The webinar, which took place on Thursday 13^th November, featured research carried out across 13 countries with market research companies Toluna, Kantar and Cint to understand mobile optimisation and best practice for online surveys.

The research found that when survey respondents were asked how they spend the next five to 10 minutes, after surveys, the top uses of time were social media, video streaming, television, household chores, texting friends, playing games, reading a book or a magazine and exercise, a pattern that was consistent across age groups.

Marie Hense, global head of quality at Toluna, told the webinar: “To participate on online research, our respondents are using a device. If they are already on that device, they are not far from social media, they are not far from videos or a game.

“They can easily switch their browser, and off they go and we may have lost them. We can see the threat of immediate competition is always there.”

A third of people did something else entirely during working on a survey, with younger groups more likely to do so than older generations. For younger people, they often did a greater number of additional tasks while completing a survey, according to the research.

For listening to audio or video content in surveys, 26.26% used headphones, 31% listened directly from their device, 18.2% kept the sound off and 21.5% tailored their listening method to the situation or survey.

“What we need to remember as researchers is that we are not just competing from one survey to the next,” said Hense. “We don’t just have to be better or more engaging than the next survey; we as an industry are competing with the likes of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Netflix.

“These really highly addictive, highly designed applications that are meant to draw people in and keep them in. We need to remember that’s who we are up against when we design our surveys. We as an industry need to acknowledge and go with the time in terms of how we can retain some of that attention.”

Marina Joshi, global data collection director at Kantar, told the webinar that the results showed that 62% dropped out of a survey due to finding a different activity that they felt was more rewarding, rising to 71% among 25 to 44-year-olds.

“Competing digital distractions and time pressures are hitting younger adults hardest, and fast-growing markets such as India face the biggest challenge in keeping our participants engaged,” Joshi added.

In terms of barriers to completing surveys, 51.4% technical issues, with 49.7% disqualified or screened our and 37.5% found the survey too long. The top priorities for respondents to help them complete surveys were better incentives and a smoother survey experience.

Natasha Gay, senior research manager, customer insights at Cint, who also presented findings from the MRS research during the webinar, said that 71% of respondents felt that surveys were “more rewarding” and that they get more out of completing them than other distractions.

The most popular drivers for completing surveys were incentives or rewards, clear and easy to understand questions, and a tie between interesting topics and short and concise questions in third. Extra income ( 55.19%) was the biggest reason for completing surveys.

Globally, 73% of respondents did surveys at least once a day, with 56% several times a day.

The study included primary research data that was gathered from all three panel suppliers, and secondary research data which was carried out in the UK, US, China, Australia, France, Germany, Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, India, Indonesia and South Africa.

Primary data collection was focused on the UK, US, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and India, with around 1,500 respondents per market.