The online survey business is growing exponentially, but while they may be easier to conduct and extract data from, a Toronto-based marketing firm claims that their findings do not necessarily provide a complete picture of respondents’ true attitudes.
BigReach Learning, a new company headed by former MediaCom Canada managing director Maura Hanley, has developed a survey model called FacesofChange that combines traditional panel surveys with face-to-face video interviews to provide what Hanley describes as the “whole picture” about consumer attitudes and behaviours.
According to BigReach’s press materials, this melding of quantitative and qualitative research is designed to challenge assumptions, uncover hidden insights about consumer attitudes and activities, and tell a “compelling story” using the power of both statistics and video.
BigReach recently conducted a launch study in association with the youth marketing and research firm Studentawards Inc. It found there are often discrepancies between what people say in online surveys and what they reveal during face-to-face interviews.
The study combined findings from an online study of 1,225 Canadians 18-24 with in-person video interviews with 23 people.
While the panel survey found that 76% of young adults were concerned about online privacy in general – with 60% agreeing that they were concerned about the use of non-personally identifiable information being used to target them with advertising – the subsequent in-person interviews found that while they do wish to avoid spam advertising, young people tend to accept the use of non-personally identifiable information by advertisers as commonplace.
“We still had a majority of people saying ‘Yes I’m concerned,’ but when I talked to that group and they kind of thought about it, they really weren’t as concerned,” said Hanley. “They said things like ‘It’s pretty commonplace, I don’t really mind. I see targeted ads on Facebook and I’m the one that put that information there.’ It was kind of ‘This is the way things are and it doesn’t really bother me that much.’”
The in-person interviews also found that students are receptive to seeing ads that relate to their interests, and are more likely to notice ads that are relevant to their lives.
Among the media behaviours captured by the FacesofChange study: more people between 18-24 watch TV shows on their computer than they do on either their personal or shared TV.
That statistic is augmented by the recorded video interviews, in which one participant states: “I watch a lot of HBO shows and Showtime shows that I don’t get on cable – I download them or I get the DVDs and put them on my computer and hook my computer up to my TV so I can watch on the bigger screen.”
