More and more young Aussies have been sipping slurpee, slushie and other frozen beverages in recent years, research says.
Between January 2013 and December 2015, the proportion of Aussies (aged 14 and up) consuming frozen drinks in an average seven days grew from 2.2 per cent (or 415,000 people) to 3.3 per cent (637,000 people), according to the latest findings from Roy Morgan Research.
While this is just a fraction of the proportion of Australians who consume carbonated soft drinks (47.6 per cent, down from 49.2 per cent) or fruit juice (26.5 per cent, down from 28.5 per cent), it is the only one of the three to have increased its consumers during this time.
Younger Aussies are much more likely than older ones to consume frozen drinks like slurpees and slushies. In fact, almost three-quarters (72.9 per cent) of the people who consume this kind of beverage are aged under 35 years old, compared with 40.0 per cent of soft-drink consumers and 40.8 per cent of fruit juice drinkers.
Only 5.4 per cent of total frozen drink consumers are aged 50 or older, a much smaller proportion than for soft drinks (33.0 per cent) and fruit juices/drinks (35.4 per cent).
“While frozen drinks are nowhere near as widely consumed as carbonated soft drinks or fruit juices, our data indicates that their popularity is rising,” said Andrew Price, Roy Morgan Research general manager for consumer products.
“With their low cost, sweet taste and bright colours, it is not surprising that these beverages are especially popular with younger Aussies; nor is it surprising to see that their marketing communications are firmly focused on this demographic. Slurpee, for example, has a massive social media presence which engages its youthful audience even when they’re not ‘slurping’,” Price said.
