When an agency is hired to develop an ad campaign, the first objective they must achieve is to develop a creative brief that will serve as the foundation for the entire campaign, whether specific ads are executed in video, TV, radio, print, or other.  But the question is “on what basis is the creative brief designed?” 

Just like many large organizations do before leadership decides to allocate large amounts of budget to, say, designing new products and services, market research is conducted among members of a target population to guide and inform decisions about whether new products are ready for market rollout, or need to be revised, or need to be scrapped.  This way, research is used as an insurance policy against large budget expenditures that will not pan out in driving revenue for the organization.

Ad campaigns also are large expenditures.  As such, they should be market tested before their communications are made public.  Surely, research studies like storyboard copy testing are carried out, but these “test stimuli” are already based on what the ad agency has delivered as a creative brief.  Unless the brief is also market tested, the agency, and its client will begin to develop and monitor executions that may well be based on incorrect messaging strategies, thus rendering any executions sub-optimal.

Accelerant Research has designed a quantitative study that directly informs the development of a creative brief by integrating “tried and true” survey construction and multivariate analytic techniques as follows:

Informed Ballot and Multiple Regression
This technique is borrowed from political opinion polling surveys where the first question is “if the elections were held today, for whom would you vote?”  Following this question is a set of intervening questions based on key political issues about which the candidate may be pro or con, e.g., “If you knew that Candidate X was tough on crime, would that make you more or less likely to vote for him/her?”  Finally, the first question about for whom the respondent would vote is asked again.  With these data in hand, important measurements may be performed. 

First, a pre-post assessment may be made on comparing the % likelihood of voting for Candidate X.  This analysis will show whether the array of intervening survey questions can effectively create more positive consideration toward the candidate, overall.  Second, the intervening questions can be used as independent variables in a multiple regression analysis, with pre-post change in consideration as the dependent variable.  By examining the relative beta weights of each intervening question, those with the strongest association with positive change in candidate consideration may be identified and cherry-picked to serve as the foundation for the candidates’ foundational political campaign.

Adapting Consideration Driver Research to a Creative Brief for Advertising
Applying the above outlined techniques to inform advertising campaigns is relatively simple and straightforward.  Taking the “who will you vote for” question, it is modified to be something like “how likely are you to consider Brand X when you want to purchase Product/Service Y?”  This single question, in this form, will serve as the pre- and post- measures of the amount of change in positive consideration.  Regarding the intervening survey items, these are made up of a set of functional and emotional attributes about the brand and its products or services under study.  Again, multiple regression analysis can be performed to isolate which functional and which emotional attributes drive the most positive change in consideration.  Additionally, regression can also reveal the optimal mix of specific emotional and functional attributes that should be used to inform the foundational creative brief and associated ad campaign, i.e., what to say in an ad.

The figure below shows a standard visualization of a Consideration Driver study, based on mock data:

Consideration Driver research is uniquely designed to inform creative briefs.  Organizations and advertising agencies both can embrace this methodology to ensure that brand messaging will have the benefit of being tested to inform the overarching strategies that become the foundation of subsequent ad executions.  Feel free to contact Accelerant Research (info@accelerantresearch.com) for a more in-depth discussion of the ins and outs of this sort of work.

The market research & insights industry is buzzing with excitement over newly emerging and horizon applications of artificial intelligence (AI), and rightfully so.  Machine learning, when applied to open-end coding, data processing, survey programming/administration, participant sourcing, and even quantitative/qualitative interviewing is sure to have a lasting impact on helping us deliver faster, higher quality insights at lower costs. However, arguably the biggest impact that AI has had on the insights industry to-date is one that all research practitioners and end-users should be very afraid of, and one that we’re not talking nearly enough about…SURVEY BOTS.
In a nutshell, survey bots are programs/algorithms that allow for automated completion of online surveys.  In most cases, bots are a means for unscrupulous programmers to rack up cash, rewards, and sweepstakes entries for participating in paid research studies without actually taking the time to share honest opinions.  On the surface, these ‘participants’ look to have qualified for and legitimately completed a survey, but the validity of their survey data is complete garbage.  These bots are becoming more prevalent and more sophisticated and should be an obsession of the insights industry to weed out.  For a fun, fear-inducing exercise, Google the term Survey Bot.  What you would hope to see in your results is a collection of market research and academic thought leadership on how to avoid and prevent such parasites.  However, what you actually see is a laundry list of available tutorials, services, and software downloads for executing your very own bots and gaming the system.
 
