FreshNetworks Blog

I went to the Espresso Briefing this morning from the Word of Mouth UK Marketing Association (WOM UK) at the lovely Bean ‘n’ Cup in Camden. Fiona Blades from Mesh Planning was presenting a case study of their Research for Lynx/AXE for the Boom Chicka Wah Wah campaign - a 360 campaign that started with the commercial below.

Fiona’s talk explained how Mesh used a real-time research method. Recruiting a network of boys and getting them to text every time they came into contact with one of four brands (including the Lynx brand to make the process more thorough) or one of four catchphrases. They also had to say how they felt each time they responded. This data was then expanded using an online diary and the entire data set provides a wealth of information on where and why people came in contact with the brand or slogan and how they felt about this.

This depth of information provides real-time feedback on the effectiveness of a campaign but also helps to measure advocacy - references on social networks or even in conversation with others were to be included and reported back.

The research shows one way in which you can use new technologies inventively to gain a greater depth of insight than traditional tools allow. Real-time surveying gets a more accurate observational record of what people see; combining this with a retrospective diary tool allows you to capture what people think. This combination is powerful and provides a richer data set - you can record peoples’ opinions before and after exposure to a campaign and then really understand how they came into contact with the brand and so start to explain why their attitudes change.

At FreshNetworks we use similar tools in our online research communities allowing us to track and monitor how peoples’ opinions change and then to understand why this might be the case. New techniques like this are expanding the power of research and increasing the depth of our understanding!