Mothers’ media consumption shifting to mobile

This compares with 76% of mothers saying they regularly use a laptops. The new study exploring mothers’ media behaviours, advertising consumption and technology habits profiled more than 1,880 UK mums ( 953 18- to 32-year-olds) in BabyCentre’s 2015 State of Modern Motherhood Report.

In terms of where they consume the majority of media, there has also been a shift towards mobile devices. Mums spend an average of 2.1 hours a day online on their smartphone, compared with 1 hour on a laptop and 1.9 hours watching live TV. Mums are regularly using their smartphones to access parenting, pregnancy and fertility apps ( 59%) and finance/banking apps ( 52%).

There were some notable differences between millennial mums and older mothers. Nearly three in five millennial mums said they are more likely to skip TV commercials now compared to before they were mums. But when compared to older Generation X mums, millennials are 26% more likely to pay attention to digital ads and 51% more likely to pay attention to ads on their smartphones than Generation X mums.

Nearly half of millennials said that motherhood has forever changed the way they shop. In the UK 38% of millennial mums said that their purchase criteria for groceries had changed and the feeling is reflected across cleaning products ( 38%); cosmetics and personal care ( 36%); financial services ( 33%); clothing ( 32%); and consumer electronics ( 30%). For nine in ten ( 90%) millennial mums, product reviews are very influential in purchases of baby or children’s products.

Mobile is also affecting shopping in-store; 62% of UK mums said that they shop with their smartphones in-store – 63% of these mums are looking for better prices.

The report was produced in conjunction with the Interactive Advertising Bureau in the US and is based on multiple sources, including an in-depth survey conducted by BabyCentre on its 21st Century Mum panels and sites, supplemented with motherhood stage-based social listening through the BabyCentre Talk Tracker and with UK qualitative research gathered via in-person friendship groups in London and Bristol.

The survey was fielded to mums (pregnant or with children 0 to 8 years old) between November 3 and December 21, 2014 to a total of 10,533 mums across the U.S., Brazil, Canada, China and the U.K., of which 6,767 were millennial mums aged 18- to 32-years-old, with the remainder generation X, 35- to 44-years-old. The UK portion of the survey included 1,880 participants, of which 953 were millennial mums.