pr genome series: gamification of research

THE GAMIFICATION OF RESEARCH

Ryan Cohn & Karen Cyphers

Sachs Media Group

SachsMedia.com

presents

HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED TO…

Measure Attitudes Before & After a Campaign?

HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED TO…

Identify the Most Captivating News Hook?

HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED TO…

Create Branded Content that Engages Audiences

(and Measure its Effectiveness)

HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED TO…

Collect Consumer Data that Drives Strategy or Stimulates Interest in a Story

IF YOUR ANSWER IS YES…

ADD GAMIFIED SURVEYS TO YOUR PR TOOLKIT

BUT WHAT’S A GAMIFIED SURVEY?

A GAMIFIED SURVEY IS…

½ PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY

½ INTERNET PERSONALITY QUIZ

WHERE THE CONCEPT CAME FROM…

Traditional Polling is Dead

IT’S TIME TO REINVENT POLLINGSource: Pew 2012 regarding telephone surveys

TO REINVENT POLLING…

We Looked to Today’s Top Media Trends:

• Engaging Branded Content

• Data & Measurement

• Sharing with Friends

• Social Gaming

WE LOOKED TO INTERNET QUIZZES…

Willingly, without concern, & the feeling of being burdened, we tell internet quizzes a lot about us…

• How often we drink alcohol

• Relationship status

• Politicians we admire

• What we'd do on a rainy day

• Music preferences, vacation dreams, turnoffs, athletic skills

• How we’d react if punched in the face at a bar for no reason

AND WE WONDERED…

Could an offshoot of internet quizzes

provide a reliable and lower-cost

alternative to traditional surveys?

INTERNET QUIZZES VS. SURVEYS

Experience of taking traditional surveys (boooring!) differs from playful internet quizzes

• Survey respondents aware answers are collected to inform outside parties

• Quiz takers see participation as voluntary and intrinsically enjoyable

GAMIFICATION MAKES QUIZZES FUN

Gamification is "the concept of applying game

mechanics and game design techniques to engage

and motivate people to achieve their goals.”

Examples of Gamification driving engagement: • Frequent Flier programs• Nike+ apps that track and share user fitness goals• Wide applications in education • Hybrid vehicles nudging drivers toward a driving style with

high fuel efficiency

GAME DYNAMICS FOUND IN QUIZZES

• Achievement (What’s the Goal?)

• Self-Expression / Storytelling

• Social Competition, Pride & Envy

• Escapism

– Imaginative Topics

– Bold Imagery

A BIG DIFFERENCE:

Quizzes have an INSTANT OUTPUT: • Tell you something about yourself

• Enable you to share that insight with friends

Doing so increases likelihood of others taking the quiz

UNTESTED GROUND

There’s little doubt that potential exists for using internet quizzes for purposes beyond “fun”

…but until we began field tests, these potentials were largely hypothetical.

CLICK BAIT

To date, BuzzFeed, PlayBuzz, etc. do not sell quiz result data or make it available to marketers

Quizzes are click bait to increase website traffic or social conversation about products/brands

FOR EXAMPLE...

"Which Sound of Music

Character Are You?” quiz

posted before "The Sound of

Music” show opening

= 480K visitors + 300K

Facebook likes & shares

HBO’s "How Would You Die in

Game of Thrones” Buzzfeed

quiz = 1M+ visitors

“What Country in the World

Best Fits Your Personality?” =

7.3 million unique views & 2.3

million Facebook shares

Quizzes lead in social shares

BUT HOW ACCURATE IS THE DATA?

Quizzes are useful tools in social media/marketing, but…

How does data from fun quizzes compare to

data from more traditional survey methods?

What can we learn from online quizzes to help

develop a different, innovative model for reliable

survey research?

THE GAMIFIED SURVEY

Our methodology draws on best of traditional survey

research and internet personality quizzes:

“Gamified" survey compels participants with

interesting, instant outputs

AND maintains the ability to collect kinds of

data needed for more serious research

TESTING THE THEORY

As the following results will demonstrate, “Gamified Surveys”

are equally if not more successful platforms for gathering data,

demographic info included.

