The data analysis examined the distinctive consumer patterns and marketing appeal of women who work fulltime and have one or more children at home. The study includes information on their shopping habits, media patterns, demographics and lifestyles. “The Working Mother is the gatekeeper for purchases related to clothing, feeding and making a home for her family. Her high spending on cellular services together with her propensity to download content via her cell phone imply that mobile marketing could be an important platform for reaching her with product announcements, offers and other promotions,” said Howard Goldberg, Senior Vice President of agency services, Scarborough Research.

Download Shopping Insights on Today’s Working Mom, from Scarborough Research.

Time spent online among children aged 2-11 increased 63 percent in the last five years, from nearly 7 hours in May 2004 to more than 11 hours online in May 2009. Time spent among kids outpaced the increase for the overall population, which grew 36 percent in the last five years

Boys spent 7 percent more time online than girls; while girls viewed 9 percent more Web pages than boys did in May 2009.

Online Parents Keep the Camera Rolling

According to Nielsen’s @Plan Summer 2009 data, 26.3 percent of the online adult population, or 38.2 million, have children 11 years old or younger in the household – a 7 percent increase from Summer 2008. Online adults with children under age 12 in the household were 1.7 times more likely to purchase a digital camcorder.

Jack Spends More Time Viewing Videos than Jill

Online video viewership among 2-11 year olds was split evenly between boys and girls, with 5.1 million boys and 5.2 million girls viewing video online in May

Online video consumption between boys and girls was not so even. In May 2009, boys led in viewing and time spent: consuming 61 percent of video streams among children and comprising 57 percent of the time spent viewing videos.

Nielsen Online recently hosted a webinar (listen and follow along below) focused on Power Moms based on the recently launched “Power Moms Initiative” in conjunction with Nielsen Life360. The goal was to get a more intimate view of moms’ use of digital tools through groundbreaking video ethnographic research. As part of the study, a select group of women from around the country revealed how they use their “digital toolkits” to juggle careers, manage demanding family schedules, streamline spending through online banking, coupon sites and retailer channels. The multitude of daily tasks now performed online are stitched together by more gratifying pursuits — offline hobbies that are now slowing taking place in online spheres from scrap-booking and photo-sharing to fitness programs — enabling digital moms to achieve new levels of connectivity and fulfillment from their online experiences.

The study employed a blend of online behavioral data, consumer generated media and videography that highlighted

• Where moms are spending time online from portals to communities, and the applications most relevant to their mushrooming needs
• The issues moms are discussing by listening to blogs and key discussion communities
• How digital tools help them get it done, from finding bargains online to fundraising for important causes to managing small businesses
• The contextual view of moms online content creation behaviors for insights into innovation opportunities

Listen to Nielsen’s recently presented Power Moms webinar below hosted by Jessica Hogue and Karen Benezra and follow along with the corresponding slides.

• First, change the focus from toys (their products) to families with young kids (their customers). I’ve often said that the best retailers define themselves not by the products they sell, but by the shoppers they sell to.
• Create a section reserved for birthday parties (who doesn’t enjoy a pit of colored balls?). We spend a fortune on these types of parties for our kids.
• Hire more moms willing to work from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm. Thousands of well-educated moms would sacrifice big salaries to work around their kids’ school schedules.
• Connect with Hispanic families. Nielsen’s Homescan panel consistently shows how Hispanic Americans index highest with baby-oriented products like baby food and diapers.
• Continue to expand food sections with private label supplied by supermarkets. Supermarkets bend over backward to attract young families. Why not introduce a grocer’s brand to shoppers in a completely separate retail channel?
• Offer in-store focus groups for marketers trying to reach kids and moms. Each store has the potential to become a laboratory for understanding how kids and their parents shop, play, and interact with products.
• Conduct midnight release events for DVDs, video games, books, (and new toys?) Toys “R” Us is a player in each of these categories. Book stores and electronics stores do a great job of creating excitement around midnight releases. This could also be a way to attract a new shopper demographic.
• How about… Movie Night at Toys “R” Us?
• Whole Foods has done a great job of developing their brand around healthy living. By co-branding with Toys “R” Us, they have the opportunity to reach new shoppers while Toys “R” Us can benefit from products (not just food) focused on healthy eating, exercise, and environmental sustainability.
• Get vendors to sponsor video game tournaments with gift cards as prizes for winners.
• Offer In-Store pediatrician clinics. Alright, this may be a stretch, but if Walgreens can be successful with their Take Care clinics, why not Toys “R” Us with a specialist focused on kids?
• Offer In-Store Seminar Events for parents on college savings, healthy babies, child-proofing, and have local supermarkets sponsor healthy eating demonstrations.
• Book Signings from children’s book authors.

