New HarrisX and Allison Worldwide Study Reveals Gen Alpha Teens Emerge as the CMOs of the American Household – While Moms Remain the Chief Household Officers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 25, 2026--

HarrisX and Allison Worldwide today announced the release of the Gen Alpha Household Influence Study. American households are undergoing a generational shift in how brand preferences and purchase decisions are made—and how influence moves between people under the same roof.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260825638517/en/

That dynamic begins with a striking finding: household brand influence does not flow in one direction. Ninety-one percent of parents say their Gen Alpha teen influences which brands they like. At the same time, 73% of Gen Alpha teens say their mom shapes what brands they like — more than any influencer, celebrity or social media platform.

There are approximately 67 million Gen Alpha children in the United States, including roughly 16 million teenagers ages 13 to 16. Most of these teens are being raised by Millennials — the first generation of parents to grow up online themselves — creating a household dynamic unlike anything brands have encountered before.

“Winning with Gen Alpha will require more than marketing to teenagers; it requires understanding how brand and product value, loyalty and purchasing behavior are perceived and reconciled across the entire household," said Dritan Nesho, CEO & Founder of HarrisX. "When it comes to the Gen Alpha household, the CMO is 15 years old and the CEOs are in their early 40s. Teens lead discovery and top of funnel exploration and parents have the power of the purse and conversion — making for a unique and up until now under-explored, dynamic."

That insight is the foundation behind the Gen Alpha Household Intelligence Platform, a new proprietary brand performance system offered by Allison Worldwide and HarrisX that measures and tracks how brands perform across Gen Alpha households among teens, parents, girls, boys, moms and dads.

The platform produces a Gen Alpha Household Brand Score for brands across all six audience segments, powered by the Gen Alpha Household Influence Study. The inaugural study, developed by HarrisX and Allison Worldwide, surveyed 1,500 respondents — Gen Alpha teens ages 13–16 and parents of Gen Alpha teens — in a nationally representative sample. New waves will be conducted quarterly.

The Gen Alpha Brand Score measures which brands are winning the household purchase decision today, while, in parallel, tracking which brands are building the next generation of loyalty.

"The most surprising finding in this study isn't about a brand. It's about a relationship," said Anne Colaiacovo, CEO, North America of Allison Worldwide. "When it comes to shaping what brands Gen Alpha teens like, mom is more influential than any social media platform, creator or celebrity. Brands that miss the household will miss an early opportunity to build loyalty and commercial success with Gen Alpha and their gatekeeper mom.”

Key Findings from the Gen Alpha Household Influence Study:

"Knowing which brands Gen Alpha teens like is only half the picture. They don't yet control their own spending, but they are already shaping what brands enter the household and what their parents buy and prefer,” said Dom Bartkus, Executive Vice President at HarrisX. “That's what makes this study unique and a powerful tool for brands looking to win with Gen Alpha teens and their households alike."

Meet the New American Household CMO. She is 15.

When parents buy brands for their Gen Alpha teens, 62% of those purchases are driven by the teen proactively asking for the brand. Gen Alpha teen girls exert especially strong influence over household purchasing: in families with girls, teens drive 67% of purchases that parents make for them, compared to 59% in households with boys.

Sephora and e.l.f. Cosmetics show the strongest teen-driven purchasing in the study, with 73% of parent purchases initiated by the teen. Both brands also outperform significantly with teen girls, powered by strong performance on cultural relevance with this audience. When asked to choose from several beauty brands included in the study, 60% of Gen Alpha teen girls said they would ask their parents to buy e.l.f. products.

"Gen Alpha teen girls are not just influential. They are commercially decisive,” said Colaiacovo. “In households with teen girls, teens are initiating two in three purchases their parents make for them. That's not influence. That's purchasing authority. And the brands that have built genuine emotional connection with teen girls are seeing it convert directly into transactions."

Starbucks and Bath & Body Works also outperform with this key audience—ranking in the top 10 among Gen Alpha teen girls.

Moms and Dads Are Not the Same Audience

For moms, Walmart isn’t simply a preferred retailer – it’s an anchor brand. It ranks first among moms by a wide margin, a key advantage given the critical role moms play in household purchasing decisions and shaping which brands their Gen Alpha teens like. Wendy's also outperforms with moms, ranking fifth — its strongest audience performance in the study.