Conducted 3 simultaneous surveys with same questions:

1. Traditional survey offering $100 gift card as incentive

2. Fun-style personality quiz with results shareable via social

3. Fun-style personality quiz with identical question wording

to traditional survey with results shareable via social

METHODOLOGY

First, we compared data from two Gamified surveys

Then, we compared gamified results to traditional results

AN EXAMPLE:

Traditional Personality Quiz Gamified Survey

GAMIFIED SURVEYS AREFASTER, CHEAPER & EQUAL IN QUALITY

Cost Per Complete$0.00

$0.50

$1.00

$1.50

$2.00

$2.50

$0.26

$0.45

$1.99

Completion Rate75%

80%

85%

90%

95%

100%

99% 99%

85%

1-Hit WonderAfterlifeTraditional

GAMIFIED DATA WORKS:COMPARING DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Age composition • Traditional surveys struggle to get mix of younger respondents

– Not a problem with Gamified surveys

Traditional Gamified U.S. Population 18+ 0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

55+ 35-54 18-34

GAMIFIED DATA WORKS:COMPARING DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Regional composition

No statistically significant

differences between Gamified

and Traditional performance.

GAMIFIED DATA WORKS:COMPARING DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Educational composition

GAMIFIED DATA WORKS:COMPARING DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Political Orientation

Consistent ratios of self-reported liberals, moderates and conservatives between surveys.

Gamified Traditional 0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Extremely Conservative

Conservative

Slightly Conservative

Moderate

Slightly Liberal

Liberal

Extremely Liberal

GAMIFIED DATA WORKS:COMPARING SUBSTANTIVE RESPONSE DATA

“If you were given a large lump sum of money that you

had to spend on yourself, how would you spend most of it?”

o On durable, tangible things (e.g. cars, jewelry, electronics)

o On non-durable things that created experiences (e.g. taking vacations, entertainment, dining out) "1-Hit

Wonder""Afterlife" Gamified

Combined Traditional

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Non-Durable Durable

GAMIFIED DATA WORKS:COMPARING SUBSTANTIVE RESPONSE DATA

“Do you feel that torture of suspected terrorists can be often justified, sometimes justified, rarely justified, or never justified?”

% who report “somewhat” or “often justified”

Gamified 1 Gamified 2 Gamified Combined Traditional

Among conservatives 39% 41% 40% 40%

Among women 61% 59% 60% 60%

GAMIFIED DATA WORKS:COMPARING SUBSTANTIVE RESPONSE DATA

“If your life at age 21 were made into a sitcom, which of the following actors would be most likely cast as "you"?”

5%10%

44%2

%

3%

8%

22%

6%

Gamified (Women)

Michael Cera

Jim Carrey

Reece Witherspoon

The Rock

John Cho

Beyonce

Winona Ryder

Lucy Liu

5%9%

40%

2%2%

9%

27%

8%

Traditional (Women)

Michael Cera

Jim Carrey

Reece Witherspoon

The Rock

John Cho

Beyonce

Winona Ryder

Lucy Liu

GAMIFIED DATA WORKS:COMPARING SUBSTANTIVE RESPONSE DATA

22%

36%

3%

18%

16%

3% 2%

Gamified (Men)

Michael Cera

Jim Carrey

Reece With-erspoon

The Rock

John Cho

Beyonce

Winona Ryder

Lucy Liu

20%

38%1%

24%

15%

1% 2%

Traditional (Men)

Michael Cera

Jim Carrey

Reece With-erspoon

The Rock

John Cho

Beyonce

Winona Ryder

Lucy Liu

THIS REALLY WORKS!

• People will share accurate personal information more

easily through internet quizzes than traditional surveys

• “Gamified Surveys” produce comparably useful data,

more efficiently & cost-effectively than traditional surveys

• Essential to the performance of gamified surveys are:– Ensuring participation by a balanced sample which can be achieved in

many different ways (oversampling, quota sampling, etc) – The development of dedicated software that maximizes sharability,

user-friendliness, and back-room data collection

USING GAMIFIED SURVEYS TO…

Measure Attitudes Before & After a Campaign

USING GAMIFIED SURVEYS TO…

Identify the Most Captivating News Hook

HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED TO…

Create Engaging

Branded Content (and Measure its

Effectiveness)

HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED TO…

Collect Consumer Data that Drives Strategy

HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED TO…

Collect Consumer Data that Drives Strategy

HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED TO…

Collect Consumer Data that Drives Strategy

QUESTIONS?

Ryan Cohn & Karen Cyphers

RyanC@SachsMedia.com

Karen@SachsMedia.com

@RyanCohn @KarenCyphers