BillMyParents appears to be promoting the concept that “mother knows best.”
In its latest marketing initiative, the Socialwise Inc. company is targeting moms to help get its parent-controlled prepaid card into the hands of more teenagers.
The prepaid card developer’s SpendSmart prepaid card enables teens to initiate purchases online with their parents’ approval. To increase card use, the company has launched a marketing campaign with Tremor, the Procter & Gamble Co.-owned marketing firm that enables moms to evaluate new products online through its Vocalpoint.com website.
The interactive site reaches more than 600,000 moms, half of whom have teenagers at home, Evan Jones, vice president of marketing at BillMyParents, tells PaymentsSource, who notes this is the first financial product to be included on Vocalpoint.com.
A PaymentsSource review of topics on Vocalpoint found no other financial products included on the site, which includes a microsite that features the BillMyParents product.
Socialwise started its marketing efforts earlier this month with a special “Anti-Green Movement” campaign, which promoted teens using its prepaid cards instead of cash at the 7th annual BlogHer conference in San Diego. The conference attracted 3,600 women bloggers.
“As we look to drive awareness and consideration with parents directly, we know that social media is a key component,” says Jones. “BlogHer participation, plus the word-of-mouth campaign with Tremor combined with other targeted marketing and awareness initiatives on the near horizon, will all help trigger a connection with parents and moms on a broad scale through essential social media channels.”
Targeting moms is a good strategic move because they make spending decisions for their families, observers say.
“All the research done on this topic continues to point to the fact that women are the head of households making financial decisions,” says Ron Shevlin, senior analyst at Aite Group. “It’s the right target to be focused on.”
Moreover, connecting to moms through social media is an excellent strategy because moms use the Internet to research products and services, they use smart phones, they read blogs, and they are always on Facebook, Susan Menke, vice president and behavioral economist at Mintel Comperemedia, tells PaymentsSource.
Socialwise initially started promoting its card to teens by teaming with popular teen icons, such as Rob Dyrdek (
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