Working Mothers Make the Most of Mobile

NEW YORK: Working women with children spend the most on cell-phone service and are more likely to download files on the run, a new survey indicates. Scarborough Research says working mothers are 11 percent more likely to use mobile media than the average user.

The mobile-media behaviors of working mothers was accessed through their cell-phone usage. They were found to spend 21 percent more per month, on average, for mobile communications than the average cell user. The average cell-phone bill for working moms is $94 versus $78 for all users.

The same group is also more likely to download content than all cell subscribers. Working mothers are 42 percent more likely to download content to their phones.

Scarborough estimates there are 21.6 million mothers working full time in the United States; comprising 9 percent of all adults and 18 percent of all women. Their average household income was estimated to be $81,900--slightly higher than the average adult annual household income of $73,400. (Fifty-eight percent of the group reside in two-income households.) The tend to be college educated, in their 30s and 40s, and are 13 percent more likely to be married than non-working counterparts.

Populations of working mothers was found to be highest in the Honolulu, Des Moines, Iowa; and New Orleans markets. It was lowest in Pittsburgh; Knoxville, Tenn., and Greenville, N.C.

The women tend to own homes, spend more on groceries, and are more likely to use coupons. They’re big on fast food (one of TV’s biggest ad categories), Walmart, and Home Depot, high tech and physical fitness. Working mothers are 14 percent more likely than the average consumer to live in a household with a digital video recorder.

The group was most likely to download coupons from their mobile devices. They also tended to seek out local events, the Yellow Pages, movie times, jobs, music, real estate listings and music.

The majority were light users of traditional television, watching mostly movies. Around 43 percent watched local morning and evening news.

Scarborough, a joint venture of Arbitron and Nielsen, collected data for the survey from Feb. 5, 2008 through March 7, 2009. Sample size comprised 220,000 adults.

(Image by Sal Petruzelli)
More on mobile revenues:
March 20, 2009: “Mobile DTV Poised for Rising Revenue Wave”
Mobile advertising revenues will hit $3.1 billion in 2013, up from $160 million last year, according to research from The Kelsey Group, a division of BIA. Over the same five-year period, Kelsey predicts revenues generated by local search advertising will grow from $20 million to $1.3 billion.

February 26, 2009: “Mobile Ad Revenue Expected to Top $3B by 2013”
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