MAKING SURVEYS MORE REWARDING EXPIERENCES

JON PULESTON VP Innovation GMI Interactive

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON GAMIFICATION

THE COCEPT“GAMIFICATION” HAS CAPTURED THE IMAGINATION OF THE RESEARCH INDUSTRY OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS

IT HAS HAS BECOME AN UMBRELLA TERM TO DESCRIBE A WHOLE PANECEA OF TECHNIQUES WE ENVOKE TO IMPROVE RESPONDENT ENGAGEMENT IN SURVEYS

GAMIFICATION

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IN TRUTH IT IS JUST ONE SPECIFIC PART OF THIS PANECEA…

GAMIFICATION

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SO TODAY I DON’T WANT TO TALK SPECIFICALLY ABOUT GAMIFICATION.

I WANT TO THINK ABOUT THE ISSUES THAT THIS TERM HAS BECOME SYNONYMOUS WITH.

TAKE A HELECOPTER VIEW POINT: WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO DO HERE?

I’D LIKE TO THINK OF A BETTER TERM TO DESCRIBE THIS WHOLE PROCESS?

GAMIFICATION

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GAMIFICATIONENTERTAINIFYING

GAMIFICATION

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GAMIFICATIONDEBORIFICATION

I’D LIKE TO THINK OF A BETTER TERM TO DESCRIBE THIS WHOLE PROCESS?

DEBORIFICATION

BORING LESS BORING INTERESTING FUN

-1 0 1 2

A LOT OF WORK DONE IN THIS TERRITORY

WHAT I THINK IT ULTIMATELY ALL BOILS DOWN TO IS…

GAMIFICATION

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GAMIFICATIONREWARDING

MOST SURVEYS ARE SIMPLY NOT VERY REWARDING EXPERIENCES

DECONSTRUCTINIG THE AVERAGE TRACKING STUDY YOU WILL FIND THEY ARE ALL PRETTY MUCH THE SAME:

MOSTLY MADE UP OF 3 CORE ELEMENTS:

ALL VERY UNREWARDING QUESTIONS FOR RESPONDENTS TO ANSWER

1.

2.3.

DECONSTRUCTINIG THE AVERAGE TRACKING STUDY YOU WILL FIND THEY ARE ALL PRETTY MUCH THE SAME:

MOSTLY MADE UP OF 3 CORE ELEMENTS:

AND THE ULTIMATE IMPACT OF THIS IS THEY DELIVER BACK POOR DATA

1.

2.3.

• Tedious: People can’t be bothered to think

What brands come to mind?Are you aware of this brand?Have you seen this ad?Where have you seen it?

ISSUES WITH AWARENESS QUESTIONS

1 or 2 v up to 5 in face to face

100%+ misattribution

50%+ variance simply based on

how you ask

• People lie and sometimes exaggerate (eg. Do you own an ipad!)

• They can’t be bothered to remember• Answers don’t correlate with future behaviour

What brands have you used?When have you used them?

ISSUES WITH USAGE QUESTIONS

Only 70% accurately noted*

*Hofmeyr TNS

Significant answer decay

Important!

• People struggle to differentiate their opinions

How much do you like this?What words do you associate with this brand?Reasons for purchase

ISSUES WITH ATTITUDE QUESTIONS

I am not sure orI quite like it!

I am not interested click max 4 options

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME

I CAN’T BE BOTHERED TO THINK

SURVEYS REWARD SPEEDING

ACTION

SURVEY SAVED TIME

SPEEDTHROUGH

IT

TRIGGER REWARD

THINK ABOUT GAMIFICATION AS ONE OF SUIT OF WEAPON THAT CAN BE USED TO REWARD RESPONDENTS FOR INVESTING MORE THOUGHT AND EFFORT IN COMPLETING A SURVEY

TRIGGER REWARD

BEINGTHOUGHTFUL & TRUTHFUL

THE 4 CHALLENGES WE FACE WHEN DESIGNING SURVEY QUESTIONS

1. COMMANDING PEOPLES ATTENTION

2. PERSUADING PEOPLE TO READ THINGS

3. PERSUADING PEOPLE TO THINK

4. MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO RESPOND

AT THIS POINT I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE A SHORT COMMERCIAL BREAK!

IF YOU THINK ABOUT THESE CHALLENGCES THESE ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE CHALLENGES THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY FACES WHEN DESIGNING ADVERTISTING MESSAGES

This is a message I want you to read and think about and respond to.

