Archive for the ‘Mobile’ Category
Geofencing Part III: Key Considerations
In our final installment, Allen discusses some of the implications of geofencing from battery drain to privacy concerns.
How do we address privacy concerns?
It is completely understandable that some people may have privacy concerns associated with geofencing. The way we address these concerns is by being fully transparent about exactly what information is collected. By educating users, we empower them to decide if and when they would like to participate, and are able to preserve their privacy choices. Our Mobile ArmyTM is our most valuable asset, and we take all steps possible to preserve our relationship.
Does geofencing cause significant battery drain?
Any app that uses your device’s location will cause battery drain. The more frequently that app checks your location, the more battery it will drain. After months of development and testing, however, we have established a geofencing solution that has almost no noticeable effect on battery life. To date, we have not received a single complaint regarding battery life from any one of our mobile audience members. If you are considering running a geofencing project, be sure to ask the technology provider what steps they have taken (if any) to preserve battery life, and then download their app so you can experience it yourself (more to come in a future blog by uSamp’s Co-founder & President, Gregg Lavin).
Geofencing Part II: Delivering Real-Time Insights
In Part I of our Mobile Research Trends series, Don’t Mess with the Geofence, our Director of Mobile Products for uSamp, Allen Vartazarian lays the groundwork for geofencing. Here, he explores some of the various applications, and we begin to see how geofencing might be the best way to capture in-the-moment insights.
One of advertising’s greatest pain points is measuring ad effectiveness from the point of impact to the point of purchase. What if we said that geofencing could link an ad’s influence to purchase behavior? Geofencing is a powerful tool that can provide this feedback while adding a whole new dimension to mobile research. Here are some ways that we are using geofencing to provide valuable insights today:
- Out-Of-Home Ad Effectiveness: By setting geofences around out-of-home advertisements, we know when someone in our Mobile Army™ (our robust mobile audience), is nearby and “exposed” to the ad. By setting geofences around specific businesses, agencies can better gauge ad effectiveness by comparing store visitation of exposed consumers to those who were not exposed.
- Real-time Feedback: Whether it be a trip to the grocery store, or a movie that just came out, its imperative to gather feedback as close to the time of the experience as possible. With geofencing, we can trigger an alert as someone enters or exits a location with an invitation to answer a few questions while the experience is still fresh in one’s mind.
- User Behavior Monitoring: We can track store visits, time on site and other key metrics vital to retailers and advertisers. Combining this with other collected data, i.e. web-browsing and purchase activity, helps identify the true impact of the OOH ad exposure.
These are just a few examples of geofencing applications. Imagine how geofencing can apply to competitive analysis, field research and in-store missions. The opportunities will continue to grow with the technology and methodology. Geofencing is truly an innovative method for gaining insight into customer behavior because researchers no longer have to rely on a user’s activation since surveys can now be automatically triggered.
Our final post will explore some of the challenges seen with geofencing, what can be done to address them, and why 2013 is the year of mobile maturity.
Geofencing Part I: Don’t Mess With The Fence
What will be the next smartphone feature that will be differentiating and cool? Seeking Alpha Blog
At the intersection of the physical and virtual world lies a mobile capability called geofencing. A context aware app that reminds you to pick up your laundry as soon as you approach the drycleaners on the way home from work? Brilliant? Scary? We asked Director of Product for uSamp Mobile, Allen Vartazarian to explain the basics of the phenomenon, address privacy concerns, the trouble with battery drain, key applications and why geofencing has finally arrived in 2013.
Q: Can you explain geofencing to the layman?
A: Geofencing is a technology that provides the ability to create a virtual fence around a geographic location in the real world. Smartphones that are location-enabled can detect when someone enters or exits these fences, which can be as large as a city block or as small as a retail store.
Q: How exactly does geofencing work?
A: In order to create a geofence, we first determine the latitude and longitude of a particular location, or set of locations. We then assign the radius of the geofences depending on the type of location. If we were to geofence a supermarket chain, for example, we might set a radius of 200 meters, but for coffee shops we would only set a radius of about 30 meters.
