My first visit to Australia’s west-most state took me to Perth to attend the 2022 Australia New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference. The conference theme was “Reconnect & reimagine” as the world started to move on from COVID, which allowed us to see old friends face-to-face for the first time in years.
On the afternoon prior to the conference, I took an Uber to Fremantle (“Freo”) and got some tasty food at the Fremantle Markets and then embarked on a self-guided walking tour that took me by the Fremantle Prison, St Patrick’s Basilica Church, Fremantle Town Hall, Esplanade Reserve, and finish up at The Little Creatures Brewing Great Hall to enjoy a cider overlooking the water. I then took another Uber to Cottesloe Beach and sat on the sand to enjoy watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean for the first time.
On the middle day of the conference, I presented a paper called “Nudging Sustainable Meal Choices”, which is joint work with Prof. John Roberts and Prof. Ben Newell both at UNSW. There were around 30 people in the large lecture theatre and more attendees viewing online. I really appreciated the interest. Here’s the abstract:
Encouraging consumers to eat more plant-based meals is better for their health and better for the environment. We know that subtle interventions can be used to “nudge” consumers to purchase meals with lower carbon footprints. However, the existing research in meal choices has largely ignored consumer heterogeneity. Moreover, the existing research has almost entirely ignored the dynamic impact of nudges; that is, how behaviour changes over time in response to multiple exposures to the same, as well as different, nudges. In this project, we test the efficacy of personalized nudges whereby different kinds of nudges are strategically applied, based on the consumer’s personal traits in light of known relations between different traits and different nudges. We also examine how this efficacy changes over repeated nudge exposures. The findings better equip those attempting to influence behaviour, particularly those that have repeated opportunities to nudge.
After the conference, it was great to do a little traveling around Perth, which felt more Melbourne-ish than Sydney-ish. A highlight was heading north for a few hours to see the amazing rock features called “The Pinnacles”. After the sunset, the tour guide set up his telescope and I got to see the rings of Saturn and four of the moons orbiting Jupiter. Earth’s moon was full, which looked amazing through the telescope; I could easily make out features. However, its brightness washed out nearly every other star in the sky.
