Help Needed
The global pandemic is pushing already stretched parents closer to the brink. Just when they’d gotten used to the daily work/life struggles, stay-at-home orders forced them to work from home while taking care of kids and overseeing their education. Sure, there are benefits, but even parents need to sleep once in a while.
+ In an April 2020 survey from mobile marketplace OfferUp, 43% of parents cited educating their kids at home as one of the most challenging aspects of parenting these days. Meanwhile, 26% of parents in April 2020 polling from CivicScience rated their level of difficulty with at-home schooling as “easy,” and many more termed it “very difficult” or “challenging but manageable.”
+ Atop the time and energy it consumes, distance learning can also impose a financial burden. In LendingTree polling from April and May 2020, 48% of parents said they had bought an iPad, laptop or desktop to enable distance learning for their kids. Some had bought headphones (25%) and software (22%). Respondents spent an average of $1,019 for such goods.
+ Want to make a friend for life? Map out consumer journeys with parents in mind. What can your brand do now to recognize parent struggles and stress? Even a simple nod via social series or blog content can illustrate empathy. Canadian Prime Minister and former teacher Justin Trudeau earned lots of brownie points when he publicly offered to help field kids’ school questions via social. You don’t have to babysit or change diapers to win credibility with parents. Just take a spin in their minivan for a journey or two and see how your brand can help make their lives a little easier.
Insta-News
Instagram is poised to overtake Twitter as a news source, especially for younger users. Nearly the same percentage of people worldwide now visit Instagram for news as rival platform Twitter, per new data from the Reuters Digital News Report. Some 11% of respondents spanning 12 countries said they use Instagram for news — almost doubling what it was in 2018 — compared to the 12% who said they lean on Twitter for news.
+ Instagram news seekers skew younger. In the US, 12% of adults overall took to the image-sharing platform for coronavirus-related news in April, but more than double (26%) of those aged 18-24 used it for that purpose. Younger audiences more than older generations prefer to get their news in storytelling formats, hence Insta’s appeal. The news angle presents a new opportunity for publishers seeking young consumers.
In App
How much time do US adults, on average, spend online on their phones on the daily? Four hours. And most of that time (88%) is spent in app, per the latest eMarketer research. The app percentage continues to increase year over year—though eMarketer cautions that figures may undercount time in embedded mobile browsers, i.e. Facebook or Twitter.
+ Adults spent a lot of time in app on tablets too. This year, 83% of time spent with tablets will be in apps, a big increase from a few years ago but still less than the 90% of smartphone time in apps. The higher browser percentage for tablets likely comes from their continued role in shopping, which remains a primarily web-based activity, according to eMarketer reports.
