Sparq: Sneak Peek
Coming this Fall our flagship product, Panel+ becomes Sparq - the world's first online research platform to unite one off surveys, custom panels and private online communities.
Articles
CBS Gets Results Within the Hour
An online panel allowed CBS News to gauge the views of Americans on the State of the Union address in less than an hour. Technology can provide comparable results in any field.
Researchers usually face a daunting task when faced with accurately measuring public sentiment in the immediate aftermath of an event. This assignment generally involves contacting people at odd hours, taking extra care to produce a suitable sample, and working overtime to collate responses. In the area of public opinion, a quick glance at the way voters greeted a particular speech or reacted to a political debate is usually hard to come by.
Through the use of online panels, researchers, companies and media outlets can receive prompt responses to specific questions - enjoying a direct advantage over the competition. Earlier this year, CBS News teamed up with Knowledge Networks to provide a unique approach to the State of the Union address. Knowledge Networks contacted 839 American adults, members of an online panel, after they watched George W. Bush's speech on television. Panel members instantly answered four queries on the policies outlined by the president.
Within the hour, CBS News was able to incorporate the actual opinions of State of the Union viewers into their post-speech analysis by broadcasting the results of the online poll. The scientific sample provided an immediate appraisal of the American public's response to statements and strategies, in considerably less time than a traditional telephone-based study.
The State of the Union survey shows there are no limits to the application of online panel technology. Testing television broadcasts or commercials would provide instant findings, saving the usual costs of the average focus group. A review of consumption profiles in different markets could be prepared, deployed and completed from a single office, without the need for travel arrangements.
Posted on May 3, 2005
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The Best & The Brightest - Chris Whitmore
| Name: | Chris Whitmore |
| Title: | Senior Developer |
| Age: | 0000011001 |
| Height: | 0.00187817259 Kilometers |
| Nickname as a child: | Oggy |
| Likes: | movies, writing, hockey, and all things geek |
| Dislikes: | doing dishes, redundancy, inefficiency |
How long have you been at Vision Critical?
I've been here just over a year now. Long enough to see the company more than double in size and the product we've been working on morph into something extremely cool.
What role do you play at VC?
I am a c#/asp.net developer working on the core features of our Panel+ product. My current focus is on development of the user interface. This includes conceptualizing and creating interfaces for the latest and greatest features coming down the pipeline as well as revisiting the application to examine usability issues and find ways to improve the way we do things.
What is your background and how does it benefit VC clients?
Before starting with Vision Critical I worked for nearly six years as a market research programmer. Two and a half of those years were spent programming surveys in a CATI environment. I then moved into the newly founded online data collection division where I was responsible for programming surveys for the web and dreaming up ways to actually pull off all the new ideas about what _could_ be done online. I think this pioneering spirit and my experience having worked on literally hundreds of projects are great assets to our clients. I've also taken a number of short programming courses and am about two thirds of the way through my computer science degree (slow and steady).
What major improvements in products or service delivery have you seen in your tenure at Vision Critical?
Having worked with a number of market research platforms and tools in the past I am astounded at how advanced our current product is. We now support much of the functionality that I was accustomed to having in big clunky enterprise software packages, but we've made it easy to use. Plus we have a number of Internet specific tools and technologies that really separate us from the pack. It's really exciting, and having this solid base is going to allow us to do some really impressive things in the next year. Our users are going to be impressed.
This piece was brought to you by: the letter 01111000, the number 00001110 and feta the cat.
Posted on April 13, 2005
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Seniors Increase Their Online Presence
New retirees are maintaining their wired ways, causing the number of seniors online to increase steadily.
According to a study conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project, the number of American seniors, aged 65 and older, online has increased by 4% over the past year, to 26%. The results of the survey showed that these new users will be more open to email and information gathering than transactional activities.
This is great news for panel recruitment. Typically this has been a harder demographic to reach online, however, as the learning curve decreases it will be easier for marketers and researchers to reach this elusive audience.
Older Americans also have financial clout, which should attract marketer's attention; according to the American Banking Association older adults own 77 percent of the country's financial assets.
The news gets better over time due to the fact that as the population ages people who used the Internet for work-related activities will retire. This will result in an over 65 audience who are more net-savvy, resulting in higher rates of connectivity and higher rates of engagement in "high trust" activities.
According to an Ipsos-Reid study 60% of Canadians over 55 are online. This demographic will be unlikely to give up their wired ways as they age and will thereby change existing stereotypes about the older population and the Internet.
Posted on April 11, 2005
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Panel+ 3.0 : Advanced User Tip #3
Take your panel's temperature - using verbatim responses to collect panelist feedback.
Do you ever wonder how your respondents feel about their panel experience? You may be interacting with them several times a month, but are you really keeping them engaged?
To find out, consider adding a general feedback question at the end of your next study. It can be as simple as "Please let us know how you are enjoying your panel experience." Or you may want to probe by asking several follow up questions. Just remember, when you're finished, to visit the verbatim report to review your responses. The feedback you gather may be both interesting and insightful, but above all it will keep your panelists feeling as though their opinions are valued.
Researching the research experience will help you craft your interaction and incentive strategy and will help boost your response rates in the long run. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact your Vision Critical Account Manager today.
Posted on April 11, 2005
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British Firm Proves Efficacy of Online Research
YouGov was the first company to experiment with online public opinion polling in Britain. The results have been remarkable.
Five years ago, YouGov made its debut in Britain's market research spectrum, becoming the country's main online pollster. This summer, the company founded by Nadhim Zahawi and Stephan Shakespeare expects to be listed in London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), boasting a pre-tax profit of $1.2 million U.S. in the past fiscal year.
Since its inception, YouGov has channelled technology to avoid the typical pitfalls of telephone-based polling. By relying on a 75,000 respondent panel instead of call centres, the company sought to enable people to reply in a suitable format, and at a convenient time. YouGov's automated fieldwork allowed clients to save money, while at the same time enjoying a significantly quicker turnaround.
YouGov's precision has surpassed expectations. In 2001, YouGov came closer than any other pollster in its prediction of the actual margin of victory for the governing Labour party. In its last public opinion study, YouGov anticipated a 10 per cent gap between Tony Blair's party and the Conservatives. The difference after all the ballots were tallied was 9.3 per cent. YouGov proved accurate in other exercises, including Britain's Conservative leadership race, the 2002 Pop Idol contest and the 2001 Australian election.
According to Chairman Peter Kellner, YouGov has directly benefited from four key limitations of traditional telephone polling:
- The assumption that Britons who are at home at the time pollsters knock on the door or phone have identical views to those who spend less time in their residence because of their interests, social habits or overtime demands.
- The exclusion of cell phones from calling lists, and the prevalence of caller ID and answering machines.
- The need for a fresh approach that reflected changes in Britain?s social and demographic make-up.
- The "spiral of silence": respondents who tend to conceal responses they feel could be deemed socially unacceptable.
Posted on April 3, 2005
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