Covid-19: Keeping track of attitudes and behaviour

Here, Research Live will provide a list of Covid-19 focused trackers and research studies that we know have launched, with a focus on the UK market. This page will be updated ad hoc in the coming weeks.

If you are launching a new coronavirus research project you would like to see added, please contact katie.mcquater@mrs.org.uk or liam.kay@mrs.org.uk.

LAST UPDATED: Monday 29th June. Latest update: people for research; criteria; appinio

ACCENTURE is running a fortnightly survey on how global consumer priorities, purchasing decisions and behavioural patterns are shifting in the wake of Covid-19. The survey covers 3,000 people in 15 countries across five continents.

AMC GLOBAL has teamed up with OpinionRoute to produce a weekly syndicated study on how consumer behaviour is affected by the pandemic. Results will be released every Thursday, and are based on weekly polling of U.S.-based general population primary purchasers. 

APPINIO has so far conducted four UK mobile/online study on consumer behaviour during the Covid-19 outbreak. The latest report saw the company survey 1,000 Britons from 16 to 22 June, exploring the effects of the pandemic on everyday life and consumption behaviour.

ATTEST has set up a coronavirus insight hub, providing news and consumer insight studies.

AUSPEX ran two online surveys in early April in the UK and Italy to understand and compare the response of both populations to the Covid-19 pandemic. The surveys sampled 2,000 citizens in each country and findings included a segmentation of each population, based on behavioural psychology, mapping tendencies of different groups towards either constructive or destructive mindsets and behaviours relating to the pandemic. 

BASIS RESEARCH is launching a longitudinal ‘Mood Tracker’ study aimed at understanding how consumers in the UK and the US are adjusting and the potential long-term implications for brands. The study will include weekly waves integrating qual and quant findings, with regular core themes and a specific focus on a different category every week.

THE BEHAVIOURAL ARCHITECTS have teamed up with Further and Acumen for a six-week study monitoring the behaviours, needs, attitudes and emotions of 50 people across the UK. The study will explore how they are adapting to the pandemic and use behavioural science to explain what this means and why.

BEYOND RESEARCH has created a global consortium to analyse the human response to Covid-19 and to support brands in their reaction to the crisis. A report was published on 12 May, and involved insights from 17 countries. 

BLUE MARBLE conducted in-depth qualitative research with 15 UK households over six weeks in April and May to understand how they are experiencing life under lockdown.

BOXCLEVER ran a qualitative study to understand the current pandemic and provide its own interpretation of the impact lockdown is having on the UK population. The study focused on three topics: shopping; technology; and brands. 

BRANDWATCH has launched a hub for Covid-19, including a weekly consumer insights report. The company has an ongoing query in its consumer research platform and weekly survey data through its mobile survey tool. 

BRITAINTHINKS has a weekly study of UK adults’ opinions, perceptions and behaviours. The three-month diary study will assess the impact the outbreak is having on national mood, by speaking to 50 diarists from different backgrounds from across the country.

BULBSHARE set up a weekly tracker, which has now moved to fortnightly, covering consumer attitudes and behaviours during and after lockdown. The tracker focuses on four areas: health; socialising; shopping; and working. It is based on more than 3,000 reponses from across 12 countries.  

BUZZBACK is running a Covid-19 tracking study focusing on the UK and US, tracking consumers’ attitudes, thoughts, and behaviours on a weekly basis. It also focuses on one particular additional topic each week, e.g. parents.  

BVA BDRC AND ALLIGATOR DIGITAL have a weekly tracker monitoring the mood of UK consumers, the extent to which people think ‘the worst is still to come’, online discussion topics and changes to anticipated buying and booking lead-times. 

B2B INTERNATIONAL has been carrying out field work on a weekly basis to try to get a real-time view of attitudes and behaviours towards the pandemic from a business perspective. The firm is publishing one blog a week with key highlights from the previous week’s responses.

CATALYX began tracking consumer sentiment as the virus spread in the US, UK and Italy, and is now using its Consumer Activation System to run a Covid-19 voice of the consumer community.

CENTRE FOR LONDON will streamed a series of talks with Londoners who are leading the capital’s response to Covid-19 about the problems they are facing and the local and city-wide responses to the pandemic. The centre is also relaunched The London Intelligence, a quarterly analysis of economic, social and environmental data. 

CREATIVE EQUALS has created a monthly survey on diversity for the sector: Covid-19 Inclusion Pulse. The firm is also creating a toolkit to help companies consider diversity in employment issues after Covid-19. 