Dads tell a different story. Nike ranks first among dads, followed by McDonald’s and Walmart. Adidas and Samsung are two brands that significantly outperform with dads, ranking fourth and eighth respectively — stronger than their performance with any other household segment.

Dads also emerge as the parent segment most open to teen-driven discovery: 60% say their Gen Alpha teen recently introduced them to a new brand they otherwise would not have known about, compared to 39% among moms. Dads are also more likely to approve of their teens buying brands tested in the study at 78% approval, compared to 76% among moms.

The findings suggest dads retain a particularly strong emotional affinity for legacy brands that have maintained cultural relevance across generations, while moms are more likely to play the gatekeeper role in household purchasing decisions.

The First Brand Performance System Built for the Gen Alpha Household

The Gen Alpha Household Intelligence Platform is the first brand performance system purpose-built to measure how brands win and lose across the full Gen Alpha household. Drawing on the Gen Alpha Household Influence Study, it scores each brand across six audience segments on four strategic pillars: Brand Presence, Cultural Relevance, Household Momentum and Commercial Strength.

Insights are delivered through HarrisX's AskTheo AI platform, giving brands real-time access to findings, competitive rankings and audience-level intelligence.

Unlike traditional brand-tracking systems built around a single consumer and a linear brand funnel, the Gen Alpha Household Intelligence Platform measures the two-way influence dynamics that define how Gen Alpha households make brand decisions — capturing teen cultural relevance, parental approval, generational identity, household advocacy and commercial conversion simultaneously.

New waves of the Gen Alpha Household Influence Study will be fielded quarterly, giving brands ongoing access to syndicated tracking, category-specific competitive deep dives, household strategy development and advisory services.

For complete brand rankings, category-specific findings and custom competitive analysis, visit GenAlphaBrands.com.

Study Methodology
The HarrisX-Allison Worldwide Gen Alpha Household Influence Study was conducted in the United States from May 4 to May 12, 2026, among a total sample of 1,500 respondents, including 750 Gen Alpha teens ages 13–16 and 750 parents of Gen Alpha teens. Respondents were recruited through a broad variety of professional, validated respondent panels to expand the sampling frame and minimize the influence of any single panel’s recruiting methods.

Results were weighted for age, gender, region, race/ethnicity, income, political party, education, and ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 2.5 percentage points.

About HarrisX
HarrisX, a Stagwell company, is a strategic research and advisory firm that delivers clear, data-driven answers to complex and pressing questions faced by corporate, political and government clients. Powered by proprietary technology and a campaign-style approach, we move fast, cut through the noise, and surface insights that drive real-world impact. With offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Australia, we advise Fortune 100 companies, public institutions, global leaders, NGOs, and philanthropic organizations. Named one of top and most accurate pollsters of the 2020 and 2024 U.S. presidential elections, HarrisX doesn't just deliver data — we deliver confident decisions. Learn more at www.harrisx.com.

About Allison Worldwide
Allison Worldwide is an earned-first, data-led, and future-focused communications agency helping clients see around corners and be ahead of what's next. Not too big and not too small, Allison provides end-to-end global communications, PR, influencer, analytics and marketing support to clients from the Fortune 500 to start-ups. Allison is owned by Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), one of the fastest growing and most influential marketing and communications networks in the world. Learn more at www.allisonworldwide.com.

About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger holding company built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our specialists in 35+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for our clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

(Image courtesy of: HarrisX)

(Image courtesy of: HarrisX and Allison Worldwide)

Canada will announce retaliatory tariffs against the United States on Tuesday as relations sharply deteriorate, with President Donald Trump telling Canadian leaders to “fall in line” and Prime Minister Mark Carney accusing Washington of trying to subordinate Canada.

Trump threatened new 50% tariffs on Canadian vehicles, auto parts and steel after Carney walked away from trade negotiations late Friday. Carney said the demands are an attempt to “destroy our major industries.” On Tuesday, Trump claimed that he’s considering renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” He also insulted Canada's leader by calling him “Governor Carney.”

