Mommy Blogs, Online Ads Are Key for

“Power Moms” are a mighty consumer group, especially during back-to-school time, when they’ll spend around $21.35 billion this year on supplies. The best ways to reach them are online ads and through other moms.

While this year’s peak of back-to-school shopping has passed by, it’s never too early to regain your footing and start retooling for next year. A big part of this is understanding this Power Moms segment, which Unicast, a rich-media solutions company, defines as “women age 25-54 with at least one child.”

Back-to-school is the second biggest shopping season for families, trailing only the winter holidays. Unicast notes that online moms account for 20 percent of all active Web users.

In its back-to-school survey of 1,773 Power Moms, Unicast found that 50 percent of them said they first start shopping for back-to-school supplies in August, with the first week of the month being the busiest – 22 percent of Power Moms start during those seven days.

Frugality is key for this segment, as 80 percent of Power Moms said their eye had been charmed by ads with coupons, discounts or sales. Forty-five percent said they first started reading mommy blogs to find money-saving advice.

Interactive ads are a good way to grab their attention, as 69 percent said they liked or remembered ads with contests, followed by 36 percent who said the same about ads with downloadable content, 36 percent about ads with customized local information and 33 percent about ads with surveys or quizzes.

Retailers shouldn’t be afraid to target Power Moms with online ads, as 31 percent said that they are “annoying but inevitable,” while 27 percent don’t care and 35 percent said they think they’re helpful sometimes or that they really like them. Less than 6 percent said they “hate” online ads.

Meanwhile, 69 percent of Power Moms said they like seeing product ads for groceries, followed by children’s clothing (49 percent), toys/games (42 percent), children’s entertainment (41 percent) and baby items (39 percent). Less than a third of respondents said they wanted to see ads for women’s clothing, accessories, makeup/hair products, travel or entertainment.

Big-box retailers like Walmart and Target receive a huge share of the windfall during back-to-school season, as 84 percent of Power Moms said they buy school supplies from these stores, and 59 percent said they buy clothes there.

More than a third of Power Moms said they regularly read six or more mommy blogs, and 62 percent said they spend at least three hours a week reading them.

“Not engaging with these blog publishers means ignoring an active and devoted audience of prime consumers: Power Mom readers preparing to shop,” said Bryan Hjelm, vice president of product and marketing for Unicast.

More than nine out of 10 mommy blogger respondents said they sell ad space, with 40 percent saying they run their own ad sales functions. These ads could come very cheap for interested advertisers, as 40 percent of these bloggers say they only earn $100-$500 per month from advertising.

Sources: 

http://www.unicast.com/about/press.aspx?id=97

http://www.brafton.com/industry-news/back-school-shopping-often-begins-with-blogs-$800046276.htm

http://www.couponsinc.com/corporate/OurCompany/PressReleases/2010.aspx?udt_447_param_detail=98