Posts Tagged "Marketing to Mom"

Social media is not the only way to reach moms these days. A live experience can have as much impact — and often more  — than a virtual one. Managed properly, it can quickly migrate online to reach a broader audience.

This has been our experience with Child’s Play Party!, our program for providing moms around the country with a chance to try out products for no charge. We work with moms to host these “brand immersion” events in their own homes, and to invite other mom guests. We then send plenty of samples for each participant, information about the products, party theme ideas–even suggestions for decorations and snacks–plus a recommended schedule for party activities. When possible, we like to include coupons and a gift for guests to take home. Most of the moms we work with are active in social media — the majority are bloggers — which means that if they enjoy the party (and we do take pains to assure that it’s enjoyable!) they will likely comment on it in social media.

The idea is to spark grassroots buzz, and we’ve seen plenty! Our fall 2010 program for Fuzzoodles, called the Fuzzoodles Fiesta, was a blast, with moms sharing their excitement on their blogs, Facebook and twitter. Starting in two weeks,  moms will host events to launch the new Gogo’s toys.

If you’re a mom who would like to be considered for future parties, feel free to go here for more information and an application. And if you’re a brand that wants to provide moms with a hands-on experience with your product to spark both buzz and purchase, please contact Julie Livingston at (212) 488-2060 x 12 or jl@childsplaypr.com.

Moms can’t live without their smartphones, according to recent research by BabyCenter. In fact, moms’  adoption of smartphones has increased 64% over the past two years, and 51% of moms report that they are “addicted” to smartphones. The survey looked at 5,000 moms across the U.S. Following are some key findings:

• More than half said they bought a smartphone “as a direct result of becoming a mom.”
• After becoming a mom, the most important smartphone features became, in order, the camera, the video, then apps. Fifty two percent of moms said they had 10 or more apps on their phone and one-quarter of them were for their kids.
• Moms are 40% more likely than avergae to use their smartphones for social networking.
• 68% of moms use their smartphones to shop and 62% report that they use shopping apps to compare prices and do research.
• The majorty of moms sleep with their smartphones next to their beds and more than half check their phones first thing in the morning.

Moms, are you devoted to your smartphone? What do you use it for and what kinds of apps would you like to see? Marketers, what apps do you offer for moms and how else do you use smartphones to reach them?

The Journal of Adolescent Health reported this month that girls who play video games with parents had better mental health than girls who played them alone or with friends.   The study, entitled “Game On… Girls:  Associations Between Co-Playing Video Games and Adolescent Behavioral and Family Outcomes,” not only found that playing games with mom or dad helped girls feel more connected to their families, but that the same girls were better behaved overall.

“It’s tough for many parents to connect with their teenagers, who sometimes view the other as an alien life form.  Maybe bonding over video games, at least for teen girls, is the way to go,” wrote Rachel Silverman in The Wall Street Journal’s popular blog, “The Juggle.”  It’s the face-to-face interaction – the quality time spent on an activity that adolescents enjoy – that makes the experience so impactful, she said.

The study, which focused on children ages 11 to 16, found that the games needed to be age-appropriate to make an impact.  When games were too mature, the research showed that parents and daughters bonded less.  The reason: intense games interfered with conversation and interaction.

While the results sound logical enough, some parents may find comfort in having a scientific study back up their pricey e-game purchase.  (The study found that boys, surprisingly, did not show a measurable benefit when playing video games with parents.)    

Moms: do you play video games with your tweens and teens?  Will this study influence your decision to purchase certain types of video games?

Marketers: Do you make any games that would be perfect for moms and their daughters to play together?

Recently, I spoke with Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks, Mom 101 and now, Cool Mom Tech as we prepped for an audioconference on best practices  for marketing to moms in social media. In response to our moderator’s query, I commented that one growing social media trend I saw was moms taking it offline –  actively looking for opportunities to connect with moms and marketers live and in person. I had just come back from the Type-A Mom Conference in Asheville, NC and thought that the turnout — and the level of enthusiasm among the moms, many of whom were meeting each other in person for the first time — was impressive. At the BlogHer conference in New York City in August, there were something like, I believe, 1000 more bloggers than the previous year.

Liz, however, commented that the trend was really the opposite — that bloggers were less likely to want to go to events today because there were so many of them — perhaps too many of them.  I think  the distinction in our points of view may have been between blogger conferences and company-sponsored events –  is that right, Liz? — but in either case, it raises some interesting questions: Who is going to live events,  who has stopped going, and in both cases,  why?

As Child’s Play Communications prepares to host our fifth major blogger event, in Chicago on Nov. 20th, we’d especially like to know: How do you choose which events to attend these days?  

By the way, if you’re interested in joining Liz, other leading mom bloggers, and myself for the audioconference I mentioned above, please click here for additional information.

As many of you know, Child’s Play Communications had the pleasure of hosting Dinner’s On Us and the first Bloganthropy Awards as a lead-in to this year’s BlogHer, held in our hometown, NYC. I’d like to take the opportunity here to thank all who participated:

First, a thank you to all the nominees and finalists for the Bloganthropy Awards. The Awards are designed to recognize bloggers who use social media to make a difference in the world by supporting a worthy cause. Some perceive women’s blogs as all about diets and diapers, or in the case of moms, all about getting free products for review. At Dinner’s On Us on August 5, I think we helped show that there is a whole community of women, including moms, who are actively using social media to benefit others. At Child’s Play, we were amazed at what many of these women have accomplished and were thrilled to have the opportunity to recognize and support their efforts, via visibility at Dinner’s On Us and through a monetary award, provided by P&G’s Give Health. Congratulations to all the nominees, to the finalists, and especially to the winner, Katherine Stone of Postpartum Progress, for all your good work.

Next, a thank you to our sponsors — we could not have done it without you! In alphabetical order:

• Baby Boom, which chose Dinner’s On Us for the national debut of its Baby Brezza One-Step Baby Food Maker and Clic-It Smart Diaper Bag System
• The California Strawberry Commission, which sampled mouthwatering chocolate-covered strawberries to guests
• Cold Stone Creamery, which offered everyone a taste of its latest flavor, the very popular Kate’s Creation
• Cusinart, which demonstrated fabulous blenders, teakettles, coffeemakers and juice extractors
• Giddy Up, which debuted its Fuzzoodles toy line to social media at Dinner’s On Us and demonstrated its latest Scientific Explorer products
• Hershey’s, which in partnership with Kraft treated guests to everyone’s campfire favorite, classic s’mores
• K’NEX, which displayed a broad assortment of its hit construction toys, including its famous Ferris wheels
• Nickelodeon, which highlighted the wonderful Dora the Explorer collection of toys and DVDs 
• Summit Toy, which showed its Backyard Safari Outfitters toys and chose Dinner’s On Us to launch its Zillionz kids’ money management line 
• Toyota,  which provided bloggers with product information and a very useful vehicle emergency kit
•  e.l.f., which offered moms makeovers and cosmetic gift bags

These sponsors also contributed to an end-of-evening raffle, with prizes ranging in value from $40 to more than $500. Thank you all!

Also, thanks to celebrated violinist David Garrett, for his performance and for providing autographed CDs for guests.

Last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you to all our guests. As I said in my presentation, we know that there were many other BlogHer-related events going on that evening. We want you to know how much we appreciate your spending time at ours. We are truly grateful. It was, as always, wonderful to see those of you with whom we’ve worked over time, and great to meet the rest of you. I sincerely hope that you had a wonderful evening with us and that we will see you again next year!