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Trump to move ahead with his executive order restricting mail-in voting, though it remains unclear how much his administration can implement before the fast-approaching midterm elections. Mail balloting has long been a favorite target for Trump, who has claimed that it breeds fraud despite strong evidence to the contrary and his own use of the voting method.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a new round of sanctions aimed at Iran on Monday and warned every country that does business with the Islamic Republic to sever those financial ties or face retaliation from the U.S. The announcement follows Trump’s pledge last week to unleash an “economic D-Day” against Iran, in an effort to sever it from the rest of the global economy.

Here's the Latest:

“There is a huge gap between the American perspective and the Canadian perspective. That’s the first point,” Carney added. “In the final hours of the negotiations, it was a question of — you mentioned Netflix — discoverability on platforms, the streamers. You can see whether, if you want to watch some television, it is easy or not to find French-language and Quebec programs. Because of legislation here in Quebec, it is easier now. But for the Americans, that is an irritant. No, it is a law.”

Labeling is another example, he said: “That is also on the list of irritants the Americans mention. And the government says each time: No, no, no. The joke is over. It’s not amusing. It’s not a ‘funny fact.’ It’s a right.”

Carney said Monday that U.S. negotiators had raised the discoverability of French-language content on streaming platforms, along with French-language labeling rules, as trade irritants.

And he rejected the idea that such protections were negotiable, saying in French: “For the Americans, questions about the French language, Quebec culture, francophone culture and Canadian culture are irritants. Here in Quebec, here in Canada, they are rights — fundamental rights.”

“I love French Canadians,” the president said in a follow-up social media post.

Trump appeared to be responding to assertions by Carney that the United States had proposed measures he deemed unacceptable that would hurt French language protections.

Trump accused Carney of telling a “lie” and disparaged the prime minister as “weak” and “ineffective.”

“I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing,” he said, asserting the claim was made up by Carney in a bid to boost his political standing at home.

The Democratic leader said affordability is not a hoax as Trump has said, but very real — “People are drowning in this failed economy.”

The meeting between Jeffries and Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and top outside adviser, was seen as an overture from the administration before the midterms elections.

Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, had bristled that Kushner better not be hedging his bets against Republicans.

“He asked for a meeting and I took it,” says Rep. Hakeem Jeffries in a defiant video posted to social media.

Wearing a New York Yankees cap and looking straight into the camera, Jeffries, who is in line to become House speaker if Democrats seize majority control of the House, leveled a follow-up warning: “I shouldn’t have to say it but I am: No one is going to get a pass.”

“We are going to hold every single member of the Trump cartel accountable — from day one,” Jeffries said, foreshadowing a robust oversight agenda.

Such a change would be reminiscent of the Republican president’s unilateral action last year by executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

The United States and Canada are locked in a trade dispute, with Canada expected to announce retaliatory measures Tuesday. That’s in response to the Trump administration enacting 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down.

“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump said Tuesday on social media.

The U.S.-Canadian border runs through the middle of the lake on the shore of New York state. Ontario is Canada’s most populous province and is home to the country’s auto industry.

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Canada will announce retaliatory tariffs against the United States on Tuesday after relations deteriorated sharply Monday, with President Donald Trump telling Canadian leaders to “fall in line” or face consequences “far WORSE” than existing tariffs and Prime Minister Mark Carney accusing Washington of trying to subordinate Canada.

Trump also threatened new 50% tariffs on Canadian vehicles, auto parts and steel, while Carney said U.S. trade demands showed Washington wanted to “destroy our major industries,” including autos, steel and aluminum.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and three other Cabinet ministers are also expected Tuesday morning to share details of supports for workers affected by tariffs. Carney said earlier Monday that Canada may need to move away from matching U.S. tariffs dollar for dollar and instead use more targeted retaliation aimed at protecting Canadian workers and businesses.

Motorcyclists pass a billboard depicting U.S. President Donald Trump underwater amid explosions, with the words "Great Victory! Strait of Hormuz," in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to media at a housing development in Hamilton, on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026. (Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meets workers at the Davie shipyard in Levis, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP)

President Donald Trump speaks during a back to school event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)