The Insights Family

Parent’s most trust

media channels in 2021

This month Insights Family’s Founder & CEO, Nick Richardson takes a look at the various media channels used by parents. Their insights are illustrating that TV is still on top, but Facebook, Instagram and TikTok trust increases by an average of 12% this year, with YouTube to be trusted by twice as many parents by Christmas.

Nick Richardson CEO - The Insights Family

Nick is the Founder and CEO of The Insights Family. Our purpose is to provide kids, parents, and families with a voice to shape their world. The Insights Family are the global leader in kids, parents, and families market intelligence and have become the business-critical tool for some of the world’s biggest brands. Nick himself has become a go-toexpert, who is a regular speaker at industry events across the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, with the business operating its Kids Insights and Parents Insights services across 17 countries.

Nick is a Manchester Metropolitan and University of Bolton graduate, and has previously worked in senior marketing and strategy roles for companies such as Exxon Mobil, Hilton Hotels and PennWell. Nick returned to Manchester in 2017 to setup The Insights Family. Nick lives in South Manchester with his wife, one daughter and two dogs. He is a keen tennis player, United fan, and a frustrated racing driver. He is a proud Mancunian and hopes one day to drive around the world.

About Insights Family

The Insights Family has been totally refreshed for 2021 and now surveys parents of children between the ages of 1 and 16 in 13 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, UK and US). The Insights Family will now survey more than 2,600 parents every week totalling more than 130,000 per year, providing real-time data on the attitudes, behaviour and consumption patterns. Our realtime portal is continually updated to allow our clients to spot the latest trends before their competitors do. For more information on The Insights Family, and to download their Future Forecast report visit www.parentsinsights.com/ futureforecast or call 0330 159 6631. The Insights Family speak to a family member somewhere in the world every 60 seconds.

In the UK, they survey 410 different kids (aged 3-18) and 200 parents of 1–16-year-olds in the UK providing a continuous stream of real-time data.

Each generation of parents is not only different from their predecessors, but constantly changing. As their attitudes, behaviours and consumption patterns continue to evolve, a ‘one size fits all’ strategy is no longer relevant for your product, marketing, or sales strategy.

During the pandemic, we have witnessed some fundamental shifts in the way parents consume media, and therefore adverts.

We ask parents not only what media they are consuming, when it comes to advertising or marketing: what are you more likely to trust? This data has highlighted generational divide which brands need to be aware of if they are planning their advertising and media spend for this Christmas season.

For all generations of parents - between the ages of 18 to 56 plus - adverts on TV are the most trusted.

Although the way families consume TV content has shifted (with 79% of parents now watching Netflix weekly or more and 60% watching Amazon Prime Video) streaming is often the go-to medium but provides few opportunities for advertisers.

Despite that, TV still has a huge reach and is even the number one hobby for the whole family in the UK. It’s clear seeing a brand on TV offers a certain element of trust and confidence with UK parents.

However, looking more closely at the data, a generational appear. For younger parents aged between 18-25, adverts seen on TV still tank as most trusted (35%) but it is very closely followed by adverts seen on YouTube and Instagram, at 31% and 25% respectively.

On the other hand, parents aged between 36-45 report that they hold almost twice as much trust in TV adverts at 60%, followed up by recommendations seen on forums and adverts heard on the radio, at 29% and 27% respectively.

But attitudes are changing.

Since the start of the year, the trust held in adverts on YouTube has increased by 15% amongst all

For younger parents aged between 18-25, “ adverts seen on

TV still tank as most trusted (35%) but it is very closely followed by adverts seen on

YouTube and “ Instagram, at 31% and 25% respectively.

generations. If YouTube was to continue on this trajectory, by Christmas 2021 it will be the 2nd most trusted platform for parents of all ages, young and older.

Throughout 2021, trust in TikTok has also increased by 19%, Facebook by 10% and influencers by 8% - highlighting a shift in parents’ attitudes.

What this means to you…

In an ever-changing landscape, brands, retailers, and manufacturers need to understand where to effectively target their audience.

For brands planning their Christmas 2021 spend, please get in touch to book a demo of our media planning tools and insights.

To celebrate the launch of our Parents Insights™ global service, The Insights Family® have also recently released a new report on “The Next Generation of Families”.

A number of trends have emerged as highlights in the report, including the multigenerational shift toward kids being influenced by parents; the rise in gaming as a family activity; and increased focus on education, wellbeing, and the environment.

To download the report, and get Freemium access to Parents Insights, visit: get.theinsightsfamily.com/familyreport/