American children aged 2-11 are watching more and more television than they have in years. New findings from The Nielsen Company show kids aged 2-5 now spend more than 32 hours a week on average in front of a TV screen. The older segment of that group (ages 6-11) spend a little less time, about 28 hours per week watching TV, due in part that they are more likely to be attending school for longer hours.

This trend of increased viewing among children mirrors the overall increase in media consumption we’ve been tracking over the last two years across TV, Internet, Games and Mobile phones. And much like their older family members, the majority of viewing for these kids is still done watching live TV.

Very Early Adopters
While 97% of kids’ viewing is through live TV, younger kids spend more time than the older group viewing via DVR, DVD and, to a lesser extent, VCR. Four percent of kids aged 2-5 watch via those devices on average across total day compared to 2.3% for those aged 6-11. Their considerable use of these devices at a young age points to them being able to adopt new devices comfortably as they grow up.

One more thing younger kids do more than those age 6-11 is watch more commercials. Young kids also watch commercials in playback mode more than older kids and adults, as well as watch their favorite shows over and over and over on DVD, VOD and DVR.

Older kids may not use the DVR, DVD and VCR as much as the very young, but they spend twice as much time playing video games — 2 hours 23 minutes a week compared to 1 hour 12 minutes for those 2-5. Internet usage among older kids is also significantly higher as nearly half of kids 6-11 spent time on the Internet in August versus 20% of kids 2-5.

Although households are often assumed to be conventional families with children, most U.S. households do not have children under the age of 18.  In fact, households without children account for roughly 65% of all U.S. households. 

According to Nielsen, these households represent 77.5% of liquor and wine dollar sales, 74% of vitamin dollar sales, and 73.6% of floral/gardening product and tobacco dollar sales.

Other categories skewing to households without children include medications/remedies, pet food, books and magazines, and beer.

Nielsen’s Marketing Tip:
Retailers targeting households without children may want to promote these categories (above) with feature ads, displays, and product assortments. Manufacturers should consider cross-promoting and cross-couponing items in these categories.

Nielsen’s Dollar Volume Index identifies demographic groups that account for above or below average dollar volume purchases for a given product category.

Data for the index was collected via Nielsen’s Homescan consumer panel, a nationally representative sample of U.S. households that provides a stratified, proportionate, non-biased representation of the U.S. population. Homescan panelists scan all of their UPC coded purchases after every shopping trip, allowing Nielsen to capture their complete shopping and buying behavior.

In households where adults speak English less well, children often wield significant influence on purchase decisions, from choice of category or brand to playing the role of negotiator with vendors, Anderson notes.  Overall, two-thirds of the Hispanics in the U.S. who speak only English are children.

As a community, young Hispanics exert influence over some $930 billion in consumer purchasing power.  And the more acculturated their households become, the more their spending patterns resemble those of U.S. natives. 

Anderson cites data from Nielsen’s Los Angeles-based Homescan Hispanic Panel showing that households with members who have been in the U.S. less than five years make an average of 61 shopping trips per year, while households whose members have been in the U.S. for more than 20 years — or have U.S. natives — average more than twice that many.

Among Hispanic consumers in L.A., those who have been in the U.S. longer are also more likely to buy specially discounted items, Homescan data shows.  On average, a Hispanic household whose members have been in the U.S. for less than five years will devote 7.7% of its purchases to such “deals,” while an acculturated Hispanic home, whose members have been in the U.S. for 15 to 20 years, spends 36.2% of its grocery dollars on discounted goods.

Read the full article.

Learn more about marketing to Hispanic consumers in the U.S.: attend Nielsen’s Webinar, “Honey, We Acculturated the Kids: The Influence of Household Composition on Buying Behavior,” on November 5.

Read about multi-cultural marketing in the U.S. — also in the latest issue of “Consumer Insight.”

View the latest issue of “Consumer Insight.”

With cellular phone companies targeting more of their advertising at younger children, and parents worried about children’s safety and ability to communicate in an emergency, the upsurge in mobile phones for younger children is no surprise, the Tribune noted.

On average, each phone adds $28 to a family’s monthly cellular bill, the Tribune reported, citing data from Nielsen Mobile.

Nielsen research also suggests that children are more receptive to advertising delivered via their mobile phones, Nic Covey of Nielsen Mobile told the Tribune.

Get more “tween” mobile use information and back-to-school shopping data from Nielsen Mobile.

Those results come from a recent Nielsen study that surveyed 40,000 British Internet users and identified websites with the highest concentrations of users in particular age groups.

Nearly half of all unique visitors (40%) to the websites for Student Loans Company, UCAS, and Student Finance Direct were between the ages of 18 and 22, Nielsen reported.  Video-related content sites like Sidereel, TV-Links, and Alluc.org were also popular with that age category.

Frengo (26% of unique audience), RuneScape (25%), and Bebo (19%) drew the largest share of the users in the 12- to 17-year-old category, while Stardoll (32%) and Club Penguin (29%) were most popular among children under 12, according to Nielsen.