CRITERIA found that 77% of a survey of 1,900 adults living in or around major cities and towns across the UK were willing to participate in face-to-face research. Criteria’s survey was not nationally representative, but approached existing panellists or those who had previously expressed an interest in participating on a panel.

C SPACE has launched Customer, Now, which is a multi-method, longitudinal project to uncover deeper human truths emerging from customers in lockdown. The project includes both qualitative and quantitative research among consumers in five markets, and the results are updated weekly on its website.

DECTECH has published a report on the Covid-19 lockdown, and what might happen in the months after the lockdown is lifted. The research looks at how well people complied with lockdown rules, anxiety levels during the pandemic, bheaviour changes and which stores have the most pent-up demand for reopening.

DELINEATE is running a daily tracking study into the impact of the outbreak in the UK and US. Data from the study, including buying behaviours and consumer sentiment towards advertising, is fed into dashboards on a daily basis.

DISCOVER.AI published a report in March based on an AI-based methodology to explore blogs, forums and social media posts relating to the virus in the US, UK, China and Italy. Topics included parenting, care, working from home and public health.

DUNNHUMBY has released a paper called Retail Media and Covid-19, which looks at how consumer packaged goods brands can adapt their marketing strategies in the face of changing shopper need.

DVJ INSIGHTS has been following the attitude, behaviour and opinion of people in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands since the beginning of March. The reports on the research focus on general attitudes, purchase behaviour, influence on consumers, advertising and innovation during the crisis, including comparisons between countries.

DYNATA has published a version of its annual global trends report, focused on Covid-19. The research, conducted in 14 countries between 17th and 19th March, explored changes in consumer behaviour and attitudes brought on by the pandemic.

EDGE BY ASCENTIAL is monitoring the online stock and promotional levels of essential products at major UK supermarkets during the pandemic using Digital Shelf, an e-commerce analytics SaaS platform that measures product availability, share of search, content accuracy, ratings/reviews and price/promotions.

EMARSYS AND GOODDATA have partnered to launch the Covid-19 Commerce Insight project, which uses anonymous transactional data to track how the outbreak is affecting consumer expenditure online at a global and regional level. 

EUREKA RESEARCH has run a study with tradespeople to understand how coronavirus is impacting small businesses and sole traders. The company has partnered with trade associations including CIPHE and CORGI to extend the reach of the survey. 

FAMILY KIDS & YOUTH has launched its annual ‘Wellbeing and the Internet’ study with children and young people, but this year in lockdown. The online research has been carried out with 1,000  aged seven to 16 year olds across the UK with panel partner Panelbase, and six online focus groups have been held with 10 to 15 year olds.

FORETHOUGHT has launched the Normality Index, measuring the sentiment of consumers from the US. The company has developed a model of indicators that might be considered ‘normal’ and is polling respondents weekly.

FREEMAVENS has a weekly tracker of UK consumer confidence using more than 400 variables and based on search and social data. 

GETAGENT has launched a hub to track the impact on the property market. The hub includes findings from the company’s homeowner and estate agent sentiment surveys.

GFK has launched a resource centre with weekly sales data across markets and its ‘Corona Crisis Compass’ global report. The company has also doubled the frequency of its UK consumer confidence tracker to fortnightly to track public perception of personal and country finances during the crisis.

GIRAFFE INSIGHTS AND THE LUCRE GROUP have partnered to launch a weekly barometer on community spirit. The research will track 200 respondents’ moods on a scale of one to 10 and include questions aligned to the latest news – the first week’s topic explored purchasing patterns. 

GIRAFFE INSIGHTS is also running two trackers, Kids & the Screen, and Little Voices, on kids, youth and families in the pandemic.

GLOBALWEBINDEX conducted a coronavirus multi-market study based on re-contacting 13,000 of its core respondents across 13 markets and which focused on attitudes towards, and responses to, the pandemic.

HALL & PARTNERS is running a weekly research tracker to monitor consumer attitudes and behaviour in the US, Italy, China, the UK, Germany, Spain, France, South Korea, Brazil and Australia.

INNOVATEMR has completed two waves of an ongoing US consumer study on perceptions, the impact on purchasing, and planning for after Covid-19. The latest wave includes data on social distancing, education and entertainment.

INSIGHTS NOW has an ongoing Covid-19 tracker on clean living behaviour. The study provides insights into clean living behaviours during the pandemic by tracking behavior pre-pandemic, current short-term shifts and potential permanent changes.

INSITES CONSULTING launched a global qualitative online community with 102 consumers from 13 countries at the beginning of April. Participants discussed how their thoughts, feelings and behaviours have changed, on topics including shopping, self-care, the environment and everyday life. 

