Advertisers must rethink ad creative to connect with today’s fathers
In their recent study, ‘The New Face of Fatherhood‘, Yahoo highlights new insights into today’s fathers, how they identify themselves, their attitudes and value systems. The research reveals three key factors driving the new face of fatherhood.
Firstly, what Yahoo refers to as the ‘mancession’ has seen a rise in the number of stay-at-home dads. Men are embracing this role with 70% doing so by choice. Of the 30% not staying at home to parent by choice, 62% are doing so because they can’t find a job, 32% said the cost of childcare makes more financial sense for them to stay at home and 31% are prioritizing their spouse’s career.
Secondly, equality in running the household has arisen out of a sense of what makes most sense for the family rather than chores based on gender. Millennial dads were found to be particularly involved in household duties and childcare being 26% more likely to taxi the children around to their various activities, 45% more likely to bath the children and 77% more likely to dress them. Nearly all (90%) of fathers believe parenting is a team effort.
Thirdly, men are keen to take a greater emotional role and be more physically and emotionally involved in the family’s upbringing than their own fathers were. Specifically, three-quarters (74%) spend more time with their children than their own fathers did, even though 44% believe they still don’t spend enough time with them. As part of the connection, 94% of fathers stay connected with their children through technology.
As well as their duty as a father, many are also playing a much more active role in the running of the household, undertaking tasks that mothers have traditionally done. Most importantly perhaps for marketers is that fathers are today far more active in household spending with more than half active in decisions relating to groceries, child and baby products and children’s clothing.
To that end, marketers must keep in mind the new role of fatherhood when seeking to engage this demographic. Fifty percent of fathers said advertising showing them in their role as a father is rare. Showing fathers engaged in activities usually represented by mothers such as shopping, choosing clothing or doing the laundry will resonate with today’s fathers.
