Six in ten (60%) British people feel more hopeful in January 2024 than they did one year ago, despite the ongoing issues presented by the cost-of-living crisis and the fallout from the pandemic.
This is according to creative agency Leo Burnett’s ‘State of the Nation’ report, which reveals that in the face of the numerous socio-economic issues gripping the country, 40% of Britons say that their overall outlook is ‘hopeful’ – this is in contrast to the 20% who say that they are anxious and the 10% who are ‘exhausted. 4% even considered their outlook ‘fearful’.
Representing a wider positive trend seen across the UK public, only 16% said that they were less hopeful than at the start of 2023, with 23% unchanged.
Mirroring this increasingly optimistic outlook, 89% of UK adults said that they were more hopeful for their family in the coming year compared with 46% who were hopeful for the country overall.
“This year will shape our futures. With the primaries in the US, the European Parliament elections and a General Election in the UK, 67 million Britons’ fortunes are going to be affected,” Leo Burnett UK chief strategic officer, Josh Bullmore said.
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“We wanted to speak to people to understand how they’re feeling in the wake of more change, and how they’ve been coping with the perma-crisis of the past four years. We do this to help our clients understand and anticipate their customers’ needs.”
The report also found that a lack of disposable income and the numerous lockdowns enforced by the pandemic has led to a significant change in behaviour as two-thirds of people (67%) are now turning to nature to de-stress, a cheaper and healthier alternative to other entertainments.
Commissioned by Leo Burnett to offer insights to its clients to inform their marketing strategies, the report concluded that Britons have now faced up the ‘harsh realities’ of the cost-of-living crisis, and have found various ways in which to adapt to and cope with the difficulties of daily life in modern Britain.
Bullmore continued: “What we found was that people have found new ways to cope with the perma-crisis and are developing new behaviours to help them overcome the stresses and strains of modern life.
“Emerging from the pandemic, and navigating the choppy waters of last year, people have become experts in self-soothing, finding ways to get by and ways to maintain their wellbeing, and people are generally feeling pretty optimistic about the year ahead.”