INSTAR tracked healthcare professionals’ feedback on market research during Covid-19. The company surveyed 2,400 physicians across 13 countries and 18 specialisms.

INSTITUTE OF PRACTITIONERS IN ADVERTISING has published data from its TouchPoints project, which delivers an in-depth comparison of consumers’ lives and their media use pre-and post-lockdown. 

IPSOS is tracking public perceptions and behavioural response in 12 markets. The weekly data includes behaviours, financial impact, countermeasures and attitudes/fears.

IPSOS RETAIL PERFORMANCE has created a weekly bulletin to show the impact of Covid-19 on UK high streets. The analysis is based on footfall data from 4,000 non-food retailers, and compares year-on-year data. 

ISLAND GLOBAL RESEARCH has fortnightly surveys on the impact of Covid-19 on people living in the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Data collection commenced in the week of 23rd March, and cover topics such as impact on lifestyle and wellbeing, work and business, household income, education and how the situation in the islands compares to the UK. 

KADENCE INTERNATIONAL ran a two-week pandemic point of view online community in partnership with 2020 Research. The community brings together 30 US consumers representing a broad range of ages from New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.

KANTAR has launched a Covid-19 Barometer focused on consumer behaviour and brand expectations. The research surveys 25,000 consumers across 30 markets. The company has also launched a public opinion survey of 7,000 participants in the G7 nations, exploring how citizens view their governments’ actions. Kantar has released the results of a study on global English language social media mentions about what people are looking forward to after Covid-19 – the results were collected between 24 March and 4 May 2020.

KASI INSIGHT has launched a Covid-19 survey to track African consumer attitudes and behaviours. The company is conducting 3,200 interviews across South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon. Findings from the survey are published in a free monthly report.

KELTON GLOBAL has run a 20-minute online survey with 1,895 American adults about the pandemic.

KOKORO’s ‘CoronaWatch’ international sentiment tracker covers the UK, Germany, France and the US. It measures overall sentiment towards the virus and the way in which governments, councils, media and brands are dealing with it, and other questions including: feelings associated with the virus, actions taken to prevent it, and changes in consumption patterns. The company is also running a qualitative video study with 12 participants in the UK. 

LEGER is conducting a weekly survey of Americans and Canadians to explore topics including fear of the virus, views on whether the response to the pandemic is proportionate, and how much of a threat they feel the outbreak poses. 

LIVING BRANDS has completed the first wave of a UK tracker to understand how Covid-19 is impacting people’s views of brands and reshaping their expectations of business. The study draws on both qualitative and quantitative research.

LOGICA RESEARCH is running its Future of Money study every week, based on an online survey of 1,000 US adults, balanced on gender, income and generation. 

MADE YOU THINK AND RECOLLECTIVE launched a qualitative online community called Covid-19 Voices. It ran from 28^th March until 11^th April, and involved 16 UK and six international participants discussing issues including finances, food and drink and shopping during the outbreak. 

MARU has developed a daily Covid-19 tracker with results available daily in the US and Canada, and twice weekly in the UK. The research is a joint venture from Maru/Blue and Maru/Matchbox.

THE MASS OBSERVATION ARCHIVE’s project panellists are keeping diaries documenting their experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the archive has also invited the public to share their reflections of the outbreak. The archive will run its annual diary writing day on 12 May.

MEASURE PROTOCOL has surveyed users of its MSR app – 1,500 respondents between the age of 18 and 39 – about how they work and consume media during the pandemic. The company also teamed up with Decode Consulting and Garden Social Beer Garden and Kitchen and surveyed 795 adult Americans in late April 2020 to understand consumer sentiment toward local restaurants and on-site dining post-pandemic.

MESH EXPERIENCE has added questions relating to Covid-19 to its retail banking study, which tracks people’s experiences with brands in retail banking across more than 100 touchpoints using a real-time mobile survey and diary.  Weekly insights are being shared to track the changes in media consumption and response to brand messaging during coronavirus.

MINDMOVER is running a bi-weekly survey tracking the emotional state of the nation using emojis. The company also runs as daily survey called Mealtrak, which is looking at the food delivery and takeout industry and attitudes to the lockdown.

MINDSHARE surveyed a representative sample of 500 UK consumers between 20th and 23rd March, and continued it for eight weeks afterwards to track the impact of the virus on attitudes and behaviour. It covered topics including anxiety, misinformation and media consumption.

MIS has surveyed 1,500 people in a nationally representative sample about lifestyle change, public concerns, any precautions or preventative measures taken and monitoring the numbers of those diagnosed with Covid-19. A weekly newsletter will feature statistics and trends from MIS’s bi-weekly reports.