And I want you to read this bitAnd this bitAnd this bitAnd this bitAnd this bitAnd this bit too

SURVEY QUESTION

This is a message I want you to read and think about and respond to.

And I want you to read this bitAnd this bitAnd this bitAnd this bitAnd this bitAnd this bit too

COULD EQUALLY BE AN ADVERT

SO HOW DO THEY TACKLE THIS PROBLEM?

YOU WOULD NOT QUITE DESCRIBE WHAT THEY DO AS GAMIFICATION…

BUT IT IS A VERY SIMILAR PROCESS CENTRED AROUND REWARDING PEOPLE TO NOTICE, READ, THINK AND RESPOND…

TITILATION= MILD SEXUAL PLEASURE

DOUBLE ENTENDRE= MENTAL PUZZLE

SEXUAL & INTELLECTUAL REWARDS FOR READING THIS MESSAGE

CREATING A SENSE OF WONDER

VISUAL & EMOTIONAL REWARDS FROM LOOKING AT THIS AD

HUMOUR

ENTERTAINMENT REWARD FO READING THIS MESSAGE

MENTAL CHALLENGE

INTELLECTUAL REWARD FOR READING MESSAGE

PUZZLE REQUIRING DECODING

INTELLECTUAL REWARDS FOR READING THIS MESSAGE

VISUAL DECODINGALIGNMENT & SCALING DELIVERS AESTHETIC PLEASURE

AESTETIC & INTELLECTUAL REWARDS FOR READING THIS MESSAGE

A CHANCE TO DREAM & ESCAPE REALITY

EMOTIONAL REWARDS FROM LOOKING AT THIS AD

VISUAL SURPRISE + MENTAL DECODING

VISUAL SURPRISE/HUMOUR + MENTAL DECODING

VISUAL SURPRISEVISUAL PUZZLE

ADVERTISING FAILS IF IT DELIVER IT DOES NOT ADEQUATELY DELIVER REWARDS

NEWS REWARDS YES

BUT ON ALL OTHER LEVELS UTTERLY UNMEMORABLE

CLICHÉ MEANINGLESS DECORATIVE EFFECTS

TAUTOLOGY SO NOTHING TO DECODE

SURPRISE DECODING CHALLENGE

THE MORE THE AD IS LIKED*, THE HIGHER THE RECALL

* LIKED = DELIVERED A REWARD

THE WEAPONS OF ADVERTISERS:

1. VISUAL SURPRISES TO GAIN ATTENTION & TRIGGER THINKING PROCESSES

2. PLEASING AESTHETICS TO ENCOURAGE VIEWING

3. ALLOWING PEOPLE TO DREAM & FANTISISE

4. ASKING THE CONSUMER TO PLAY MICRO GAMES IN THE FORM OF MENTAL PUZZLES

5. SEXUAL TITLATION

GAMIFICATION IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF MANY OF THESE ADVERTS BUT AT THE HEART OF IT IS ALL ABOUT REWARD DELIVERY

EXAMPLES OF REWARD WEAPONS WE AS RESEARCHERS CAN USE…

• Deliver aesthetic pleasure• Delivering Surprises • Providing respondents with something new to think about• The ability to set questions up as mental puzzles• Setting questions up as challenges• We can validate their opinions• We can give them an opportunity to express themselves

LOOKING AT SURVEY GAMIFICATION AS A PROCESS OF REWARD DELIVERY

VISUAL SURPRISES

90%More

MENTAL PUZZLE

Describe yourself

Describe yourself in EXACTLY 7 words

2.4 Descriptors

85%Answered

4.5 Descriptors

98%Answered

THE PLEASURE OF COMPETING

Can you guess what brand this is? Can you tell us what

brand this is?

40% say they don’t know

People will play for hoursAnd every answer is a best guess

RewardingThe truth

AWARENESS

USAGE

ATTITUDES

ARE YOU AWARE OF THIS BRAND? GUESS THE BRAND!

HAVE YOU BOUGHT THIS BRAND?

PREDICT WHAT BRAND YOU WILL BUY NEXT

WHAT WORDS DO YOU ASSOCIATE WITH THIS BRAND?

