When it comes to mobile marketing, it appears Dad is the new Mom.
It's only fitting, really. We've had a series of recent polls showing how fathers—and working mothers—are broadening their horizons.
A Pew analysis last month showed that women are now the primary breadwinner in 40 percent of households with children. Another Pew study earlier this year said that men today spend nearly three times as much time with their kids as fathers in 1965 spent with theirs.
Now this: A Harris Interactive poll shows that men could become the chief coupon-cutters of the mobile era.
This is just one study, so take the data with a grain of salt—but the stats are intriguing. Seven in 10 "Digital Dads" (those with smartphones and kids under 18) said they'd be interested in opting into promotions on their smartphones.
Further, 58 percent said they had used a promotion or coupon received on their phones. And these guys are well-connected: 55 percent own tablets.
Harris did the poll the second week in May, surveying 2,072 adults 18 and older. Of that pool, 253 women and 169 men fit the bill as smartphone owners with kids under 18. Respondents were pulled from the Harris Poll Online database. All of that suggests the results are skewed to the high end. And the poll was commissioned by Placecast, a marketing firm specializing in location-based ads so with a vested interest in the results.
Still, they make some sense.
I fall into the Digital Dad category, with two kids under 5 at home. My wife is plenty Web-savvy, but I'm more likely to shop (and hunt for deals) on my phone. Though I don't go trolling in the wilds of the mobile Web—I try to be careful about spreading too much personal information around—I buy a lot from trusted brands. As a matter of fact, I'll bet that over the past year more than 90 percent of my online purchases have been via a phone. (I'm looking at you Amazon, Fab, Uber, Gilt, etc.)
Maybe now we dads will get the retail-driven harassment we so richly deserve.
