70% of all mums use their mobile as their primary research tool, while close to half use it for the majority of their holiday shopping
Sharethrough, the global native supply side platform (SSP), today released results of its latest study asking 1,000 UK and US mums about their entertaining and gifting habits in the run up to the holiday season.
The main hurdles for mums at the holiday (outside of budgeting) were a lack of time to plan (43%) and finding inspiration for new ideas (42%). Fifty-three per cent of mums begin holiday planning less than a month out from the holidays (We’ve all been there, sister).
When looking for presents and planning for Christmas dinner, the primary tool used by mums is their mobile phones (70%). More than a third of busy mums (38%) are planning on the go, doing their holiday planning while already shopping in-store.
When looking into what inspires mums’ purchase decisions, online content remains king with 87% being influenced on stocking filler and present choices after reading in-depth product reviews, 79% by personal stories or testimonials, 74% by articles about the products and 67% by published lists or guides. Digital media has far overtaken TV as the primary driver for new menu ideas and gift buying inspiration. For example, 58% of mums turned to food blogs or websites to discover new recipes, compared with 31% who relied on TV.
With regards to advertising formats, in-feed native video (53%) and sponsored recipes (66%) have more influence on mums’ purchase decisions than pre-roll (50%) or in-article videos (33%). After reading native ad headlines, 39% of mums said they searched for a brand online and 54% stated that they usually click on native advertising because they relate to products they are interested in.
Ally Stuart, strategy director at Sharethrough said: “Our new mums research into their holiday planning habits, clearly shows that digital content plays an incredibly important role. When planning for their Christmas dinner and looking for presents, our mums rely heavily on their mobiles to keep on top of things at the holidays, making it more important than ever that brands understand the intimate nature of the channel. Stressed mums don’t want to be interrupted by intrusive advertising, they need contextual and inspiring content in order to make their purchase decisions.”
The survey was conducted by Qualtrics by interviewing 600 US moms and 400 UK mums aged 18 to 54.