Once set, the location and radii of these geofences is communicated to the smartphone of those who have our mobile app installed. When and if the person then crosses into one of the fences, we record the date, time, and latitude/longitude of the event. In addition to logging this information, we can also choose to trigger a notification to the person, linking them to a survey within our app.
Q: How accurate is geofencing?
A: Geofencing is relatively (but not 100%) accurate. Though we can be very specific about defining the criteria for each geofence, there are certain technical limitations in the way that a smartphone determines your location, especially when the device is not actively being used (like when its in your purse or your pocket). Nonetheless, we are able to get a general understanding of someone’s location and can set an acceptable location accuracy threshold when attempting to understand when someone is within a geofence or not.
In a recent project, we setup geofences around a national fast food restaurant chain which triggered an alert asking if the person was dining there: over 80% of respondents said that they were at the location, with the remainder likely being at a store next door.
Stay tuned for Part II where Allen will address the applications of geofencing.
Is Mobile The Key To Researching Emerging Markets?
Where consumerism leads, brands follow, and where brands go, so marketing research goes. – Ben Leet
Image Source: www.ericsson.com
Catch them if you can. Consumers are notoriously hard to read, which is why most research spend goes toward cracking the code. Up until now, the focus has been heavily weighted toward consumers in developed countries – after all, they are the first target of most manufacturers. Reaching the consumers in developing countries has been more of a challenge, and researchers have continued to rely heavily on face-to-face to get proper representation. Until today.
In an article for MRA’s Alert! Magazine, uSamp’s Ben Leet expounds on why mobile will be the tipping point. With the high penetration of smart phones in countries like India coupled with new technologies like geofencing, there is a new opportunity for researchers to bypass online methodologies and go straight to data collection via mobile. As Leet describes, “It’s almost a self-fulfilling prophecy; with increased consumerism comes an increase in smart phone penetration, and with it, the ability for researchers to reach new audiences.”
Leet goes on to highlight trends he believe will emerge in the next 12 to 18 months:
- Mobile as a multiple methodology – app-based and mobile Web unite!
- More research spend devoted to emerging countries – propelled by end clients pushing for more insight into this untapped resource
His article begs the question: Should researchers skip online sampling methodologies and go straight to smartphone in emerging countries?
Value Co-Creation: Mobile Consumers, Smarter Brands
by Jacob Tucker, Research Analyst, uSamp
In 2013, consumers have become primary drivers of content, of product and of brand. Able to upload user-generated video to YouTube and broadcast affinities to Twitter fans, consumers have overturned the traditional model where a business builds a product in silo and offers it up to consumers. Sound archaic?
Recognizing this new, “empowered consumer,” many brands have turned to value co-creation or crowdsourcing. By involving the consumer in the creative process the brand temporarily suspends authority, and collaborates with the consumer in an effort to co-create the product. In this collaborative process, value is driven by the people instead of appropriated by businesses.
In the market research industry, value co-creation has been facilitated through survey research. IHUT (In Home Usage Testing) and diary studies are just a few examples that enable researchers to see through a consumer’s eyes. Yet the industry still has a long way to go in order to truly leverage the value of co-creation. To get there, we need to reach consumers whenever, wherever, while respecting their privacy. We want that front-of-mind, in-the-moment view of their experiences at a sensory level.
Can Tablet, TV, and Mobile Get Along? Understanding Cross-Platform Viewing Behavior in 2013
With an estimated 219.4 million viewers, the London Olympics were the most-watched television event in U.S. History. In its broadcast of the event, NBCUniversal bet on a triple strategy of live Web streaming, live cable coverage, and tape-delay broadcast—an approach that would challenge old assumptions about when, where, and how audiences are engaged.
As a key participant in NBCUniversal’s Billion Dollar Olympics Lab research initiative, uSamp applied its consumer insights platform, to track consumers’ real-time reactions, sentiment and behavior during the Games.
Before the 2012 Olympics, broadcasters had assumed that a smaller number of viewers would watch primetime Olympic coverage if they knew the results before airing. Survey results by uSamp revealed the opposite to be true. uSamp suggested that the multiple platform strategy made it more likely that people would watch primetime coverage—not less. NBC Olympics Digital set records with engagement time, live video streams and page views, while NBCOlympics.com, its mobile site and apps, delivered unparalleled engagement, traffic and consumption.
