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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:

1. 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.
2. The exclusion of cell phones from calling lists, and the prevalence of caller ID and answering machines.
3. The need for a fresh approach that reflected changes in Britain?s social and demographic make-up.
4. The "spiral of silence": respondents who tend to conceal responses they feel could be deemed socially unacceptable.

The latest European Union (EU) figures show that 58.7 per cent of all British adults are using the Internet. By making it possible for Internet users to voice their views in innovative ways, YouGov has demonstrated the validity of online research aimed at customers, voters and the general public. Effective panel management could easily provide comparable results in North America where online access is even more prevalent.

Posted on April 3, 2005
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