MULTISPORT RESEARCH is running a sentiment tracker looking at the mood among endurance sport athletes towards Covid-19. This covers areas such as training, attitudes to racing and gear expenditure.

NIELSEN is tracking the impact of Covid-19 on FMCG, retail and media. 

OFCOM is conducting a weekly online survey of 2,000 respondents to explore the access, consumption and engagement with news and information. The research will be published as part of the organisation’s Making Sense of Media programme. 

OFFICE FOR NATIONAL STATISTICS has launched a new online survey to analyse the impact of Covid-19. The Business Impact of Coronavirus Study will run fortnightly and measure the virus’s impact on the workforce, including working from home, furloughing and changes in employee numbers. This is in addition to a number of other articles about the pandemic published by the ONS.

ONEMS has set up an eight-week Covid-19 study, which it says is a deep dive online qualitative panel featuring 12 households. 

ONEPOLL has conducted research to explore the uptake of gaming during the outbreak, including virtual gaming such as Formula 1’s screening of the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix.

OPINIUM has been conducting research every three weeks in the UK and US into consumer attitudes and behaviours, including towards brand marketing and communications, the impact on mental health, spending and financial confidence. They have also conducted research on the impact the pandemic is having on investment behaviour, renters and SMEs. Social and political research on support for the government, different social distancing measures and adherence to existing measures is released weekly in partnership with the Observer.

PEEK CONTENT is conducting mobile qualitative studies in the UK and Italy using its Field Notes smartphone app. In the UK, the research includes a 70+ community, a self-employed community and a mass mainstream community.

PEOPLE FOR RESEARCH surveyed more than 2,500 UK households between 17th and 20th June on whether they would be comfortable participating in face-to-face research following Covid-19, with around 72% of people in favour,

PHOENIX is monitoring the impact of the outbreak on advertising, TV engagement and ad memorability. It is also running weekly surveys to measure consumer sentiment including financial and economic outlook. 

PLAY MR is tracking Australian consumer behaviour in response to Covid-19 weekly.

POPULUS GROUP is running a weekly Covid-19 tracker measuring the public’s responses to five questions related to the virus, with a focus on what it means for brands. It is also tracking how well organisations such as the government, the NHS and others are seen to have responded.

PRODEGEMR is running a series of weekly reports on Covid-19 and the effects on consumer behaviour.

PROQUO AI has carried out a study of 1,875 UK participants using its brand management platform. The research explored people’s attitudes towards the government and its handling of the Covid-19 situation, and compared it to how people in Spain, Italy, France, China and the US feel their governments have fared.

PULSAR published Mapping the New Normal, showing trends in the global reaction and response to Covid-19. The analysis is based on millions of online conversations across social media, search, forums and news websites. There are two initial projects: a #NewNormal dashboard identifying and tracking emerging trends in consumer behaviour; and an Italian and Spanish barometer run in partnership with the publisher Hearst indexing how people are feeling and behaving during the lockdown. 

QUADRANGLE is running digital focus groups every Thursday with pre-family, family and post-family participants, to explore topics including shopping, money management, health and wellbeing and trust in brands. 

RAKUTEN INSIGHT has surveyed 81,600 respondents across China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, the UK and Vietnam and has published a report on the findings. The company also runs regular Covid-19 surveys in APAC, UK and the US to compare how people are responding to the virus. 

RARE has launched a tracker to measure changes in people’s feelings, social habits, sense of community and consumer behaviour across various consumer sectors including retail, entertainment, food and alcohol. The company is sampling 1,000 participants weekly, and is also starting a qualitative consumer group.

RED C RESEARCH is running a qualitative tracker with families, called Families@Home, in the UK, France and Italy. The study is running for six weeks, with children aged 0-17 with their families, exploring topics including media behaviour and screen time, home schooling and changing play patterns. Themed chapters are released weekly. RED C is working with 2b in Italy and JuniorCity in France, with Further providing its Together platform.

RESPONDI has set up a lockdown diary series, which captures, in real time, the consequences of the current Covid-19 pandemic using quantitative and passive metering methodologies. The series, which has five entries so far, looks at how people are coping, how habits are changing and the differences and similarities across France, Germany and the UK.

SAPIO RESEARCH has launched a business opinion poll to gauge companies’ reactions to the pandemic. 

SAVANTA is conducting various trackers on the pandemic, including a daily tracker of UK adults, a weekly tracker of UK and US consumers, trackers covering businesses in the UK (bi-weekly) and US (weekly), and a quarterly omnibus focused on millionaires in the UK, US and China. 

