A Tamworth marketing agency wants to know what people outside the capital cities really think, and it is asking regional Australians to have their say.
c7even, founded in Tamworth more than a decade ago by Adam Arndell and Sara Crowe, has launched The Voice of Region, a national survey of people living and working across regional, rural, and remote Australia.
The survey explores confidence in the future of regional communities, the biggest challenges people face, how they spend and make major decisions, and where they turn for news and information.
“Regional Australia is often treated as a single audience, but that is one of the biggest mistakes organisations can make,” said c7even Managing Partner Adam Arndell.
“The economic pressures, community priorities, media habits and decision-making behaviours of people in regional Australia are not uniform.”
“If organisations want to build trust and relevance, they need to understand those differences rather than rely on broad assumptions about what ‘regional’ means.”
The agency delivers marketing and communications campaigns for global brands and government departments and agencies. Mr Arndell said the research would build on that experience with fresh, first-hand audience intelligence.
“The Voice of Region is about creating a stronger evidence base for that understanding,” he said.
“It allows us to combine what we have learned through more than a decade of working across regional Australia with current, firsthand insight into what people are thinking, feeling and doing now.”
The findings will feed into The See Beyond Method, c7even’s audience intelligence system, which aims to identify the gap between what organisations assume about their audiences and what those audiences actually believe and do.
The 2026 study will also set a benchmark for an annual Regional Australia index. Its core questions will be repeated each year to track shifts in sentiment, priorities, behaviours, and confidence over time.
“For organisations, brands and government departments, the value is not the data alone,” Mr Arndell said.
“It is what you do with it.”
The survey is open to anyone who lives or works outside Australia’s capital cities. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and each participant goes into the draw to win one of five $100 fuel cards.
The first findings will be released in a report in early 2027.
“For us, it’s also about placing greater value on the voices of regional, rural and remote Australians and ensuring those perspectives are better reflected in the decisions, strategies and communications designed to reach them.”
To take part, visit www.c7even.com.au/regionalpulse.
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