Feedback? tom.pirovano@nielsen.com

So what are Power Moms doing online?  Where they spend time varies by demographic categories.  For example, “Established Moms,” those aged 40-50 with three or more children at home, are heavy online shoppers, with Shopzilla.com the most popular site.  Newbie Moms, aged 25-34 with one or two children at home, also enjoy online shopping, but social networking sites play a much more prominent role.

Power Moms all share a concern for the economy and seek money-saving strategies and solutions online and the number of conversations continue to grow. “Mom bloggers review everything from beauty products to cars to inkjets, enabling marketers unparalled reach to their target consumers. In an increasingly connected world, moms seek the wisdom of their online counterparts as trusted advisors,” said Jessica Hogue, research director, Nielsen Online.

To read more about the power these moms wield, including Nielsen Online’s Power Mom 50, a list of influential sites, click here.

Have a favorite site you think should be in the Power Mom 50? Let us know with your comments.

Jessica Hogue, Research Director, Nielsen Online

SUMMARY: As any mother will tell you, there is a big difference between hearing and listening. Today’s Power Mom does it all—the house, the kids, the job, the bills, the shopping—and the Internet has become a tremendous enabler, bringing new meaning to multi-tasking. While the ability to connect with moms is easier than ever before with the advent of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and a growing number of “mom blogs”, are marketers really listening to her value systems? It’s time to move beyond “messaging” to “listening”.

Marketers have made great strides in recent years to better understand and connect with moms. But in trying to perfect the message, many have forgotten to listen to the very consumer they are trying to woo. According to M2Moms®, 60% of Moms feel that marketers are ignoring their needs, and 73% feel that advertisers don’t really understand what it’s like to be a Mom. Last year’s Motrin Moms kerfuffle, in which women on Twitter and YouTube reacted to an ad offending baby-toting moms, raised the antennae of marketing managers everywhere and underscored the importance of not just reaching moms but understanding their value systems.

Initiatives like Walmart’s “elevenmoms” (a partnership through which the retail giant and a collection of mom bloggers are building a well-timed money saving community) demonstrate how marketers are taking steps forward to engage moms—particularly mom bloggers—and to develop mechanisms to absorb their input. Not all marketers have to go to such lengths to understand today’s Power Moms, but much can be gained from expanding perceived notions about this important and highly-influential demographic.

An influential force
While marketers today have a so many opportunities to connect with mom at various inflection points during her life (having a first or second baby, child entering school, return to work), the challenge is sensing her distinct needs and responding in a way that truly resonates. This forces marketers to redraw the vision of mom in our head.

As CEOs of their households, Power Moms wield more influence than ever before: moms control 85% of household spending, and are worth more than $2 trillion to U.S. brands, as reported by the Marketing to Moms Coalition. Most moms work. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 1965, about 45% of women with children (under 18) were employed; by 2000, over 78% were. Whether they work out of the home, telecommute, or run a business from the home, media technology and the Internet have become a true enabler.

Linked in
Nielsen reports that Moms between the ages of 25–54 who have at least one child under the age of 18 within the home represent roughly 19% of the total online population. And they are not passive observers online. Rather, Power Moms leverage their megaphones to influence online purchase decisions. Considering the expansion in ecommerce for foods, beauty and household products—which is projected to grow to $12 billion in 2011—effectively reaching moms has real bottom-line implication.