SCOTINFORM  has begun a cultural survey covering museums, galleries, wildlife attractions, theatres and gardens. The survey is aksing people in Scotland what they are missing during the pandemic and what they think about visiting in the future. 

SOCRATIC is running a Covid-19 omnibus survey to track people’s routines and behaviours during the current period of social distancing in the US. The findings will be updated every two weeks.

SPARKLER has launched an insight study combining qualitative and quantitative methodologies with a 40-person online community and a 1,000 person national representative survey. Findings are published in weekly articles.

STREETBEES’ Covid-19 Human Impact Tracker currently includes 10,000 responses across 10 countries and is measuring sentiment and changes in consumption and shopping habits.

SYNTHESIO has been working with its parent company, Ipsos, to track all online Covid-19 conversations since the beginning of the outbreak.

SYSTEM1 is running a weekly 12-country tracker looking at various metrics including national mood, topical issues such as routine changes and deeper dives on specific aspects of the crisis. It will also cover ads and initiatives, using data from the company’s ad testing service. 

SYSTRA is running a survey of UK adults to assess the impact of Covid-19 on working and travel patterns, and perceptions on how this might influence future behaviours, including public transport use.

TALKWATER has published a number of free resources about current trends around Covid-19, including a global report updated daily, a daily newsletter and reports on specific industries affected by the pandemic, such as healthcare, e-commerce and consumer packaged goods.

TAPESTRY RESEARCH has launched the Pandemic Profiles: a US and UK-wide segmentation, defined by how consumers feel right now, how things have changed day-to-day, and what their future outlook is like. The study will help brands to understand how to adapt their tone and messaging, as well as what sort of TV and news content consumers want to see. The study will be re-fielded over coming months to monitor shifts in segment sizes over time.

TOLUNA & HARRIS INTERACTIVE are conducting a bi-weekly Coronavirus Barometer with consumers in 18 countries. Topics include the impact of working from home on productivity and health, support from employers, governments and local communities, and post-virus life changes. 

TOTAL BRAIN has partnered with One Mind at Work to release Mental Health Index: U.S. Worker Edition, which will monitor mental health during the pandemic. Results will be measured and reported monthly in an ongoing series from May 2020. 

TWO EARS ONE MOUTH’s UK Consumer Sentiment Tracker runs weekly, measuring concern levels, drivers of concern, what the nation feels brands should be doing to best handle the situation, planned consumption behaviour, and additional tailored questions to track the latest developments. 

VERTO ANALYTICS has launched a longitudinal click-stream and shopping tracker using its cross-device meter panel in the US. The tracker offers insight by category on daily and weekly changes in consumer buying on Walmart, Amazon, and Target and how this has evolved during the outbreak period.  

PAUL VITTLES is running continuous online forums for the NHS and the Zero Suicide Alliance to monitor ‘the lived crisis experience’ and have a rolling evaluation for optimal mental health and suicide prevention during the Covid-19 restrictions.

VOXPOPME has collected video feedback on topics including social distancing, isolation and working from home using its on-demand communities. The library of responses is available open-source on the Voxpopme platform.

VOX POPS INTERNATIONAL has conducted weekly video diaries with six millennial consumers during the first few weeks of the outbreak.  

WALNUT UNLIMITED is now tracking Covid-19 attitudes and behaviours through its regular study, which looks at issues including mental and physical health, financial certainty and household finances. 

WESTCO COMMUNICATIONS has launched a research project specifically focused on local government, tracking behaviours, concerns and support for residents and businesses in different boroughs. The study has launched for Westminster City Council, with other local authorities to follow.

WHICH? is conducting a fortnightly tracking survey with its online panel of 30,000 members and members of the public. The survey covers topics including travel, insurance, money, health, lifestyle and groceries.

YOUGOV has launched a tracker covering 26 markets, with results forming part of a larger survey series. Topics include awareness and level of fear of catching the virus, behaviour changes such as wearing face masks, and changes to planned activity.

YOUGOV & IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON have partnered to study global behavioural changes. The research will cover 29 markets and interview around 30,000 people weekly to provide behavioural analysis on how different populations are responding to the pandemic.

ZAPPI conducted research in the US, UK, China, Italy and Mexico to re-test 26 concepts and advertisements across six consumer categories. The analysis compared the results of the original research with the re-tests to establish how the outbreak has affected survey responses.

3GEM RESEARCH & INSIGHTS is running regular coronavirus surveys in the UK, covering both business decision-makers and consumers.  

56 DEGREE INSIGHT has launched the Scottish Tourism Index to monitor the views of Scots about holidays and leisure during the Covid-19 pandemic.