We conducted a survey with over a thousand kids from english speaking countries, and asked them various questions in order to better understand how they interact with mobile apps and ads, where they hear about new toys and who decides what gifts to buy them. Here are the main takeaways:
1. Mobile phones are the #1 awareness drivers for new toys
We can all see that kids are no longer sitting in front of the TV screen watching shows and advertisements. Kids as early as age two are being introduced to mobile technology where they are comfortable in digital environments and are in charge of what they watch and play. We wanted to find out what are the best awareness drivers for new toys and asked users where do they usually hear about new toys. We discovered that mobile devices ranked even higher than friends:
2. Kids are becoming the biggest influencer in the house
Today, the parents’ buying decision is almost exclusively influenced by their kids. Kids know what they want and they are telling their parents what to buy. The days of parents shopping for what they think their kids might like is over. Kids are the authority on what’s cool and in demand and they share their wishes directly with their patents to influence buying.Brands who neglect the direct channel with kids and invest only in marketing to parents will find it much harder to influence the buying decisions in the house. If the kid is the user, the kid is the chooser.
There is a strong trend that shows parents listen to what their kids want to get as a gift, than buy a gift as a surprise. According to research by the NRF, 90% of parents say their children influence their purchase decisions. Our survey confirms these numbers, as almost 75% of kids say they tell their parents what to buy when they see an ad they like.Additional research shows the different degrees of influence children have for varying types of products:
Image: Marketing Charts
3. Kids prefer rewarded ads
From years of experience in the advertising space, we have learned that rewarded ads are the most popular ad unit among both advertisers and publishers. Based on the performance and app reviews that we read, we thought the kids loved them too and so to find out the truth, we asked the question and discovered that more than 50% of the kids surveyed “love” rewarded ads in their mobile games. Less than 20% of respondents preferred games without rewarded ads.
Learn more about our survey results and get in touch here.
Stacey McDowall