Power Moms leverage digital applications to stay organized, connect with their families, friends and mom networks (think Facebook and micro-blog platforms like Twitter, as well as mushrooming networks like MomBloggersClub.com and TwitterMoms.com), and to get things done, like paying the bills, ordering groceries, downloading coupons and hunting for ideas for the next family vacation. And lest you envision moms tapping away at their computers, know that Power Moms are also mobile enthusiasts who are 35% more likely to use text messaging/SMS on the go.

But even online, not all moms are created equal. According to M2Moms, African American mothers are more likely to read articles online (68%) and listen to music (45%), whereas Caucasian mothers are likely to frequent social networks (45%) and message boards (43%). Web 2.0 is also relevant for Latinas: blogs were the top choice among Hispanic Moms (55%) followed by social networks (42%).

Prophetic profiles
Understanding the Power Mom’s online behavior affords a more holistic awareness about her passions and interests and also enables precision in online targeting for optimizing media plans. For example, established moms aged 40–50 who have three or more children in the home are heavy online shoppers, over-indexing on sites like Shopzilla, Target and Walmart compared with the average online consumer. On these sites, Power Moms are likely to be receptive to advertising deals and promotions. They also stay connected on email and are beginning to dabble in social networks, primarily Facebook.

Mothers aged 25–35 with at least one child at home are also heavy online shoppers, but the role of social networking is much more prominent. In addition to email, they are 85% more likely to spend time with Facebook compared to the average online consumer. While Power Moms aged 39–54 are only 23% more likely to post comments on social networks, marketers would be foolish to slight the value in this cohort. According to Facebook Insight, women aged 40–50 in the home are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook.

For younger moms, the Blogger’s Blog publishing site allows her to share the latest family pictures as well as articulate her views. Mom Bloggers are an increasingly critical subset of Power Moms, which are giving rise to networks like MomBloggersClub.com and TwitterMoms.com. Epitomizing the social value of communities like TwitterMoms.com, during the season premiere of the much-anticipated series “In the Motherhood,” women participated in a Twitter Party to express their opinions about the show. Now a digital trail of tweets (messages of 140 characters or less posted on Twitter) capturing real-time reaction lives on in cyberspace.

Power Moms are also increasingly engaged with video, whether co-viewing kid-focused programming like Noggin and PBS Kids, or even sites like NewBaby.com where moms upload video content on a variety of topics.

Is anyone really listening?
One of the more fundamental shifts that marketers might pursue is to overhaul their worldview of marketing to moms. It’s a nuanced point, but it is time to move away from developing “messaging” to integrating “listening”. Listening to online discussion acts as an ultra sensitive weathervane to hear the unexpected, the unprompted and to observe entirely new ways in which brands, categories and unmet needs may be expressed.

The Nielsen association map below captures a point in time (January through March 2009) in which mom bloggers were describing their value systems through thousands of online conversations. Expected themes of personal values touching on morality, integrity and ethics emerge, and topical conversations pertaining to the new Obama administration and the economy are revealed. Listening also provides a mechanism for mining the subtext; in this case the association map also reveals the relationship of aspirational goals related to parenting, love, responsibilities to work and the community, as well as the environment, and the very attainment of these pursuits.

These values are the fodder that hundreds of mom blogs wrestle with in an attempt to be heard, to connect and in some cases to influence change, all while providing marketers with a panoramic and unfiltered window into precisely what it’s like to be a mom today. While reaching Power Moms may require more finesse than in years past, the opportunities to observe, engage and develop a truly holistic perspective of these women are there for willing marketers.

Sites like Momversation.com, where well-known mom bloggers create video conversations, and newbaby.com where moms contribute vlogs, speak to a broader trend of receptivity of video content among Power Moms.

Interestingly, among the top 10 Web sites ranked by unique viewer composition percent in February, eight were sites featuring predominantly children’s programming, indicating that moms are keeping up on what their kids watch online. PBS Kids was the number one online destination for Power Moms, with a composition percent of 24.5, while Noggin and NickJr took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, with composition percents of 22.2 and 21.7, respectively.

