regularly when compared to Traditionals, 18% more likely than society in general.

NEOs are 4 times more likely than Traditionals to participate in snow skiing, 3.3 times more likely to go sailing, 3 times more likely to scuba dive, 2.4 times more likely to water ski and twice as likely to go board surfing and body surfing.

The self-reflection and inner-directedness of yoga is attractive to NEOs – they are twice as likely as Traditionals to participate in yoga.

Traditionals are dominant in other sports and leisure activities. They are 3 times more likely than NEOs to participate in lawn bowls, almost twice as likely to participate in salt water fishing, one and a half times more likely to hunt and shoot game.

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Spectator Sports

When it comes to football, AFL is more popular than rugby league in Australia.

While NEOs are not appreciably more likely than anyone else to support an AFL team (54% of population / 57% of NEOs / 52% of Traditionals), they attend AFL matches (23%) significantly more than the general population (15%) or Traditionals (11%).

Once again, NEOs pretty much line up with others in supporting rugby league teams (38% of population / 40% of NEOs / 36% of Traditionals), but they attend rugby league matches (10%) more than the general population (8%) or Traditionals (6%).

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Home Entertainment

Entertaining at home is very popular with NEOs. While a quarter of the population held a dinner party in the past 3 months, 37% of NEOs cooked and entertained at home, in stark contrast to just 16% of Traditionals. The figures are even more remarkable when it comes to drinking wine: 57% of NEOs like to drink wine at home compared to 39% of the population and 31% of Traditionals.

The majority of NEOs even like to get their entertainment at home with more than half renting a DVD in the last 3 months compared with a third (34%) of Australians over the age of 14 and a quarter (25%) of Traditionals. A quarter of the population bought a pre-recorded DVD during the 3 month period – 36% of NEOs and 18% of Traditionals bought a DVD.

More than a quarter (29%) of Australians over the age of 14 bought a pre-recorded CD in the 3 month period – 40% of NEOs and 23% of Traditionals bought a CD.
 
And of those who spent over $100 on books in the past 4 weeks, NEOs are almost 4 times more likely than Traditionals to be in this group.

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Going Out

When they do go out, they like to go to the cinema and to live performances. NEOs are significantly more likely than anyone else to go to the movies, attend live theatre performances, go to the opera or ballet or attend a music concert.

Of the population over 14 yrs, 12% went to the live theatre and 2% attended ballet or opera performances. Of the NEOs in that population, 17.1% went to the theatre and 3.6% attended the ballet or the opera. For Traditionals the attendance is considerably lower – 8.6% to the theatre and only 1.6% to ballet or opera.

Eight per cent of the population went to a rock or pop concert compared to 13% of NEOs and 5% of Traditionals. Jazz, classical and blues performances were less popular than rock or pop concerts but more well attended than opera and ballet with 4.5% of the population attending compared to 7% of NEOs and 3% of Traditionals.

Half (51%) of the Australian population over the age of 14 saw a movie in the past 3 months, with 67% of NEOs and 41% of Traditionals going to the cinema.

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All data contained in this report (unless otherwise noted) has been drawn from the Roy Morgan Single Source © Social Intelligence Lab & Roy Morgan Research 2009