Peanut Labs and Conversition Strategies recently teamed up to contribute a presentation at the ARF Audience Measurement conference in New York. Enjoy the presentation here, along with a clip of Stacey from Peanut Labs, and a review from Mike, an intern at the ARF.
Freshly back from the 2010 ARF Audience Measurement conference, we have some fun and serious videos for you. This first one features Bob Barocci giving shout-outs to deserving presenters and organizers including Simone Moyle and Artie Bulgrin. His claim of being shy was quickly shattered as he came back to the camera several times to add more comments. More videos to follow!
In the last few days, many people have been introduced to the musical instrument called the Vuvuzela. What do we really think of it? Let’s find out! We gathered more than 25 000 verbatims that mentioned the Vuvuzela from across the internet. Then, we conducted a content analysis to evaluate how people were talking about the instrument. Here are the results:
Based strictly on how people talk, the Vuvuzela is compared to a trumpet or french horn, and is much loved in South Africa. It is well-suited to someone wearing a jersey, drinking beer, and sitting in a stadium. No surprises there! So let’s get to the facts, jack!
About 16% of people like it or love it, but about 20% of people find it annoying, offensive, irritating, and obnoxious.
12.4% of people like the sound while another 19% hate the sound. They talk about the noise, the blaring, how deafening it is, and how it can wake the dead.
When people talk about pride, 33% of them feel it is a great way to show their pride in their country but 10% think perhaps there is a better way to show your pride.
In terms of health issues, 39% of people worry about how the instrument can be damaging to hearing. But, almost 2% of people are willing to forgo their hearing for a little bit of fun.
If you couldn’t make it to MRA Boston, you missed out on a great conference! We received so many great reviews from the audience that we are very pleased to share our presentation with you here. Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions. We would love to hear from you!
One of the highlights of the MRA conference in Boston was the keynote by Adenia Cooper, of McDonalds, who shared her insights on understanding ethnic diversity. Her point was that you can’t just ‘apply diversity.’ You need to truly understand it. And, once you really understand it, and market to it, the marketing speaks volumes to everyone, not just the group of people you were initially targeting.
Adenia knows how to keep an audience engaged! One of her tricks was having an audience member sing the Big Mac song which was a great way to show the audience just how successful that campaign was.
Whether you missed out on the MRA conference, or couldn’t wake up in time to catch the 9am session, you can watch it now. Enjoy!
And, you can see more pictures of the conference on our facebook page.
After a whirlwind three days of attending sessions, meeting new and longtime friends, as well as presenting a session on the pros, cons and watch-outs of social media research, MRA’s annual conference, held this year in Boston, is now over. The MRA did an amazing job choosing the location, the munchies, the activities, and most of all, hand-picking a great selection of speakers.
Our session was a big success, and at the request of many attendees, we will be making the presentation available online soon. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, enjoy a few photos of some MRA attendees and presenters showing off their new Conversition tshirts!
Folks have been enjoying Robert Bain’s post on Research Live which blasts market researchers for using buzzwords. Why we don’t have some fun with it then! If you’re off to the MRA annual conference, we challenge YOU to play bingo with us!
Here are just a few of our favorite buzzwords. Pick your favorite 24 words, or find some better ones, and create your own BINGO card. And, make sure to build your card early so that you have the entire conference to listen for words.
Then, tweet during the day as you find your words. Be sure to use the #MRA_AC hashtag. Whoever calls bingo first just might get a prize!
Research In The Cloud
From Buzz to Biz – Social Media Research for Results
Wednesday, June 9
2:00 – 3:15 p.m. Educational Sessions
PRC: 1.25 Contact Hours in Research
This session will discuss a new methodology for marketing research. Though the Internet has made data collection via online surveys and focus groups a practical marketing research tool for over a decade, it is only in recent months that this data source has become viable. Using real data, the presenter will demonstrate how gathering and analyzing existing data from the Internet, such as is available through Facebook, Twitter, or Blogger, can reach beyond simple ‘buzz’ features to become actionable marketing research data. Pros and cons of the method will be demonstrated including research fundamentals and data quality.
In the right hands, text analytics can turn a nightmare into a dream come true. With the increasing popularity of social media research, companies are regularly collecting thousands, and even millions, of verbatims that require analysis. On the other hand, human coders have been carrying out text analytics for decades now, and in particular, why use automated systems when humans are doing the job so well?
Here are some guidelines to help you decide which method is right for you.
Sample sizes – Sample size will likely be the most prominent variable in choosing a method. If you’re working with thousands or millions of verbatims, automated systems are your best friend. On the other hand, databases of several hundred verbatims are best done by hand. Remember, even if an automated system is used on a small dataset, you would still end up reading every verbatim to get a human flavor for the data. If you’re going to read every verbatim, you might as well do the analysis by hand.
Number of constructs – If you normally use only a small number of predefined constructs, the human method is works great. Coders can easily remember all the intricacies of the coding scheme if it is strict and well-defined. And of course, it’s fun and interesting to get your hands right in there. But, if the research plan uses coding systems with hundreds or thousands of constructs, it is simply impossible for coders to remember all of them with sufficient within or between-rater reliability. Automated systems can really ease this process.
New constructs – Are you open to discovering and implementing any number of new constructs? If you’re open to adding a handful of new constructs, then automated systems won’t make it much easier for you and you will be happy with your standard manual processes. But, if you want to be surprised and see where the data takes you, automated systems can provide that.
Timing – This is the business world, after all. Are you in a rush? Are the results required yesterday? Well, if the data is already in a clean, computerized format, an automated system will work nicely. But, if your data consists of 20 sets of handwritten notes, most of which are barely legible, you might prefer the brain power of human coders who can turn scribbles into codes without any intervening translations.
Coder reliability – Are you able to train and retain enough reliable coders? If you have a good team of trusty reliable coders, then keep them happy. They are valuable people who should be treated with kid gloves! But, if you’re having trouble finding those gems, an automated system will ensure that a high level of within-rater and between-rater reliability is maintained. It will even eliminate within-pair compromise.
In the end, you must choose the system that works best for you. Whether automated or human, one method with have the pros and cons that suit your specific needs. Choose well!
