IPSOS & Techneos create ‘Citizen Journalism’ with Mobile Market Research Tools at the Royal Wedding

May 2, 2011

Vancouver, Canada – Hundreds of smartphone owners participated in a mobile digital ethnography study related to the lead up, event and conclusion of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. 

The IPSOS study used the Techneos mobile platform to reach people on their smartphones and asked them to share their thoughts, photos and other point of experience information about the event. 

The mobile survey “app” proposed questions about where people were watching the Royal Wedding, who they were with and how they felt, particularly in relation to the British Monarchy. The Techneos mobile survey “app” was used by each respondent multiple times over the course of a few days on their smartphone mobile device, whether they use an Android, Apple iOS, RIM, Nokia or Windows Mobile operating system.

Respondents were encouraged to upload photographs of how they were celebrating the wedding and to capture their location using the phone’s GPS system so that sentiment data across the UK could be geographically shown.

The mobile digital ethnography provided real time structured data on people’s thoughts and experiences of this historical event that was not possible to be captured in real time using other research methods. Respondents participated enthusiastically, sharing photos, GPS coordinates and commentary on their experiences in real time.

A mobile digital ethnography project of this kind is particularly well suited to the United Kingdom, where smartphone penetration is at 31% (Ipsos Media CT Report, Q1 2011). 

“Rather than asking how people felt about the Royal Wedding a few days later when people had been exposed to all the press, we were able to offer our client validated, in the moment research which helped us to get closer to the thoughts and behaviour of people in the moment of truth.” said AJ Johnson, VP at Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange. “On Friday many people shared their thoughts on social media through their mobiles. We went one step further and used Techneos’ SODA app to gather insights at the point of experience, from real people, in real time through the mobile devices in so many of their pockets.”

IPSOS and Techneos were chosen to facilitate the mobile research based on their previous collaboration on the breakthrough mobile digital ethnography project, The Great British Weekend, which won the companies a Next Generation Market Research (NGMR) award in 2010.

About Techneos Systems Inc.

Techneos is an innovator in market research with 15 years experience. They use mobile apps to get closer to the truth of what is actually happening, on the terms of the respondents. They feel that if you are relevant, ask in real time and use the tools inherent in smartphones that you will tease out richer data from respondents in their natural environment. 
Using mobile survey, feedback, panel, ethnography and digital diary solutions on any mobile device (including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows platforms) they gather data of peoples’ expectations, motivations and intentions for partners and customers in over 50 countries worldwide and in over 200 languages.


About IPSOS Open Thinking Exchange
The Open Thinking Exchange is the innovation center of Ipsos, an independent company which ranks fifth among global research firms. Our mission: to challenge convention, take risks and use our collective intelligence in the service of our clients to foster innovation. We do so through knowledge, storytelling, new technology and collaborative platforms to make data and human insights more accessible, more understandable, more meaningful and more actionable for people across the globe.

 

Contact: 

 

Joeline Cross

Director of Marketing

Techneos

jcross@techneos.com

+1.604.435.6007 x111


AJ Johnson

Vice President

Ipsos Open Exchange

aj.johnson@ipsos.com

+44.20.73.47.3183