I never read a personal blog until I became a mother. That's a large confession considering I'd been in digital marketing for years before having my first daughter in 2004.
Inducted into the cult of motherhood, blogs quickly became a daily part of my digital content experience. I started with the community of Babycenter, and moved to mom bloggers Dooce, Suburban Bliss, Fussy and the like. I admired the honesty and humor each woman brought to the daily experience of mothering, and found comfort learning I wasn’t alone in secretly wishing my maternity leave would hurry up and be over already, or considering each day I just kept the baby alive a success. Seriously, you don’t know how hard parenting is until you do it.
The community of mothers who blog has exploded since 2004. One in eight moms online writes a blog. And, their audience has grown: 54% of online moms visit blogs each month. Moms are also heavy social media users—76% of online moms are regularly on social media sites.
Combine moms’ production and consumption of digital media with their control of the vast majority of consumer dollars spent, and you’ll understand why brands large and small are scrambling to take... Read more
Archive for Nancy Galanty 
Campaign review: 8th Continent's "Nice job, mom" campaign
Marketers, does it matter to moms if a brand says "Nice job, mom?" What if the "nice job" is unconditional, no purchase required? Do moms care if a brand acknowledges just how hard motherhood can be? 8th Continent Soymilk certainly hopes so. Their current social media campaign invites moms to share their mom miss-steps:
"We know it's not easy being a mom. That's why we salute motherhood for what it is: doing your best every day, and trying not to screw up too much. So go on. Declare your mom mess-ups. You're among friends."
The 8th Continent promotion has run since July and a winning mom mess-up is selected each month through October 31st. It’s a pure social play with a Facebook page and YouTube channel. Moms are invited to submit their own stories— and mom misadventures are awarded.
And guess what the prizes are? Not a year’s supply of soymilk. Instead, the prize package includes a year of house cleaning, and a vacation. Prizes any mom can enjoy. The house cleaning alone is worth my most embarrassing mom mishap submission. Hmm, the time I drove the five miles home from my daughter’s preschool with her shoes on the roof of the car?
While... Read more
iMedia Launches iMoms Summit, May 1-4, Mark your calendars!
Moms are hot, you know this right?
Everyone wants a little Mom action these days. By everyone, I mean marketers — all of them — not just CPG and retail. The word is out: Mom buys more than Mac n’ Cheese and Pampers, although she buys those too. According to the Boston Consulting Group moms control upwards of 70% of all consumer dollars spent. Single guys 18-35, step aside, it’s not about you anymore. Savvy marketers across all categories understand the purchasing power and influence of capital M-O-M and all want a piece of her. Pesky though, because she is harder to reach, engage and influence than ever before.
Here’s the challenge: today’s moms consume media on their terms and often on-the-go. Oh, and they consume less of it—Babycenter reports that motherhood cuts a woman’s media time by 3 hours each day. Moms trust their network of moms over any other source when they decide what to buy. And moms are vocal—social media is their megaphone platform. Check out a mom’s recent Facebook status:
“Is it a sign that I’ve entered adulthood when I’m compelled to share a post about laundry... Read more
Is innovation science, art, or stroke of luck?
To be precise, let’s discuss at next week's iMedia Breakthrough Summit's Town Hall: "22 Minutes into the Future: Making Innovation Real in Your Organization."
Despite many obstacles, innovation happens - and it propels careers, companies and the advertising industry forward. We'll see nothing but examples of innovation at Breakthrough, but how is it stimulated?
Do best-practice solutions to seed and cultivate innovation exist? Some companies encourage child's play – think sandboxes and Play-Doh – hoping to spark an imaginative "big idea." For others, the culture of innovation looks more scientific and precise – think conference room discussions and white boards.
And, innovation drives success, or does it? Change and growth depends on inventive thinking, but sustaining innovation to create real value at scale—the only kind of innovation that has a significant financial impact—is very difficult. How long can we play in the sand box in search of the big idea, and at what cost?
I look forward to a thoughtful discussion: for those of you who can’t join us, you can follow the fun real time with our Twitter tag: #iMediaSummit, and watch for our special Summit coverage newsletters!
Ray Kurzweil and the Brave New World of Media and Advertising Innovation to the iMedia Breakthrough Summit
Ray Kurzweil, futurist, inventor and author of The Singularity is Near, and other ground-breaking books on the future of computing and technology, will deliver the keynote address at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit, March 21 - 24 in Coconut Point, FL. Kurzweil has been called the restless genius by the Wall Street Journal and the ultimate thinking machine by Forbes. As you can imagine, I'm simply thrilled to have Kurzweil take the iMedia stage to inspire the Breakthrough audience with his vision of what's to come.
My enthusiasm is shared by the Breakthrough Summit Advisory Board who are all self-declared super-fans of Kurzweil. He even has the cachet to cut through the tech noise. As an example, amidst yesterdays iPad launch that had the industry blogosphere buzzing with iPad or iFad debates, Breakthrough Advisory Board member Renny Gleeson, who is also the Global Digital Strategies Director at Wieden+Kennedy aptly summed up our "get:"
Ray Kurzweil, Father of Singularity to speak at iMedia Breakthrough - put down the iPad and upload your brain NOW.
Renny, I agree.
We hope you'll join us at the Breakthrough Summit to explore the vast potential of emerging technology and media platforms. We'll dig deep into the brave new world of... Read more
