New research provides marketing insights to help brands connect and engage Millennial Moms

EMERYVILLE, CA (October 9, 2014) – Exponential Interactive, the global provider of advertising intelligence and digital media solutions, today announced the results of its “Marketing to Millennial Mothers” study which identifies specific behaviors, interests and trends of modern moms ages 18-32 to help brands and advertisers engage with one of the largest growing audience segments.

For the study, Exponential analyzed audience engagement data across its advertising network, which evaluates user behavior – at the page-level –of over 4,000,000 Millennials, 2,300,000 of which are parents and 1,130,000 of which are Millennial Mothers.

The ‘big data’ on this segment offers powerful insights extending beyond demographical stereotypes associated with the Millennial generation. Bryan Melmed, vice president of insights services, Exponential, comments: “Marketers are now challenged to evolve their thinking. Millennials are growing up and having families, and in doing so, have shed some of the stereotypes we’ve relied on to understand them. The Millennial Mom, with her increasing purchase power and influence on modern culture, is a consumer marketers can’t afford to miss.”

Overall, the study found that trends and purchase behavior are strongly impacted by increased spending power, globalization, blended families and social media. At a purchase-level, for instance, Millennials are more interested in investing in lifestyles, and therefore products, that promote socially-conscious living, convenience and overall health once they enter motherhood.

Findings in the “Marketing to Millennial Mothers” study address marketing takeaways that provide guidance for advertisers attempting to reach and engage this emerging consumer powerhouse. A few industry-specific examples include:

• Food, dining and CPG: Though Millennials are known to have an adventurous palette, Millennial parents demonstrated greater likelihood to be interested in comfort foods that reflect their regional heritage. For example, Southern Millennial parents have an increased interest in barbeque and American fare than those who are not parents; they also have a lower interest in a variety of ethnic cuisines such as Chinese, Thai and Indian. Online behavior also shows that others are trading diverse food ‘experiences’ for health, price and familiarity when it comes to their children’s meals.
• Health, beauty and fitness: Working Millennial Mothers have large purchase power and spending potential in the beauty, fitness and health sectors. They are 9.1 times more likely to research eye makeup and 9 times more likely to be interested in lipstick compared to stay-at-home Millennial Mothers.
• Hispanic Millennial Mothers are 8.6 times more likely to be interested in women’s clothes and 7.7 times more likely to research dieting than general-market mothers in the same age group.
• Corporate-working Moms are more interested in fitness compared to stay-at-home Millennial Moms. For example, they are approximately 4 times more interested in yoga and 2 times more interested in running, respectively.
• Hispanic Millennial Mothers are 8.6 times more likely to be interested in women’s clothes and 7.7 times more likely to research dieting.
• Do-it-Yourself (DIY) products: Millennial Moms are 11 percent more interested in DIY compared to Millennial women without children.

“By analyzing audience data across our network, we’ve developed a comprehensive view of Millennials, and specifically Millennial Moms, for our clients,” says Melmed. “Millennials are a notoriously challenging group to understand. This insight gives our partners the opportunity to shape their brand engagement campaigns and apply our data to their specific vertical for maximum results.”

Data for the Millennial Mothers study was collected using the e-X Advertising Intelligence Platform, Exponential’s proprietary contextualization engine that collates, aggregates, and organizes over 2 billion daily user “events” occurring across its network of premium publishers and sites. With more than 450 million visitors globally, Exponential is one of the largest digital advertising providers in the world.

The full “Marketing to Millennial Mothers” study and its findings can be accessed by clicking here.