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Last week Porter Novelli Melbourne hosted an AustraliaSCAN presentation by Quantum Market Research’s Imogen Randell. Australia Scan is an independent, cultural change monitor providing a view of Australians and how their behaviour is changing, and is the longest running social trends monitor of its kind in Australia. You may have seen some interest in The Age here.

Australia Scan provides fascinating insight into what we’re all feeling: Australians are becoming more conscious about their buck. We no longer appreciate discounts, we expect them – in supermarkets, at petrol stations, and in clothing stores. The statistics showed that we’re even more time poor than ever – working longer hours and spending more time in traffic on congested roads.

This got me thinking about the shift to online retail. Online stores provide a service that caters to our growing concerns about time and money. We’ve opened PayPal accounts, handed over addresses, and online shopping in Australia has grown 50% since 1998, says Australia Scan. While Spanish retailer Zara opens bricks and mortar shops in Australia, UK e-tailer ASOS has also launched offering a new way to fulfill our appetite for goods, and the notion of customer service is shifting from attentive staff in store to guaranteed and free overnight shipping.

If we’re shopping online, does that mean bricks and mortar retailing is offline? Where to from here? After revolution comes evolution. It’s not a war between the on and the off as speculated, rather it’s a mechanism for retailing models to change – and they are. But what’s missing is Australia’s ASOS or Shopbop.

Bloggers have redefined traditional editorial and are growing rapidly in readership. Their audiences are targeted, loyal, sometimes large, and blogger opinions are influential. There was a time when people turned to traditional news for opinion. A recent Kleenex study found that blogs, in particular Mummy blogs, are moving strongly into influence, providing a more authentic outlook, untainted by commerciality.

Blogs and reviews play a large part of the decision-making process with 63% of social-networkers reading an average of six online reviews before buying an item. It’s been found that 46% of mothers read blogs regularly, 23% comment on blogs, and 13% of the Australian mums with kids between 0 and 12 years wrote blogs themselves!

It’s becoming common talk in the US that consumers are more influenced by the opinion of a blogger than a celebrity when it comes to learning more about products or making a purchase. Kim Kardashian gets paid $25,000 to tweet 140 characters about a product. With more than seven million followers, her message gets seen – but is it heard? Do her followers trust her tweets are authentic, or a mere financial reward?

In Australia we have the (small) luxury of being an adaptive market, borrowing the bits that work from other markets. The same is true for blogging: but the bit that really works and makes this so exciting for us is that authenticity will prevail over the long-term.

A mobile phone company made international news last week following its release of a YouTube video as part of its marketing activity. The viral video was created using Royal lookalikes dancing a mock Kate Middleton and Prince William wedding entrance dance.  T-Mobile’s highly creative video project, supported through public relations, has received global media coverage as a result of engaging people through humour.

Similarly, in September last year Nummies, a maternity bra manufacturer, released a video encapsulating the meaning of becoming a Mum. The video was quickly picked up by parenting and mainstream media. Like T-Mobile, the Nummies viral received a strong following, connecting with parents around the world.

We can learn a lot about videos that turn viral. Short movies, such as those filmed for T-Mobile and Nummies, demonstrate the power of connecting with audiences and consumers through their feelings, telling engaging stories in creative ways as enabled by digital media. Companies that make people laugh, cry or feel better about themselves, and brands that stand for something and influence consumers on an emotional level, are in a very powerful place. Consumers want to be involved with these brands because they understand them and connect with them.

Understanding the essence of a brand, and communicating it in a way consumers understand and enjoy, is at the centre of what we do in lifestyle PR. Award-winning public relations campaigns are developed based on an intimate understanding of consumers and the emotions that drive them. Digital media allows brands to connect with consumers and tell stories in more than just the written form. Embracing and harnessing the power of online channels, such as YouTube and social media, differentiates consultancies with story-selling skills from the ones that don’t understand the power of compelling content.

Great public relations consultancies always remember that people love brands when they can buy more than a product – they can buy an attitude, a belief, a thought. I believe that this understanding is the foundation for campaigns that create change and deliver world-class results for clients.