Holiday season can be exhausting. Driving your audience to retail can be challenging, particularly when price and last-minute gifts are layered into the equation. That’s why navigating the recent shift in family purchasing power is key to driving sales and engaging at retail.

Meet the Dadsumers. A key focus this holiday season is the modern Dad. He’s redefining fatherhood by spending more time with his kids, handling a larger portion of the household shopping and spending lots of money. At Allen & Gerritsen, recently we conducted an in-depth proprietary research study and identified four distinct lifestyle targets called “Dadsumers.”

1. Brand New Millennial Dads (ages 30-34)
2. Gen "Why?" Dads (ages 35-39)
3. Dads Facing Fifty (ages 40-49)
4. Late Boomer Dad (ages 50-54)

Dadsumers are unique. And should be treated that way. Earning engagement and loyalty requires knowing what makes Dads tick—how they’re different from Moms and each other. Almost two-thirds of families are dual-income and there are now more than 2MM stay-at-home Dads, a statistic that’s double what it was 25 years ago (source: Pew Research Center). And they’re shopping everywhere, not just at Home Depot.

Dadsumers engage differently. Strategies should be different, too. Late Boomer Dads use social platforms to discover and explore, but they’re more passive users of social than other Dadsumers. Brand New Millennial Dads engage with more content across all forms of media than any other Dad segment (source: Forrester Consumer Technographics). So designing engagements to each cohort’s attitudes and behaviors is mandatory. And while a thoughtfully executed social strategy may work for one, a more targeted mobile strategy might align better with another.

This holiday, dig in to understand Dads and unearth what matters to them. They’re more than likely in charge of that holiday list in some capacity. Whether they’re engaging at the mall, online or amplifying your reach through their recommendations, their purchasing power is undeniable.

Read the full Dadsumers study or reach out to talk about the power of connecting Dads with your brand. Andrew Graff is the CEO of Allen & Gerritsen (A&G), an independent external advertising agency and IHAF member company located in Boston and Philadelphia.