Kids Business Communications are amongst the Marketing to Mums and Kids Conference line-up

The Marketing to Mums and Kids Conference is Australia's largest expertly curated conference designed to help brands and marketers develop innovative, relevant and effective ways to connect with mums and their families.
https://www.mums.marketing/

Interview with Christie Nicholas, Kids Business Director

Christie Nicholas is the Founder and Managing Director of Kids Business Communications. With over 15 years' industry experience marketing to mums, Nicholas had a vision to create an agency at the forefront of trends that wholly embraced, respected and genuinely understood this target market so clients represented would achieve brand cut through, greater customer reach and fresh opportunities to drive growth.

Christie Nicholas is also a published author of The Mum Who Roared (Exisle Publishing).


Question: Can you tell us about the upcoming Mums Marketing Conference in Melbourne and Sydney?

Christie Nicholas: The Marketing to Mums & Kids Conference is Australia's largest expertly curated conference designed to help brands and marketers develop innovative, relevant and effective ways to connect with mums and their families. This event is bursting with key information, case studies and inspiration to get the most results out of your marketing to mum strategy.

On behalf of Kids Business Communications, we are so excited to be a part of the line-up alongside such esteemed presenters.


Question: What do you hope to achieve from this event?

Christie Nicholas: For the past 8 years, Kids Business Communications has worked with over 180 brands. From large, blue-chip organisations, to small and medium sizes enterprises. We've collaborated with brands from all industries. From Food to Fashion, Health to Home, Beauty to Baby & everything in between, we've been helping brands excel at marketing to mums via PR Representation, Influencer Activation, Bloggers BrunchTM Events, Sampling Campaigns, Market Research and more.

As a result, we've accumulated some key research-based insights, relevant case studies and practical tips we want to share with marketers and brands attending this event that will make a measurable difference to their future campaigns.

Question: Which other speakers are you looking forward to hearing from, at the event?

Christie Nicholas: I'm a big fan of everyone presenting and they each have relevant and interesting perspectives and topics to share. I'm always keen to hear from international speakers as well, to learn about marketing to mum trends in other world markets and compare them to the Australian landscape.


Question: Are you able to tell us about the research you're launching at the event?

Christie Nicholas: Kids Business Communications have surveyed 2000 Aussie Mums to reveal what marketers need to know most about Mums' social media habits, where they turn for product recommendations, how much influence online vs offline sources have on her purchasing decisions, how thoroughly mums research different product categories, plus the changes to her social life and what impact this has on brands vying for her attention. The results will be released for the first time at Marketing to Mums & Kids Conference

Some highlights from the project titled 'Billion Dollar Mum – what makes mums buy your product" discussed on the day include:

97% of mums rate 'brand experiences" as the most influential medium driving them to purchase.
90% of mums read 'reviews/online recommendations" before making a purchase
Over 65% of mums are active members of private online parenting groups
We'll brainstorm and explore what can brands do to simultaneously tackle the above facts and structure a plan that delivers results

In addition, we will also reveal which product categories and price points mums spend most time researching and how they go about their research. We'll also debunk some myths associated with -Pester Power'.


Question: Why is it so important to know how to market to Mums?

Christie Nicholas: Mums are incredibly savvy consumers. They have defining lifestyle factors and expectations that shape what they are looking for from products and how they engage with brands, both for the short and long term.
If marketers want to establish successful relationships with this audience, they need to know and respect who they are dealing with. That's the first steps to getting on her radar. We look forward to sharing these market research results and inspiring brands with essential facts about this demographic.


Question: How important is social media to Mums?

Christie Nicholas: When it comes to Social Media for Mums, Facebook is king, Mobile is everything and Social Media is life. There's a lot of negativity society places on excessive use of social media. For Mums – there's also many positives:
Facebook provides mums with the opportunity to socialize/connect to her community.
Mums are not socializing or participating in real life catch ups as much as they used to, so social media gives her that connection she still needs.
Mobile suits her on the go lifestyle including work, kids, taxi-driver, shopping, etc.
Mums access social media for so many reasons, i.e dinner ideas, shopping, kids requirements, researching, entertainment, connecting, relaxing. Lots of positives!


Question: Can you tell us about your background?

Christie Nicholas: I'm the Founder and Managing Director of Kids Business Communications – Australia's leading agency entirely focussed on connecting brands with mums via PR and Marketing to Mum initiatives, including the Bloggers BrunchTM series of events where bloggers and influential mums meet and mingle. Kids Business Communications is around 8 years young!

I'm really grateful for previous roles working closely with the most entrepreneurial business minds that always challenged possibilities. Previously I was a senior marketer for global toy giant, Moose Enterprises and also worked for established nursery brand Playgro. This, coupled with experience at Max Factor, Covergirl, Network 10, provided a solid foundation to better understand what brands need to do to successfully engage with the female audience. It's my passion and purpose to connect brands with more mums!


Question: What's a typical day like, for you?

Christie Nicholas: At any one time we are working on event planning with the portfolio of brands attending our next supersized influencer events, managing the PR and Marketing requirements for our regular and project based clients, experimenting with new marketing to mum ideas and staying on top of research relating to what mums want, that will educate us and help our brands.

The day for me normally starts with regrouping with the team on client requirements to ensure we are proactively securing PR opportunities for them that will support their goals, followed by brainstorming fresh ideas for new clients and brand partnerships. Thereafter, we map out the next stage of projects we are driving, such as qualitative and quantitative market research for brands.
The day is bursting with different jobs I am involved in and the best part is, everything we do benefits the next client because we are always learning and keeping on top of what mums what from brands. It also motivating and much more fun because the team is equally passionate and relishes the challenges.


Question: Can you share your current goals (personal or business)?

Christie Nicholas: When we first started 8 years ago, we were one of the very first organisations to tap into the trends and start specialising in this space with the launch of the Bloggers BrunchTM events. There's a new generation of mums now and with that, new trends emerging. Our goal is to continue to stay at the forefront of new trends emerging, shape new solutions and give brands the tools they need to market to them most effectively. We're also looking forward to collaborating more with other like-minded organisations.

Personally, I'm also determined to give this whole public speaking thing a whirl! A little bit scary. I've heard that it's normally the things that scare you that you should have a go at.


Interview by Brooke Hunter