ARF committee takes on online quality challenge

US-- The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) has formed a committee to put into action the findings of its study into online research quality.

The group is looking at developing a ‘behavioural index' to define good and bad respondents, and exploring ways for sample suppliers to cooperate to avoid duplication of responses in studies that involve multiple panels.

Preliminary results of the Foundations of Quality research-on-research initiative were presented at the foundation's annual Re:Think event in New York earlier this month.

The study, which used a mock online survey to test respondent behaviour, concluded that membership of multiple panels is not necessarily a bad thing provided participants behave responsibly.

The industry solutions committee will be led by Mark Berry, EVP of business and consumer insights at Synovate, Anne Hedde, president and global CEO of Lightspeed Research, and Tomas Emmers, consumer and marketing insights director of Unilever.

In a statement they said: “We can now get down to the work of sorting out the issues and non-issues that will help shape our direction as we move forward. Based on the Foundations of Quality analysis, we have the ability to evaluate key components of online data quality that will help us create recommendations, standards and best practices to ensure that suppliers and clients have access to information, processes and tools that ensure quality.”

The complete report from the Foundations of Quality project will be available in the coming months, the ARF said.

Author: Robert Bain

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