The kids are back in school. Businesses and offices are back open. And Americans are getting out of the house. The result, according to Edison Research’s annual report on moms, is there is another shift in media consumption, device ownership and usage habits. “It’s the forward march back to a life we knew before pandemic,” said Edison VP Melissa DeCesare.
The lifestyle rewind means good things for podcasters. Edison’s data shows moms are keeping up with the growing podcast listening trend. Two-thirds of moms have listened to a podcast, while 48% reported listening in the past month and 32% in the past week -- both double-digit increases from one year ago. “Note that healthy growth in the last year for monthly and weekly listening among moms,” DeCesare said.
Overall, internet usage is down among moms in 2022. While they spend four hours per day online, that is 16-minutes less than a year ago. “Last year we were all still home-bound, working from home, kids doing school at home. We were filling our time with everything we could do at home, and that equaled a lot of internet use,” said DeCesare. “This year, life has shifted again and therefore so have our media habits. We are once again getting out and about -- and therefore we’re relying less on the internet for filling our time.”
Yet the time moms are spending online is often done consuming online audio as Edison data shows the number of moms who have listened to online audio remains fairly stable. It says nine in ten moms have listened to online audio at some point, a number equal to a year ago. And the number of moms who have listened in the past month actually ticked up slightly in 2022.
But among moms who have listened to online audio in the past week, they reported spending 11 hours and 38 minutes listening. That is a drop from last year when it about 15 hours.
“This year is more reflective of easing out of that all-at-home lifestyle,” explained DeCesare. “Last year more moms were working at home, and perhaps were consuming audio while they were working. As more people head back to the office or to jobs that take them outside the home, they may not have the same opportunity to listen to online audio like they did when they were at home.”
Edison’s data backs that up. It shows 77% of moms are working outside the home, versus 58% a year ago. And the number working at-home has dropped ten points to 20%. It also shows the number of moms working full-time has risen from 51% last year to 64% this year. Temporarily unemployed numbers have also been cut in half.
Edison says moms are also listening to 1 hour and 36 minutes of AM/FM radio. Compared to last year, radio listening is up 24 minutes according to Edison. “We’re getting out of the house and that means back into cars and commuting again, so it makes sense that radio listening has seen that increase,” said DeCesare.
The mom-focused report also examined a number of technology trends. Edison says two-thirds of moms own a tablet. And while a third of moms owned a smart speaker in 2019, today half of moms do -- with 43% saying they own three or more.
The device ownership data offers a warning for broadcasters. Edison says 62% of moms report they have a radio in their home, down from 88% a decade ago. And while 2.4 radios per home was the average back then, today moms say they average 1.3 radios in their home.
DeCesare points out the disappearance of in-home radio for some has come at the same time as the number of moms with a smartphone has jumped to 98%, up from 61% a decade ago. “This is the snapshot of how moms have evolved in their media and technology preferences over the last decade,” she said.
Edison’s annual report on mom’s media habits comes from data it collected from 328 moms it surveyed for its Infinite Dial report as well as a supplemental survey of moms about social media habits.
Download the full Moms and Media 2022 report HERE.
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