In a report written by Interpret’s Marissa Gluck, “Getting Moms to the Movies” moms and dads show some distinct differences in their media behavior. According to data from the report, which comes from New Media Measure™:
Dads tend to spend more time on entertainment-related activities, such as watching cable, watching movies on DVD or Blu-ray, watching videos on the Internet, or downloading movie content. In contrast, moms spend more time on social networking activities, spending 4.3 hours per month on average, while dads spend almost an hour less per month, or 3.42 hours on average.
While the behavior of dads isn’t surprising, what is interesting and notable is the amount of time moms are spending with social media. Spend anytime at home during the day watching television, based on the content of the advertising, it is clear advertisers are largely focused on women and/or stay-at-home moms. Again, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone as according to the U.S. Census, nearly 35 million households have a child under the age of 18, which means a large potential audience of stay-at-home moms (and dads, in some cases). Not only significantly large, but an influential audience as these are generally the key household purchase decision makers.
This data shows that these are no longer merely passive viewers (wipe away the archaic vision of women at home ironing their husbands shirts while watching a soap opera). Instead, these are active consumers who are engaging more with interactive media – not only social networking for communication, but our data also shows a high propensity for social network gaming as well. Marketers take note. This channel of communication is becoming increasingly more important and the need to understand its unique nuances (which change by the day at the hands of Facebook/MySpace/Twitter programmers) is crucial for reaching and influencing key consumer segments.
