New Kids Industries research reveals key digital trends for families this festive season.
Christmas research – carried out across 1,000 UK parents – from family-focused marketing agency, Kids Industries has revealed key digital trends for families this festive season.
Key findings include almost half (49%) of parents are planning on a video/Zoom call Christmas party this year, with 62% of parents agreeing that technology has brought them closer together as a family in 2020.
Technology has helped their children to learn this year according to 78% of parents. The proportion of those who agree increases slightly with child age and parents of boys are more likely to say they ‘strongly agree’ than parents of girls (28% compared with 22%). 7 in 10 are spending more time using technology together, with 29% spending a lot more time this year. 59% of parents are excited by new technology – with two in every ten parents strongly agreeing that they’re excited.
However, over half (51%) of parents are concerned about their child’s education – with older parents (over the age of 35) more likely to be concerned (54% are concerned vs 48% of those aged under 35).
A child’s social life is a concern to six in ten parents. Two thirds of parents say they want to play a more active role in their child’s/children’s education. They are more likely to agree to this so if they have a child aged between 1-6 (69%) than 7-8 (58%).
“It is evident from this research that concerns remain about their children’s social development and whether digital socialising is hindering healthy social relationships,” commented Gary Pope, ceo and co-founder at KI. “The extraordinary circumstances we found ourselves in this year, has perhaps unsurprisingly led to more families using technology together and the next step for brands is to work out how to truly create experiences for co-consumption.
“Some might argue whether it’s even worth doing given this situation could be a one-off, however what is clear is that parents want to spend more time together with their children – this was true before the pandemic and will remain true after.”
Gary continued: “It is likely that COVID-19 has helped to create some bridges in digital co-consumption that weren’t previously there and accelerated adoption, so it’s important that brands take a considered approach to development and better understand what a family want from an experience.
“It’s not always after all a win-win – it’s actually very hard to create content and platforms that everyone enjoys equally. Remember though, that not everyone has to enjoy it – just being there when others are having fun is often enough.”
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