Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) and Yahoo partnered on a year-long global study called Brave New Moms: Navigating Technology’s Impact on Family Time to find out how brands can play a role in creating what it says moms treasure most – meaningful family time.
Results, shared during an event last Thursday in Toronto, show it’s a different challenge today given the polarizing force of technology.
The report points to something of a paradox brought on my modern tech: while kids today play things like iPad games by themselves rather than as a family, there are also opportunities a to play video games as a family group (Wii bowling with grandma, anyone?). Technology, it says, is pulling families apart and together at the same time.
It has been “a huge change agent in how families spend time together,” said Lauren Weinberg, VP of strategic insights and research at Yahoo. This presents a big opportunity for brands to find ways to integrate themselves into the small- yet-memorable moments in a mom’s day. Everything from watching their kids perform a funny dance to making dinner together.
The main takeaway from the study is that moms want to make their family time more meaningful. The consistent theme, said Weinberg, was “moments [with family] are the ultimate luxury.”
And while moms’ to-do lists aren’t getting any shorter, messaging around efficiency and getting things done faster—a sell line used by many brands—isn’t going to work. “They’re looking for meaning over efficiency,” said Weinberg.
Adam Kruse, SMG’s vice-president and global director, added that marketers have traditionally given moms ways to get more done, but that this just puts more on the to-do list. “Now moms are pressing pause—they want brands to help them create more meaningful family time.”
In a time when people live with their devices glued to their hands, there’s a movement toward living in the moment that’s part of a larger cultural trend today, said Weinberg. She referenced an episode of comedy series Modern Family in which the father appreciates driving his kids around in the family minivan because he can hear what they’re talking about in the back seat—it’s a small thing, but a valuable moment for a parent.
How is technology viewed? Global results from the study showed that 85% of moms said technology is present when they spend time together as a family. At the same time, 52% of moms said technology can be distracting. (Moms in Russia, for example, said they felt like “video game widows” when their husbands come home from work and beeline for their gaming consoles.) Then there’s the “digital babysitter” phenomenon, in which parents give their kids iPad games or other digital devices to play to distract them and give their parents a break.
Kruse outlined ways brands can fit themselves into the family schedule and help moms find more meaningful moments. Family time, he said, can be broken into four areas: routines (laundry, dinner, things that happen frequently); rituals (things that happen less often but carry more meaning, like Friday night family pizza night); traditions (happen infrequently, but the memories last a long time, such as Thanksgiving dinner); and relive (a new component fuelled by technology where families relive memories through video footage or digital pictures).
Brands can integrate themselves into each of the areas using technology, explained Kruse. For example, a routine like doing homework can be enhanced by a mom and son looking up a tutorial online together. And a tradition such as a baby shower can be given a modern, boundary-jumping boost by using Skype to include faraway relatives as a new mom opens her gifts.
Kruse gave an example of an iPad app Kraft launched about a year ago called “Big Fork, Little Fork” that gives more than just recipes – it also provides content, such as tips on getting kids to help crack eggs, that can bring families together as they cook them.
Quotes attributed to Lauren Weinberg in this story were attributed to Laura Krajecki, SMG’s chief consumer officer, in an earlier version. Marketing regrets the error.