The lessons of the 2012 Olympics illustrate how the convergence of mobile, online, and broadcast platforms is shaping behavior as consumers interact with multiple touchpoints.
What can broadcasters/marketers/consumer tech companies take away from this scenario? And how will it change in 2013?
For the full case study, please contact lauren@usamp.com.
Mobile Mindshare and The Future of Consumer Insights
by Jacob Tucker, Research Analyst, uSamp
Over the past few decades, bulky desktops have been swapped out for sleek tablets, Walkmans (remember those?) discarded for iPods, and news consolidated into microblogs. In this age of continuous innovation, new technology loses its shelf life quickly. In the Market Research space alone, the methods for gathering insights have gone from a clipboard to a smartphone.
Research professionals, in the advent of big data, have found the need to dig deeper into the psyche of respondents, to see things through their vantage point, and to capture their behavioral experiences (in real-time). While this may sound like a tall order, the availability of the mobile platform puts these previously unattainable insights within reach. Read the rest of this entry »
Will Market Research Still Exist In 20 Years?
As published in GreenBook Blog
by Ben Leet, Sales Director, uSamp
Make no mistake, we are still at the beginning of a digital revolution. Much like the industrial revolution back in the 1700s and early 1800s when we believed steam power was the pinnacle of technological achievement, so today we are in that phase where we believe the Internet and mobile technology are the limits of human capability. Do I know what’s coming next? If I did, I would be a wealthy man, but I would nonetheless bet money that the digital revolution is still in its infancy, with many changes and challenges still ahead of us.
With new technology comes new applications, ideas, concepts. We in MR talk regularly about “mobile research”, “social media monitoring”, “big data”, and many others, as we seek to use these new tools for a commercial advantage, to offer something new, to convince a client that working with our company is good because we are innovative and forward thinking. However at this point it is worth mentioning that online research is no longer seen as innovative, it’s the norm for an ever increasing amount of our industry spend, which is why “online” is no longer an industry buzzword.
Retailers, Meet Man’s New Best Friend, Mobile [INFOGRAPHIC]
Men Are Bigger Mobile Shoppers Than Women
As the iPhone 5 enters the marketplace, uSamp decided to look at the mobile shopping habits of 1,100 men and woman, ages 18 – 75. The survey was conducted using uSamp Mobile, a platform that blends uSamp’s mobile survey technology with their targeted audience to gain consumer and business insights.
It turns out that men and woman practice much of their mobile shopping while they are out and about. According to the results, 12% of woman find themselves shopping on their mobile devices while in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. On the other hand, 25% of men most frequently shop on mobile while at the office.
The survey found that men are more likely than woman to purchase items over their mobile devices. What items are they buying?
- 27% of males purchase consumer electronics on mobile vs. 8% of females
- 23% of males purchase movie and event tickets on mobile vs. 11% of females
- 30% of males purchase digital content on mobile vs. 20% of females
- 13% of males purchase food and drinks on mobile vs. 8% of females
- 8% of males purchase office supplies on mobile vs. 4% of females
Why Consumer is King: Moving with our Mobile Market
by Ben Leet, Sales Director, uSamp
Texting on the Tube (Photo credit: Annie Mole)
It is the summer of 2012. As I sit on a busy train during my morning commute, fellow passengers are glued to their mobile devices – almost all smartphones. Most people are not talking on these phones. They are pinching and scrolling, browsing and thumbing. They are streaming information as fast as it’s released- a visual sign of the future of human behaviour. In fact, scrap “future” – it’s here, right now, and is only expected to proliferate. So I wonder why we continue to question whether our industry should adopt mobile research as a core methodology?
English: Forecasts for mobile and desktop Internet, original data from Morgan Stanley report on mobile Internet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Morgan Stanley predicts that the number of searches done on mobile handsets will overtake those done by PC in the next year. Others posture that the mobile internet will overtake desktop internet usage within three years. Alarming though this sounds, it’s a real environment for the consumer – they, we, have the internet in our pockets 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. Why would we open up a PC or notebook to do our browsing, surfing, buying, networking, organising when we can do it with just a few clicks without moving from our chairs?
So what does this all mean for the MR industry?
