Brave New Moms

Moms today live in a world that has been revolutionized by technology, where time is limited, lives are busy, and moments are hard to come by.

Special moments during family time have always been important to moms, but they are the ultimate luxury today.Regardless of generation, country, or age of children – moms consistently indicated that special memories were their source of fulfillment. Moms see both the opportunities and challenges that result from the proliferation of technology.

Brands have understood that moments are important to moms for many years, but that’s often where it stops. Moms want more than acknowledgement from brands—they are open to and seek help in creating more meaningful family time. The force of technology elevates the need and opportunity for brands to help moms. Our findings demonstrate an emerging shift as moms move away from efficiency and focus more on meaningful family time. For brands seeking to connect with moms, our insights and framework will help simplify an intimidating concept while demonstrating how to tap into an emotional space that will result in lasting connections with moms across the globe.

Methodology

Our study brought together Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) Mom’s Human Experience Center and Yahoo!’s Insights organization to study mom’s behavior in 9 countries including Argentina, China, Colombia, France, India, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Moms Mic - Global community of 1,100 moms. The Mic ignited a rich, real time, ongoing, open-ended dialogue with moms to help us understand their values and motivations about the new family dynamics today.

Moms Pulse - Moms Pulse provided us with the capability to listen to mom conversations across all social media globally – including social networks, forums and blogs.

Online Survey - 23 question survey to 3,500 moms. This quantitative sample was used to validate the insights we received from the Moms Mic and the Moms Pulse.

Moms Lens - 10 videos highlighting the insights and opportunity space identified. These 4-6 minute videos underscore how the global findings manifest themselves in each country within the study.

Key Findings

The value of a simple moment

The pace of life is fast; therefore, small, spontaneous and unplanned moments that make moms most happy are harder to find. Moments are just that – a moment. They could be a giggle from a newborn, a knowing smile from a son or a shared inside joke.

84% said that planning family activities are worth all mom’s efforts as long as there’s a special moment.add citation

Moments are the currency moms deal in as 84% of moms across the globe believe that planning activities with their families is worth it as long as it leads to a special moment.

Mom’s new receptivity

85% of moms spend time with tech together with their families.add citation

Moms are more open to advice, inspiration and ideas for how to create meaningful family moments. Technology provides unlimited access, so mom turns to digital resources first, making this a critical opportunity for brands to deliver solutions and ideas. In fact, about 69% of moms worldwide said they turn to search engines before anything else when conducting research on family activities.

A polar force to be reckoned with

However, moms across the world have also identified a polarizing relationship with technology. It can be a powerful force in both bringing their families together and pulling them apart. Accordingly, 71% of global moms say their family engages with technology together daily, but conversely 52% of moms say their family is often distracted by technology during time together. As a result, being present can be difficult, and moments can easily be overlooked or missed.

The building blocks of family time

Moments can happen at any point in time, but we found that moms categorize family time in four consistent ways throughout the world: routines, rituals, traditions and relive.

The Opportunity
This heightened awareness, openness to new ideas, and desire by moms to create special moments with their families creates an unprecedented opportunity for brands. They can solve for the needs moms have identified within each building block of family time by taking advantage of this new mindset. To help facilitate this process, Yahoo! and SMG developed a simple framework that will help marketers leverage these key findings:

• Elevate routines into more meaningful rituals – for example, 64% of moms read to their kids, but only 17% enjoy it. Routines can represent a great opportunity to help moms elevate the meaning of this time.
• Discover new rituals that moms can start with her family – in fact, 83% of moms enjoy planning activities for their families, and many turn to digital for this discovery.
• Adapt traditions to allow moms the freedom to experience them in a modern way. 53% of moms are already using digital to help plan special occasions like holidays or birthdays.
• Provide moms ideas and ways to Extend these moments so the family can relive them forever. 54% of moms already enjoy editing their memories digitally, particularly in Russia, India, and China.

Lead the movement!

Brave New Moms are open to new experiences turning to digital for inspiration, and want to draw benefits from technology. Focusing these benefits on moments will give moms what they are looking for most: not a “quick fix”, but a long lasting memory.

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