“Many of the sites that Power Moms visit are brands that are respected both online and offline. Moms flock to publishers they trust because they know they will find appropriate content that will entertain and engage their kids,” said Jessica Hogue, research director, CPG, Nielsen Online.

These results demonstrate the importance of winning over not only children, but also parents in the competition for brand loyalty. They also show that even online a mother’s job is never done.

2008 was a newsworthy — albeit, topsy-turvy — year for marketers and researchers. Importantly, social media evolved from experimental sideline to a mainstream attraction. Twitter saw huge growth rates, Barack Obama rewrote the rules of digital marketing, and user-engagement, and “service is marketing” Zappos.com re-wrote new rules for building brands and rewiring e-commerce. Facebook trended upward, MySpace held steady, and reputation-broker Wikipedia continued marching to the top of Google search results.

Brands like Tide used social media to squeeze extra value out of Super Bowl ads, and Comcast (full disclosure: a Nielsen client) parlayed service scorn into a fundamentally different service/engagement model (still a work in progress).

Fortified by corporate blogs and Twittter handles, dozens of other companies launched “social media” teams, while CEOs like Howard Schultz used CGM (e.g. MyStarbucksIdea.com) as the centerpiece of its turnaround strategy.

Retailers like Wal-Mart turbocharged their web platforms with user-reviews – many of which ironically challenged “green claims” of  featured products, while Facebook introduced “add water and stir” fan-sites that were often as inviting to activists as to brand loyalists.

Industry groups like the IAB created social media committees, the ARF put unstructured “listening” at the top of the 2008-09 agenda, and for the first time WOMMA managed to nab the likes of IBM, Kraft, Unilever, Intuit, Hershey’s, and other big fish at its annual conference — a “coming of age” for word-of-mouth marketing.

On a personal level, I somehow managed to crank out a book that I’m quite proud of, “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000″ (Doubleday), and I certainly hope it continues to inspire constructive conversation on issues and developments similar to the ones I outline below.

Marketing Campaigns that Inspired
- Obama Web Strategy – Empower everybody, nurture advocacy; even small acts can grow into big acts
- Apple Genius Bar – Service is the new marketing
- MyStarbucksIdeas.com – Maybe fans get product development better than the brand.
- NBCOlympics.com – creating a cross-platform “ecosystem”
- New York Times “Comments” – Reader engagement creates new source of value
- Zappos Ads in Airport Security Boxes – Hey, if the shoe fits!
- P&G Mommy Blogger Event – Power Moms matter…as much, perhaps, as traditional media

Best Thinking on CGM/Social Media
- Scott Cook “User Contribution Systems” (Harvard Business Review, Fall 2008)
- New York Times – “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy” (9/5/2008)
- Peter Kim’s Social Media Marketing List
- Business Week cover story, by Jena MacGregor – “Consumer Vigilantes” (Spring 2008)

Digital Communities that Raised the Bar
- Intuit Community
- Dell Computer
- Nike + Social Network
- BlackBerry Owners Lounge
- MTV Community
- WebMD
- Bank of America’s Small Banking Site

Bloggers and Influencers Who Made a Mark in 2008
- Arriana Huffington & Huffington Post Team
- Forrester’s Jeremy Owyang
- Dooce.com (Top Mom Blog)
- Gaurav Mishra (Mumbai commentary)
- Xeni Jardin (Boing Boing)
- Pete Cashmore (Mashable)
- B.L. Ochman (Blog + Twitter)
- Twitter Social Media Commentator Chris Brogan
- Comcast’s Frank Eliason (via Twitter)
- Michael Arlington (Tech Crunch)
- Ford’s Scott Monty (via Twitter)
- Power Mom Jessica Gottleib
- Steve Rubel (consistently on the mark…for a very long time)

