One of the giants in the market-research industry, Ipsos, launched a new online opinion website this week designed to form a dedicated community of users for future market research surveys.
A global effort involving Toronto’s Ipsos office – which is tasked with panel recruitment – the new site is a platform for user-generated content in the form of opinions and reviews. Visitors to the site can set up a member profile, create polls and vote on them, share opinions publicly and earn prizes for high activity levels.
One of the goals behind the site was to encourage social-media interaction, with Facebook Connect functionality and the ability to integrate YouTube videos or Google images into content, Karen Martell, marketing manager, Thatsaid.com, tells MiC.
‘The idea was that, right now Ipsos puts out surveys through their online panels, but their online panels are static and there’s no interaction,’ she says. ‘The websites generally appear a bit dated. So what we’ve done is build a community that reflects the way people use internet today, and now this will be a new way to engage panelists.’
Targeting the US market initially, promotion for the site is currently being done through Facebook and other social media, and via search engine marketing. Currently there are no opportunities for brand integration or sponsorship of polls or contests, Martell says, as the company is still figuring out if that will be a part of the site going forward.
Ipsos will begin to introduce market research surveys via the site for their clients in 2010. Ipsos acquired Livra.com, the company behind Thatsaid’s platform technology, in 2008 with an eye toward bringing their online market research offering into the Web 2.0 world, a release announcing the launch states. Previously, Livra.com had been running online communities in Latin America for a decade.
