• by Larissa Faw , February 28, 2018

Creative agency Wongdoody is launching an in-house marketing consultancy titled June Cleaver Is Dead (JCID) to provide research and insights around today's moms and circumvent the outdated tactics and strategies used by most advertisers.

 "The archetypal housewife from the 1950s is dead – and marketers need to wake up and take notice," says Skyler Mattson, co-founder of JCID and managing director, Wongdoody. In fact, JCID was a "big selling point" in a recent successful pitch to one client already, she says.

"Moms make 85% of purchase decisions," says Mattson. "So almost every client we meet with needs to build loyalty with her. Couple that with the unique fact that Wongdoody is led by moms - including 50% of the executive team – and the result is both a client demand and an internal passion.”

A core team of employees at the parent agency, including strategists, account people and creatives, will be solely dedicated to supporting this unit. JCID will crowdsource panels of moms, from thousands of subgroups that brands want to target, offering insights to expand the common perception of "mom" to include working single-, step-, and LGBTQ moms. "There’s a lot of powerful advertising out there directed at moms, but many of those ads still feel forced, misdirected, insulting or stereotypical," says Mattson.

Many of the agency's current clients, like Litehouse Dressing and Papa Murphy’s Pizza, are already benefitting from the unit's research methodology. For instance, Litehouse's 'See the Lite' campaign was built on the insight that moms want to know what’s inside the food they feed their kids. "Moms were educated, instead of shamed, in the lighthearted spots promoting the fresh taste of Litehouse dressings," says Mattson.

Additionally the agency will "proactively" seek clients for whom it thinks would benefit from more authentic marketing to moms.

The JCID website will also serve as a mouthpiece to push the stereotype of a ‘mom in a cardigan doing laundry,’ or celebrate campaigns that positively market to the modern-day "badass" mom, she says. This blog will showcase examples of marketing that’s working, and work that misses the mark, as well as the latest trends, and opinions on what they mean, says Mattson.

Before the shop's conception, Wongdoody developed the #IPumpedHere campaign for non-profit advocacy group MomRising to drive attention to the lack of clean, legal places for moms to breastfeed or use a breast pump. The idea came after Mattson and colleague/executive creative director Pam Fujimoto attended the Cannes Lions Festival and realized there was nowhere comfortable for nursing moms to pump at the event.