pr genome series: gamification of research
TRANSCRIPT
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
