Less than a fortnight from the NSW election, the key leadership contest is shaping as one between a popular Premier, Mike Baird, and a virtually unknown Opposition Leader Luke Foley.

Focus groups held exclusively for Fairfax Media last week show Mr Baird is almost universally regarded as "energetic" and "trustworthy" by the western Sydney voters interviewed.

"He seems trustworthy," one woman said. "And I don't like politicians very much. But I do like him."

Mr Baird was also viewed by one man as "the Bob Hawke-style guy. You can go down and skol a schooner with him".

However, not everyone had complete trust in Mr Baird. One participant observed that while he was "a good speaker and he's quite professional and down to earth ... I just wonder what his intentions are."

Another said Mr Baird was "better than most ... but I'm still really cautious."

But the focus groups, conducted by research firm Visibility, show Mr Foley is struggling to gain recognition after three months in the job.

When participants were shown a picture of Mr Foley and asked to identify him, the responses revealed a very low level of recognition. "I don't know who he is," said one.

"Looks familiar but I'm drawing a blank," said another. A third declared Mr Foley "looks familiar but I have no idea of the name".

Once he was identified, the groups delivered a lukewarm appraisal of Mr Foley's performance.  "No one knows about him, he doesn't seem to be getting out much," one person observed.

Another suggested Labor had been "relatively quiet" which "doesn't make me want to vote for them because if they got into power, I don't know what I'm going to get".

One participant criticised Mr Foley's lack of presence. "I don't know who Luke Foley is," he said.

"He's had three months as the Leader of the Opposition when he should have been pretty much standing on the top of the Harbour Bridge yelling at the entire city and at the entire state: 'This is who I am and this is what I'm going to do.'"

The findings reflect a Fairfax/Ipsos poll taken in February in which just 15 per cent of those asked could name Mr Foley as Opposition Leader, including 19 per cent of Labor voters. In the same poll, Mr Baird was correctly named as Premier by 53 per cent of those interviewed.

The Visibility focus group research was conducted over Monday and Wednesday last week with four groups of seven voters who had switched their votes at the 2011 state election from Labor to the Liberals.

Focus groups are used by political parties throughout the campaign to gauge voter sentiment and shape their messaging. Visibility's main researcher, Tony Mitchelmore, has 25 years experience in this field.