GUESS WHAT WORDS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS BRAND

WITH A SMALL TWIST OF PERSPECTIVE & CREATIVITY ALL THE QUESTIONS IN TRACKING STUDIES COULD BE TURNED INTO MORE REWARDING EXPERIENCES:

e.g.

e.g.

e.g.

SPONTANEOUS BRAND AWARENESS

1+ minutes of thinking time (we have had to impose a time limit)More than twice as many brands recalled

Bonus

Rewardingthinking

PROMPTED BRAND AWARENSS

AWARENESS TASK: ANSER TIME PER QUESTION

Standard Survey Guessing Game with time pressure

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 -

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 -

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

Colgate strapline

Aquafresh Arm & Hammer

Colgate packaging

detail

Sensodyne strapline

Mcleans strapline

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Normal Game

Accurate brand recognition

RewardingThe truth

Control statement

Oral B Arm & Hammer McCleans Aquafresh Sensodyne logo0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

Normal Game

Miss-attribution to Colgate

ADVERTISING AWARENESS

USAGE: HARDER TO GAMIFY

LATENT BRAND PREFERENCE IF YOU Had no moneyHad unlimited budgetWanted to impress your friendsWhat the queen would buy

THE LAST TIME….You went out with friendsDrank at homeWas on holiday

*Fun is a reward in itself

There are things that can be done to make it more fun*…

VOLUMISING

INTERTWINING USAGE & PREDICTIONS TO MAKE INTO PROXY GAME

What do you do?

Predictive questions can deliver a reward…

Guess what others do?WIN IF YOU GET IT RIGHT

+

PILOT EXPERIMENT

PILOT EXPERIMENT

PILOT EXPERIMENT

PILOT EXPERIMENT

ANSWER TIME

What they doPredict what others

doYou win/lose feedback

Control group just asked what they do

Ans

wer

tim

e (m

illis

econ

ds)

ANSWER TIME COMPARISONS

% OF EXTRA TIME

This game was not

very rewarding

SPONTANOUS WORD ASSOCIATION GAME

1 minute+ v 15 seconds & 10 times as much useful feedback

Rewarding thinking

DUMMY ADVERTISING & BRAND PROPOSITION AWARENESS

Total colour care protection for your clothes

Which brand?

A survey gaming technique devised to tease out respondents perceptions of brands through brand personalisation

First respondents played a game where they had to try and match brands with human personality traits – to get them comfortable with the idea of brand having human characteristics

Once they had managed to do this correctly a few times we took them to the next level…

We then asked them to try and imagine what different human characteristics a brand might exhibit…

Then we got them to play a game where they had to bet on which brand was most likely to exhibit different human characteristics…

We encouraged them to do this as instinctively as they could…

We then presented them with a range of questions like this…

We then presented them with a range of questions like this…

They won and lost based upon whether their choice matched the opinion of the crowd

BRAND PERSONALITY GAME METRICS

• 78% of respondents rated the survey 4 starts or higher• 93% said they would like to do more surveys like this• 97% who started it completed it

Though& effort

rewarded

“The gamified approach pulled out stronger brand personality differences” Deborah Sleep Engage Research

XFACTOR GAME

Source: GMI survey evaluation base = 612 surveys Jan-July 2012

9.2

50%+ more feedback & most popular survey ever measured

RECIPE FOR DESIGNING MORE REWARDING SURVEYS

1. THINK ABOUT WHAT TYPE OF REWARDS THERE ARE FROM DIFFERENT THINGS WE DO FOR PLEASURE IN LIFE

• Gaining aesthetic pleasure - ART• Surprise, titillation adventure - SEX• Being taken to a different places - CINEMA• Discovery of something “new” – NEWSPAPER READING• Intellectual stimulation – BOOK READING• Metal satisfaction from solving problems - PUZZLING• The pleasure of competing – again yourself & others - SPORT• The vicarious pleasure of other people succeeding – WATCHING SPORT• The satisfaction gained from thinking you are helping someone or doing

something for a good cause – CHARITY WORK• Having our hunches confirmed - GAMBLING• Being able to expressing ourselves - WRITING• Being heard - COMMUNICATING• Humour - COMEDY• Being silly – PLAYING GAMES• Making things - Gardening

* Note this is random list of thoughts not a comprehensive scientific list of all the types of reward mechanics that exist

2. STEAL THEM!

3. APPLY THEM IN YOUR SURVEY

REWARDING THE TRUTH

A NEW PHILOSPHY FOR SURVEY DESIGN