summer

Heat Up Your Summer Marketing with Influencer Campaigns

June 13, 2016 by The Motherhood

With the official start of summer quickly approaching, The Motherhood’s social listening team compiled a few ideas to heat up your summer marketing tactics by integrating influencer campaigns that take advantage of trending topics and seasonal events.

Social posts on mobile devices increase by about 30 percent in the summer, and posts with the keyword “travel” spike by 46 percent, so this is no time for online marketing strategy to take a vacation. Brands can reach consumers online during this peak vacation and travel time by knowing the trends and drawing on natural topics and tie-ins for the season.

According to Facebook, the top summer topics from 2015 were running, beach, parties, parks and forests, and movies. This summer, consider crafting an authentic influencer marketing campaign to create valuable content while leveraging these summer events and trends.

Here are some seasonal events and search trends to be aware of when creating your summer marketing campaigns or your brand’s social posts:

June

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR THE SUMMER – As kids’ annual vacation from schoolwork begins, parents plan activities. There are more than 40,500 searches of “summer activities for kids” in June alone. Celebrate summer break and include your product in posts or pictures of fun summer activities.

TRAVEL PLANNING – Make your brand top-of-mind during summer travel planning. Fun fact: Tuesday is the most popular day to make travel-related purchases online. If possible, post early in the week about how your brand purchase can help with consumers’ travel plans!

FATHER’S DAY – Searches related to “Father’s Day,” specifically related to “gifts” and “ideas,” peak this month! Mobile dominates Father’s Day searches and social posts and the most likely requirements for gifts are “fun” and “practical”.

Fun June Holidays: National Candy Month & National Adopt-a-Cat Month

July

INDEPENDENCE DAY – The average American spends about $300 on Fourth of July celebrations. Searches for “grilling” peak around this holiday. Festival- and holiday-related content brings 1.5x more engagement than average. Creating Independence Day themed content can generate high engagement and value yearly.

STAYCATIONS – Searches about “staycations” peak in July and increase in popularity every year. A surprising number of travel searches are for hotels near home. This trend promises to increase in popularity in the future, so creating evergreen content could bring high value over time.

Fun July Holidays: National Ice Cream Month

August

RIO OLYMPICS – Nothing brings the world together like the Olympic games, with millennials more focused on team victory than individual glory. It is an inherently social event, with 86 percent of online users planning to use Facebook for “voicing Olympic reactions.”

MOVING MONTH – Searches for real estate and house hunting peak in late summer. This, as well as all of the college students moving into their new dorms, leads to a increase in moving.

BACK-TO-SCHOOL – Be early and be online: consumers search for information on back-to-school products before searching for a store near them to purchase. Pay attention to the must-haves in your product category this season and bridge the gap between search and store.

Fun August Holidays: Family Fun Month & National Picnic Month

September

LABOR DAY – Searches related to “Labor Day” are highest on the day itself, including a high number of searches for sales around this holiday.

GRANDPARENTS DAY – There are more than 450,000 searches for “Grandparents Day” in September. While only 13 percent of grandchildren communicate with their grandparents via social media, younger generations will still be posting about the holiday on their social channels!

Fun September Holidays: Baby Safety Month & Self Improvement Month

Timing is everything with these summer trends and events, especially on social media. By posting content at the beginning of the week or month that is focused on planning and activities, you can fuel inspiration long-term! Posting slightly before peak periods will allow your brand to lead the conversation as well as provide opportunity to rise to the top of online search results. Furthermore, these trends and events resurface every year, so evergreen blog content from trusted influencers created with SEO in mind will continue to provide value for years to come.

Keep in mind that for every topic and event listed above, there is bound to be a trending hashtag with it, so consider adding a trending hashtag or two to your social posts to increase the reach of your summer marketing efforts.

Happy Summer!

Interested in building an influencer marketing campaign with these trends in mind? Contact us!

LISTERINE Client Spotlight: 5 Tips for a Great Summer

June 18, 2015 by The Motherhood

Enjoying summertime while wrangling the kids and ensuring the whole family is totally taken care of can be a real balancing act.

For an ongoing campaign with LISTERINE®, we invited a talented group of mom bloggers to share their advice on keeping their families totally taken care of, from teeth to toes, all summer long. We compiled five top tips for a great summer to help you enjoy the season:

1) Be Prepared. Mellisa of Mom Luck advises, “Pack a small bag with all your summer essentials, such as sunscreen, snacks, bottled water, BAND-AIDs for boo-boos and a bottle of LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE to help keep your mouth clean and refreshed.”

2) Remember Good Oral Hygiene. Notes Sara of Saving for Someday, “Don’t forget that good oral hygiene is especially important in the summer when the kids are snacking and maybe heading off to bed with a different routine. Walgreens has you totally taken care of on this with a range of wellness products.”

3) Protect Your Skin. As Felicita of Casa Moncada points out, “It’s fun to be outside in the pool, going to the beach, or doing any other outdoor activity but we must take care of our skin. Using sunscreen is essential when going outside even if it’s just for a little while… Be sure to re-apply every few hours and more if you are in the water.”

4) Maintain a Routine. With no school and many hours of daylight, “it can often be easy to let kids slide into later and later bedtimes,” Xenia of Thanks, Mail Carrier, says. Often, the result is “the following day ends up being stressful and exhausting for everyone. Instead, sticking to a consistent schedule (at least for the majority of the summer) and a regular daily and weekly routine can lead to a smoother, happier time for the entire family.”