Viral Videos that Stimulated Our Thinking
- Tina Fey on SNL – The power of both WOM and cross-platform promotion
- Yes We Can! (Obama) – Original music + celebrities = viral video
- Vote Different (Clinton) – What’s old is new again
- Wassup 2008 – Update of a classic
- Tide Stain Super Bowl – What happens before and after the game is crucial
- ”You.S.A 2008” – customized viral videos

Blogs that Inspired
- Patagonia Blog -  200% authentic, reflects the cause-driven soul of the company
- Southwest Airlines – Better than free peanuts
- Garmin Blog - GPS navigation in action
- GM – Unbeatable Google juice
- Marriott’s CEO Blog – The power of executive personality
- Delta – Friendlier face to an industry with ‘issues’

Key Lessons in Defensive Branding
- Facebook “Fan” Sites: Activists also like to “express” themselves
- MotrinMoms – Power moms matter, and “social media” twitterers are a force to be reckoned with
- All Brands – When times are tight, be careful with “luxury” or “premium” messaging…even to the rich
- Whole Foods – The digital trail is difficult to erase when mistakes are made (or changed)
- Kobe Bryant/Nike – If forced to fake it, does it really pay out?

Products that Stole the 2008 Conversation
- YouTube in your pocket: Flip Camera, Kodak Zi6
- So long keyboard, hello touch!: T-Mobile/Google G1, Blackberry Storm, HP’s TouchsmartPC
- Still shaking things up: iPhone, Wii

2008’s Blazing Innovation Trail
- Ning – Create your own social network…really!
- Twitter Grader – Twitter Grader measures the power of a Twitter profile
- Twinfluence – Another Twitter influence tool
- Twitter Search – Search Twitter for content
- Twemes – Find hashtags for topics
- Tweetbeep – Monitor Twitter by keyword
- Friendfeed – Discover and discuss interesting stuff that your friends find on the Web
- TagCrowd – Create your own tag cloud from any text to visualize word frequency
- Zuula – A convenient way to get search results from all the top search engines
- One Riot – A social search engine that finds the pulse of the Web
- Search Engine Site Validation Service – Validate the code on your site for search engines
- Google Keyword Tool – Use Google to find relevant keywords: Keywords = Branding
- Yammer – Twitter for enterprise
- Hulu – NBC and News Corp’s video site
- GasBuddy – Cheap gas anyone?
- Pandora – Free music for everyone

Must Read Business Books
- The Ownership Quotient (HBS Jim Heskett, Earl Sasser)
- Groundswell (Li, Bernoff)
- Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online
- Open Brand (K. Mooney)
- Marketing to the Social Web
- DigiMarketing
- Speed of Trust (Stephen Covey)
- Personality Not Included (Rohit Bhargava)
- Tipping Point (Yes, still relevant)
- Meatball Sundae (Seth Godin)

Activists & Activist Sites Who Retained (or Grew) Their Bite
- The Consumerist
- PETA
- Save the Internet Coalition
- EFF
- Natural Resources Defense Council
- The Bobosphere

Read Pete Blackshaw’s predictions for new media and marketing developments in 2009 in the December installment of his regular Ad Age column.

These “power moms” are also 51% more likely than average Web users to provide frequent online advice on clothes and fashion, food and beverage products (39% more likely than average), home decorating (36% more likely than average), and health, dieting and exercise (27% more likely than average).

“We’re seeing women using online avenues like email, online forums, and social networking websites to extend a role they’ve long held as information seekers and relationship builders,” Chuck Schilling, research director, agency and media analytics, Nielsen Online, noted.  “Moms, in particular, look to the Web to connect with other parents for tips and support, and they aren’t afraid of new technologies – this group is nearly 25% more likely than average to author a blog.”

In September, Scholastic.com and BirthdayExpress.com tied as the number one website, ranked by index, among the “power mom” demographic, with a composition index of 366 — more than 3.5 times the average.

General Mills, The Gap, and FamilyFun.com rounded out the top five sites that draw a high concentration of “power moms.”

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in BizReport and Promo magazine.