Despite the miserable Sydney weather, our inaugural DMARGE House event on Wednesday 5th of October was a packed house.
Hosted by Matthew Johnson, over 180 people descended on Ovolo Hotel in Sydney to listen to 15 leading entrepreneurs and captains of industry. These thought-leaders included The Bachelor’s Sam Wood, surfboard designer Hayden Cox, and Chris and Cam Grant, founders of off-grid cabin firm Unyoked.
Bushmills Whiskey cocktails were flowing all day from the bar, readers got the chance to get up close and personal with Swiss watchmaking with IWC Schaffhausen, and it was an amazing chance to network and to say g’day after two years of The Big Sick and no events.
DMARGE also launched key insights from its second Men’s Matters study, which in partnership with Hoop Research, investigated how the cost of living crisis is impacting Australian men.
Key insights from the latest Men’s Matters study included:
- 75% of Australian men are worried about the cost of living
- 57% of Australian men are worried about their financial future (with 30-40 year old’s being the most affected, and Sydneysiders being the worst)
- 40% of Australian men are worried they will never own their own home
- Only a fraction of Australian men are topping up their superannuation
- Gambling, drugs and luxury goods will be the first vices Australian men give up when “s*** hits the fan”
These insights were unveiled at DMARGE House during a cost of living panel discussion between DMARGE founder Luc Wiesman, Man Anchor founder Steven Gamble, Man Coach Mike Campbell and writer/strategist Noelle Faulkner. During the chat, the panel discussed how the increasing cost of living is impacting Australian men’s health and wellness.
During the discussion, the panel talked about the fact that – as discovered in DMARGE’s Men’s Matter’s survey – men are under more financial stress now than they were before the pandemic and the fact that shares and crypto are the largest areas of investment for Australian men (with superannuation often being neglected).
What does this mean for brands? Firstly: there is a huge gap in the market for sensible, long-term investment advice and education platforms (and share trading applications with a culture of maturity around them).
Secondly, we learned that Australian men are more open than ever to expert-led advice when it comes to their physical, mental and financial health – they just need brands and publishers to come to the party so that they are not forced to resort to some obscure Reddit page or Facebook group to get advice and a sense of community.
As DMARGE founder Luc Wiesman explained, there has been a surprising shift away from the classic Aussie “she’ll be right” mentality. Mr Wiesman said: “Almost ¾ of men admit that they’re worried about their financial future and the cost of living.”