Tactical collectables promotions have long been credited with driving short-term foot traffic and basket size, but new research from YouGov suggests the impact of Woolworths' Ooshies campaign may run deeper, reshaping how Australians feel about the retailer beyond the promotional period.
The data indicates the promotion influenced shopping behaviour well beyond the point of purchase, with 39% of Australians reporting they changed their shopping habits as a direct result of the campaign. For parents, the effect was even more pronounced: 64% of parents with children under 18 say they changed their shopping behaviour due to the Ooshies promotion, compared with just 18% of non-parents.
Among Collectors, the shoppers most engaged with the promotion, that figure rose even further to 68%. The most common changes among Collectors included spending enough to reach the $30 threshold for an Ooshie (23%), spending more at Woolworths than they otherwise would have (22%), shopping at Woolworths more frequently (21%), and choosing Woolworths over another supermarket (21%).
These findings also point to a potential longer-term loyalty benefit. Collectors are almost twice as likely as non-collectors to say Woolworths will be the supermarket they shop at most often over the coming months (51% versus 29%), suggesting a potential lift in future share of wallet long after the last Ooshie has been claimed.
The promotion also appears to be moving the needle on brand perception. Compared with non-collectors, Ooshies collectors report notably higher scores for Woolworths across a range of metrics: 54% of collectors trust Woolworths, compared with 38% of non-collectors. The pattern is similar for value for money (47% collectors vs. 38% non-collectors), making shopping fun or rewarding (51% vs. 35%) and overall reputation (56% vs. 44%).
Commenting on this, Fumin Rianto, Research Director, YouGov Australia, said, "These findings show that the Ooshies campaign hasn't just changed what people bought over the past few weeks, but it appears to have changed how a significant portion of shoppers, particularly parents and collectors, feel about the brand and where they intend to shop next. The results suggest that well-executed loyalty and engagement programs can potentially generate benefits that extend far beyond sales, strengthening trust, brand affinity and long-term reputation.”
The strength of this engagement is also visible beyond the checkout, in a secondary market that has sprung up around the collectables, offering a further signal of just how invested shoppers became in the promotion.
More than twice as many Australians say selling Ooshies on sites like eBay and Facebook Marketplace is "fair enough" rather than "ridiculous" (27% vs. 12%), rising to 42% approval among parents and 47% among collectors.
Among collectors, 18% say they plan to sell their Ooshies online, climbing to 1 in 4 among younger collectors (26% each of Gen Z and Millennials).
That said, resale is far from the primary motivation: 39% of collectors plan to give their Ooshies to family and friends and 39% will keep them as a personal collection, with a further 18% donating or passing them on. This behaviour reflects the emotional rather than purely commercial side of the promotion.
For Woolworths, the data also flags a reputational consideration to manage alongside the upside. Despite the retailer offering an in-store recycling option, only 11% of collectors say they will use it, with almost as many (10%) planning to simply throw their Ooshies away. As collectables promotions come under growing scrutiny for their environmental footprint, the gap between recycling intent and uptake is a data point retailers and marketers running similar activations will want to watch.
Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The findings are based on responses from 1102 Australian adults, collected between 17 and 19 August, 2026.