Sydney’s CBD is heating up – getting busier by the week as more companies return to their offices on a regular basis and consumers regain confidence in retail and hospitality.
A number of new Sydney flagship stores and a slate of restaurant openings are extending interest beyond the workweek – with a CommBank report showing consumer spending across Australia’s CBDs has increased 22.4% across the past 6 months.
Sydney is the economic centre of Australia with the CBD accounting for more than 7% of national GDP and almost a quarter of New South Wales’. Ranked as one of the Top 10 economies in the Asia Pacific Region and in the Top 40 Globally, Sydney holds offices for more than 600 multinational firms – making the CBD prime real estate for advertisers targeting high level decision makers and executives.
Government initiatives to rebuild this thriving centre post-COVID are being embraced by Sydneysiders with enthusiasm – including the Dine and Discover voucher program, June’s Sydney Solstice Festival and the newly announced line-up for Vivid Sydney, with fresh timing for 2021 of August.
Aaron Morton, Head of Sales at TorchMedia, says “We are delighted about the opportunities that these Sydney wide cultural events, in particular Vivid, provide for clients coming on board in the next few months. TorchMedia provides the only way to completely capture the entire Vivid Sydney audience, from the outer suburbs on Trains and Sydney Metro, to the CBD on the Light Rail, through to the heart of the action on the Ferries.”
The value of the Sydney CBD extends beyond economic – with advertisers able to tap into key demographics using high impact and targeted OOH formats. Inner City locals are an incredibly valuable audience, covering the target markets of large and smaller advertisers alike.
Local residents are:
- Affluent: Median weekly income is 10% higher than Greater Sydney
- Professional: 23% of workers in the area are the finance industry and another 20% are in professional services.
- Diverse: 55% of local residents were born overseas, and 41% speak a language other than English.
- Transport savvy: 35% of Inner City locals use public transport for their daily commute, and almost a third use active transport (walking or cycling).
With such a high proportion of locals using public transport for their commute, it comes as no surprise that routes across Ferries, Trains and Light Rail have all recently spiked in passenger numbers. Sydney Light Rail patronage continues to grow month on month – outstripping recovery rates of other formats to deliver more than 2 million passenger journeys in the past month.
“Seeing advertisers and passengers alike continue to embrace the Light Rail shows an extremely positive outlook for our CBD, “ said Morton, “We are looking forward to seeing even more Sydneysiders exploring their city this winter.”
Sources:
City of Sydney, Invest NSW, Transport for NSW Open data, Australian Retailer’s Association, https://insideretail.com.au/business/cbd-spending-recovery-underway-says-commbank-202104
Recent Comments