It’s certainly a scary issue, but not an insurmountable one.  Clients and suppliers need to remain vigilant and work together to minimize the impact of survey bots.  A handful of effective and relatively painless techniques to do so include:​​

• reCAPTCHA – Those “I’m not a robot” widgets that we see on so many eCommerce and social media sites are quite easy to insert into most online surveys.  If you’re using a survey platform that doesn’t allow them, it may be time to start shopping for a new provider. ​​
  
• Quality control questions – A great method to help control bots (as well as to keep human participants on-task and engaged) is to pepper a handful of short quality control questions throughout your survey.  Open-ended questions and multimedia (e.g., asking respondents to listen to an audio snippet and respond) tend to be more difficult for bots to overcome.
• Rely on sample providers who are equally obsessive about data quality – Any reputable online sample provider should be working on your behalf to prevent bots from making their way into your survey.  Additionally, any that do slip through the cracks should be removed and replaced at no additional charge.
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Unfortunately, there is no catch-all solution to the issue of survey bots, which is why it’s important to take quality assurance measures during all study phases, from sample procurement to survey development/programming to data analysis.  As an industry, the best thing we can do is collectively admit that we have a problem and partner with one another to make sure we keep this issue at bay.
 
The quality control steps described above provide an example of Accelerant Research’s approach to service that we take on each project.  We sweat the details.  We invite you to request a cost estimate from us and experience the difference that we provide for yourself.  Simply give us a call (704-206-8500) or send us an email (info@accelerantresearch.com).

​It’s a great time to be a qualitative research professional.  With broadband and smartphone connectivity getting closer and closer to absolute ubiquity, and technology solutions rapidly emerging, the arsenal of weapons available to facilitate qualitative research online and via mobile devices is ever-expanding.  However, getting these studies off the ground and finding qualified/capable participants is also becoming increasingly more complicated.

When it comes to launching an online qualitative research project, identifying your target audience and choosing your desired platform are the easy parts.  However, if you don’t factor in the other logistical pitfalls that may come up during your study, a seemingly easy project can become a bit of a nightmare.  Elements to consider during the setup and recruitment of your online qual study include:

·  Requirements for platform access.  Each online qualitative research platform that’s available to you has its own architecture and (perhaps) its own limitations for access.  Certain platforms are only optimized for certain browsers, operating systems, or devices. Knowing these platform requirements (and limitations) beforehand, you can save yourself a ton of headaches and recruit only audience members who already have these features in place.  Accelerant always recommends a Tech-Check as an added step during the recruiting process, where we essentially take participants through a dress rehearsal with the platform, prior to live interviews taking place.  As a moderator, the last thing you want is to spend the first ten minutes of an interview playing the role of tech support to a participant who doesn’t have the right app downloaded or system/software update.


·  To group or not to group?  Qualitative platforms don’t always make this choice evident or obvious, so it’s important to understand whether participants will be able to see one another’s content. Groupthink and bias can be introduced by other participants and are very real phenomenon online. Similar to in person research, a study’s moderator should be sure that your audience is responding in the manner intended.


·  What’s the observer’s user experience?  While much of the emphasis in this article is on the participant, it’s important that you don’t overlook the client, since they’re the ones ultimately using these insights (and paying the bill).  When vetting platforms for your upcoming research study, you should always understand what the experience will be like for your observers.  For example, many large client organizations have IT rules in place that prevent or restrict access to certain sites or app downloads.  There’s nothing worse than discovering just before an elegant, highly-anticipated study goes live that the end client can’t access the research platform because the host site is not on the corporate IT whitelist.

As pioneers in online qualitative research, Accelerant Research is keenly aware of what factors will make for successful project setup and participant recruitment (i.e., we sweat the details).  We invite you to request a cost estimate from us as a first step and experience the difference that we provide for yourself.  Simply give us a call (704-206-8500) or send us an email (info@accelerantresearch.com).