The Virtual Zone

Surveys can be fun. The MR industry learns a few lessons from the interactive entertainment industry. Brian Tarran reports

They say you can't judge a book by its cover - but sometimes that's all you have to go on.

A shelf-load of novels are laid out before me. I glance up and down, waiting for one of the many titles to grab my attention. I pick up a few books, turning them over to read the back cover blurb – I even go so far as to read an extract from one – but ultimately, today's shopping trip proves fruitless; my basket remains empty.

Normally, that's where my foray to a Waterstones or Borders would end, but not today. Today, I'm sitting behind a laptop in the offices of Media Intelligence, tucked away in a little corner of London's Soho. And before my virtual shopping trip can draw to a close, the publisher would like to know just what was so unappealing about their range of books.

It's easy to imagine the excitement GMI chief executive Rob Monster must have felt when seeing the same virtual store shelf demo earlier this year. Little surprise then, that last month, GMI bought Media Intelligence with the intention of integrating its suite of Flash-based survey design tools into its own online research offering.

And it's not hard to see why he would want to - let alone need to. Anyone who has ever taken an online survey would find them to be, for the most part, uninspired and unentertaining, save for the inclusion of some audio or video clips here and there.

The speed and immediacy of the internet has allowed more customers to be asked more questions than ever before – something clients and their research agencies are happy to take advantage of. Yet according to Ian Wright, European director for online research agency OTX, only "a tiny percentage" of the internet's capabilities are being fully exploited, with many researchers simply replicating CATI surveys online.

As more and more research work shifts to the web, how long will it be before survey fatigue begins to take root among the online population? How many more dull drop-downs and rudimentary radio buttons will respondents be prepared to suffer for the sake of a paltry incentive?

"The multi-media environment has forced us to up our game," says Rob Monster. "By making the survey experience more engaging, we hope to improve respondent cooperation rates."


Getting engaged
There's that word again: engagement. As advertisers look to engage their customers, so researchers should be looking to do the same with their respondents. But how do you create that sense of engagement?

GMI, and others are betting interactivity is the way to go. Sure there's a certain novelty in seeing Media Intelligence's virtual store shelf demo in action, but its hard to deny the appeal - not to mention the cost-saving potential - of a pack testing survey that allows respondents to pick up and investigate digital 3D models of the product in question, compare prices against rival brands and decide whether it's something they would buy, all from the comfort of their own home PC. Or how about a copy testing survey for a magazine, where respondents flick through pages using a swipe of the mouse, clicking on the advertising and editorial that grabs their attention for post-survey analysis.

As a respondent – even just a dummy one – the sense of control over the survey is liberating, and not half as stress-inducing as sitting through page after page of questions before noticing the survey progress bar has only just reached the halfway point.

But perhaps more importantly – at least from a respondent's perspective – it's all quite good fun, even down to the little details, like replacing a five-point rating scale with a slider that rotates a little thumb up or down, illustrating how much a customer likes or dislikes a product or service.


What an experience
The industry will hopefully start to see more of this interactivity creeping into online surveys over the coming months, especially as GMI's acquisition of Media Intelligence was followed by rival panel provider Research Now's announcement at Esomar's Congress that it too would start adding similar devices to its own survey offering, while Starfish Research & Strategy launched its own 3D virtual prototype tester, BlueRay Select, last month.

For Charles Pearson, senior vice president of business development at Research Now, improving the respondent experience is not the only goal. "The better the respondent experience, the better the data you are going to get," he says. Coming up with innovative new ways for consumers to express their opinions should help prevent behaviour such as 'straight-lining' - a classic sign of online survey fatigue, whereby respondents will scroll down a page clicking all radio buttons in the same column without giving any thought to how their opinions might vary on each of the questions asked.

Pearson believes the industry's intake of young graduate coders and programmers in recent years will continue to deliver improvements to the online survey experience as the months roll on. These programmers have a wealth of experience designing eye-catching websites, mini videogames and other applications - skills taught and honed during their degree courses. As such they're more inclined to approach survey design from the perspective of the end user - in this case, the respondent.


Virtually yours
So what's next? Virtual stores, for one. The technology is already there to recreate the Wal-Marts and Tescos of the world online, however costs and development time can prove to be prohibitive for clients.

"Its definitely something that gets people excited when we do new business pitches," says Ian Wright, speaking about OTX's virtual reality services, including virtual store building. However, he admits: "The number of projects where we use virtual reality is just a fraction of all those business pitches. Often it's an issue with budgets - although the price of using VR in surveys is coming down. But you do need more [development] time."

More virtual interviewers – along the lines of OTX's 'Jake' and 'Niki' – are another possibility, and could prove especially useful in kids research projects, helping to guide pre-teen respondents through the survey and keeping them entertained along the way.


Future view
Respondent cooperation and falling response rates are perennial problems for the research industry. However, influential figures from both the client and agencyside of the business met in the US last month for a summit designed to reach a consensus on how best to tackle these issues.

As much as any such initiative should be applauded, researchers on the ground should not look to agency CEOs and global insight chiefs to solve these problems alone. It should be the responsibility of all clients to push their agencies - and all agencies to push their clients - to put a little more time and thought into how both they, and their respondents, can get the most out of the research process.

The tools that allow for the creation of interactive and engaging questionnaires are out there, and given enough developmental resources, coupled with strong backing from clients, the possibilities seem limitless. "I don't think we've even scratched the surface of what we'll be able to do with online surveying," says Media Intelligence director and co-founder Jon Puleston.


BENEFITS OF A VIRTUALLY ENGAGING SURVEY:
by Mark Gristock, head of marketing at usability company, Foviance.

Appearances count
Well-designed, professional surveys have always delivered higher response rates. It is far easier to engage with the respondent with audio, video and animation than with flat designs.


You don't have to go overboard
Basic elements, such as completion gauges, can have a major impact on completion levels. Even blind surveys benefit – combining simple interactivity and usability techniques on initial pages help make the process look straightforward.


Instant feedback
No other medium allows you to provide this level of encouragement and support to such a large number of participants. Audio and visual prompts are far more powerful than error messages or text help.


Increased complexity
By segmenting respondents based on responses to different questions, we can combine media to gather different types of data within the same survey. For example, we've integrated focus group and A/B testing of different marketing concepts within surveys based on precise segmentation.


Improved segmentation
Interactivity allows us to gather far more accurate psychometric data than would otherwise be possible. This is going to be the most significant area of research in the next eighteen months – using interactive media to segment audiences by personality types, intelligence and speed of response.


October | 2006