Australia Post has launched 'Big Boss Energy', a campaign built around small business owners and side hustlers who make up 88% of its customer base, turning select Post Offices into Side Hustle Capitals of Australia. It is a legacy brand leaning into who its customer actually is rather than who it wishes they were.
Australia Post is not selling postage. It is selling belonging to the people who keep it in business.
Australia Post has built a campaign around the side hustle. 'Big Boss Energy', launched on 15 July, aims squarely at small business owners and side hustlers, the customers who make up the bulk of the parcels it moves. The number behind the move is blunt. Micro and small businesses are 88% of Australia Post's customer base.
The backdrop is a record year for online spending, with Australians spending $82.6 billion online. Australia Post is turning select Post Offices into 'Side Hustle Capitals of Australia', running in-store activations, creator-led content and community events, coffee van included. The campaign spreads across local area marketing, organic and paid social, Post Office point of sale, email and the website, and it builds to a physical event, the Making Moves Market in Melbourne on 20 September.
The strategy is to be more than a place you post a parcel. Australia Post wants to be the brand a side hustler associates with growing, not just shipping.
Why it matters
This is a brand leaning into who its customer actually is rather than who it wishes they were. When 88% of your base is small, aiming your marketing at big enterprise clients is a mismatch. The campaign is also a smart read of a real cultural moment. The side hustle is now a mainstream Australian ambition, and a legacy brand attaching itself to that energy is more interesting than another delivery promise. The mix of local marketing, creator content and a physical market shows a brand meeting small operators where they are.
Micro and small businesses make up 88% of Australia Post's customer base. Source: Mi3.
What to do about it
Market to the customer you have, not the one you want. If most of your revenue comes from small operators, your brand should speak to them.
Turn your locations into the campaign. Australia Post used its Post Offices as stages. Any brand with physical sites can do the same.
Combine reach and community. Creator content plus a real-world event gives you scale and depth in one plan.
Attach to a real ambition. The side hustle is a genuine cultural force. Aligning with what your customer is trying to become beats another feature pitch.
The brands that see their customer clearly build campaigns that land. Australia Post looked at its own base and made the side hustler the hero.