5) Have Fun! The most important thing to remember this summer is to “enjoy yourself and really embrace life, and while you do it, make sure you are not letting your well-being slip,” advises Ellen of That Chic Mom.

To learn more about keeping your family totally taken care of all summer long, and to share your own tips, tricks and wellness ideas, join a #LISTERINEMom Twitter party – we’ll be sharing the date, time and details soon. Hope to see you there!

Keep Kids’ Minds Active This Summer with Brain Chase

March 18, 2015 by The Motherhood

Every year, kids nationwide look forward to that final bell indicating that school’s out for the summer.

As parents, we’re usually less pleased when our kids begin their mid-year months of “freedom,” because we’ve seen the research showing that kids lose ground academically over the summer (according to a 2011 RAND study).

Help has arrived: Brain Chase, a five-week, summer learning challenge disguised as a virtual treasure hunt to keep your kids interested and motivated to learn, as they search the globe for a real treasure in the form of a $10,000 college scholarship fund.

The first-ever Brain Chase Summer Learning Challenge occurred last year. See how it turned out for the 2014 winners:

You can sign your kids up now for a summer of educational fun! The treasure hunt begins on June 22. Get early-bird pricing until April 15, and use this code to take an extra 15 percent off: MOTHERHOOD15

Brain Chase requires kids to complete weekly structured math and reading challenges on sites like Khan Academy and myON, along with writing exercises that receive feedback from credentialed teachers, in order to unlock original, animated webisodes with a story line featuring a team of kid treasure hunters. Each webisode contains clues to help kids find the location of a real buried treasure (and $10,000 scholarship fund).

Parents get weekly progress reports on kids’ work throughout the five-week challenge, and in addition to the normal assignments, Brain Chase sends three “bonus challenges” through the regular mail. Last year’s challenges required kids to work with a decoder ring, compass and “magic” seeds to solve additional clues.

Based on a survey of last year’s participants, 93 percent of parents say that Brain Chase helped their children stay sharp over the summer, and 83 percent say it was more effective than other summer learning options they were aware of.

You can see the sneak preview for the 2015 Brain Chase Summer Learning Challenge here:

Let the “adventure learning” begin for your kids this year, and share your progress with us along the way! You can sign your kids up here, and don’t forget to use the discount code MOTHERHOOD15.

Disclosure: The Motherhood is working with Brain Chase, along with a team of fantastic bloggers and their intrepid, treasure-hunting kids, on a blog campaign between March and June. Opinions are our own.

Have It All: “Me Time” AND Fun with the Kids in Pittsburgh

July 20, 2012 by The Motherhood

It’s summertime in the ‘Burgh (home of The Motherhood), and that means lots of opportunities for getting outside and having fun. That is, when it’s not 90 degrees with 100 percent humidity – those days are reserved for an air-conditioned movie theater or the community pool!

If you’re looking for a new place to visit or activities to try, check out this list of ideas from The Motherhood.

Bring the Kids

Cooking at the Children’s Museum. Want to help your kiddos learn some cooking skills? Check out the “Cook It!” live cooking demos at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh every Tuesday and Friday during the summer! You’ll get to make yummy things like vegetarian chili, guacamole, Waldorf salad and more!

Click here for the schedule! Psst…don’t forget to check out the REST of the Children’s Museum while you’re there.

Visiting the animals. If the museum isn’t the place for you, maybe what you’re looking for is the ZOO! The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium is a fantastic place to take your kids on a sunny day. There are tons of animals, including a brand new baby girl sea lion pup! And don’t forget to visit the beautiful aquarium! (It’s our favorite part!)

Click here for their website!

Running the bases at PNC Park. Lately, Pirates Baseball fever has been going around the city! The best day to take your kids to a game is on Sunday – also known as Kid’s Day at PNC Park. You can start out with the #1 Cochran Family Fun Zone on Federal Street from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm, and all kids will get a kid-friendly Pirates item at the gate. If you stick around after the game, all kids are invited to run the bases that McCutchen and the rest of the Buccos run, right down on the field! How fun is that?!

Click here for tickets and more information.

Appreciating pop art. If you’ve got some older kids that will appreciate art, we suggest a visit to the Andy Warhol Museum. Displays and performances are always changing and there are even some interactive ones that everyone can enjoy!

Click here to visit the Andy Warhol Museum website.

Just for You (and Friends)

Free yoga in Schenley Plaza. Get your zen on with outdoor yoga on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. in Schenley Plaza (located in Oakland). The one-hour class in the shadow of the Cathedral of Learning will make you feel refreshed and ready for the day.

Click here for more information.

Fun with painting. Gather a few friends, grab a bottle of your favorite beverage and head over to Paint Monkey in Lawrenceville for a low-key girls’ night out. They provide the space and the pre-drawn canvases, you add the fun!

Click here to learn more.

Bow to the creative genius of Squonk Opera. This is not your grandmother’s opera. With elaborate, artistic sets and original music and design, their “post-industrial performances” will blow your mind (in a good way).

Click here for Squonk Opera’s website.

Enjoy brunch with Bach and Beethoven in Mellon Park. We can’t imagine a better, more relaxing start to our Sunday than enjoying bagels and iced coffee from The Bagel Factory while listening to live music on the lawn in Mellon Park. The food isn’t free, but the music is. (Kids are also welcome.)

Click here to learn more.

Put a few of these activities on your list for now or later this summer, and enjoy your weekend!