At our latest event in September, marketers, creators and storytellers explored why family brands should give parents a break from the pressures of daily life and offer more play, entertainment and stories worth sharing. 

We all know that parents aren’t arriving on social media with time to spare and often, if they have any time at all to scroll, it’s in the moments between work, family life and the endless business of keeping everything moving.  So, for brands, the opportunity is not to add another lesson, but to offer something lighter, more human and genuinely worth their attention. 

A packed room in King’s Cross brought together senior marketers from Mattel, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Big Potato Games, Wildbrain, Nestlé, Uber Boats and more for a first look at Favola’s new research into parents’ relationship with social media. What followed was a lively conversation about guilt, trust, play, private sharing and the enduring power of a good story. 

Dan Hearnshaw, our Senior Strategist, opened the session by sharing findings from Favola’s new research into how parents use social media, what they value from brands and creators and the content that genuinely resonates. 

The research revealed a complicated relationship. Social media can offer parents connection, inspiration and reassurance but it can also leave them feeling guilty, inadequate or conscious of time they could have spent elsewhere. The full report goes deeper into these tensions, revealing what parents value from brands and creators, how trust is built and what makes social content genuinely worth their time.  

Our panel - Becky McKinlay, Brand Marketing Director at Big Potato Games; Malcolm Carter, Digital & Marketing Director at The Entertainer; family content creator Francis Haugen; and Favola founder Sophia Littledale - explored what these findings mean in practice. 

The conversation covered the importance of giving families permission to play rather than telling them how to parent; the balance between inspiration and unattainable perfection and crucially, why content shared privately in a WhatsApp group may be more meaningful than a visible like. The panel also discussed the trust between creators and their communities and how social content can encourage real-world play, connection and experience away from the feed. 

Bestselling author Caroline Lawrence then took us beyond the marketing bubble with a brilliantly entertaining session on the seven plot beats of storytelling. Her talk was a timely reminder that, whatever the platform or format, storytelling remains a craft and a compelling story still has the power to hold an entire room. A few lucky guests also went home with signed copies of her books. 

Thank you to our speakers, panellists and everyone who joined us and contributed to such a thoughtful, energetic afternoon.