Home & Entertainment

87% of moms play video games, but most won't call themselves gamers. Here's why that gap matters for brands.

COVID-19 has led to an explosion of new behaviors in home entertainment. What will stick and become a ritual? And how can brands anticipate what's to come so they can shape a proactive plan for the future? The answer lies in understanding the motivations driving our new behaviors, and the shift in what we may value as a result.

The pressure to be responsible has only intensified during COVID-19 as people have taken on additional roles, such as parent and educator, and dealt with new situations, such as work from home. We set off to explore how our relationship with responsibility is changing and what happens when the pressure gets to be too much.

As COVID-19 has forced us to slow down, we've begun to see a transformation in how and why we relax. We see people around the world taking a more holistic and proactive approach to relaxation, and a movement towards putting in the time and effort to truly "reset" ourselves. But what does this all mean as we look to the future and a world that's beginning to open up again?

At-home entertainment is helping us meet our intensified desire to connect with others during lockdown. But while some behaviors are a band-aid solution, others speak to a deeper value shift toward seeking more meaningful connection.

Why has interest in seemingly random categories like freezers, wine-making kits and gaming chairs skyrocketed during a pandemic? Our homes have quite literally been the only shelter we have from the current storm. However, this new microscopic focus on home is also forcing us to notice where it’s falling short. What’s lacking? The answers to that question will fuel near and long-term opportunities for brands.

During COVID-19, our desire for progress is stronger than ever, yet there’s no clear destination in sight. As the days blur together, people are engaging in new at-home entertainment behaviors to feel a sense of purpose and avoid losing this time. The Sound set off to explore these new behaviors and understand which habits will last.

As the fixed boundaries of home are increasingly tested, the feelings associated with home (stability, creativity, belonging) are harder to achieve than ever, yet perhaps are more important than ever. Our recent exploration has unearthed several paradoxes tied to home, and in doing so, revealed opportunities for brands to help reinforce these feelings, connect to their audience and echo consumer behavior within the new boundaries created by the pandemic.

How can we re-establish stability in the highly uncertain times of today? Our daily lives and routine have always provided us with a sense of stability. However, being hit by a pandemic has changed life as we knew it. Disrupted lives and looming uncertainty of a “new world” have left us in a state of flux.As we cope with the situation at hand we find ourselves leaning on Nostalgia to derive the lost sense of stability that we earlier got from our daily routines and lives.

We’ve been through the 2008 recession, we’re worried about climate change, we’re living with insurmountable student debt. We’re facing multiple stressors in all aspects of our lives, making us an overall anxious people. Nearly 1 in 5 adults in America experience an anxiety disorder over any 12-month period–and an astonishing 65% of 13-39-year-olds say they feel stressed constantly.