Sponsor Impact report Can programmatic sample address survey fraud? For Andrei Postoaca, chief executive of Ipsos Digital, example, by integrating its platform into their the programmatic process does not have much to do own website. with quality procedures per se. Fraud is everywhere, We have seen more people taking hold of things its just a matter of accepting it and making sure that and wanting to take ownership of the research you put in a lot of procedures to diminish it and, process, says Simon Beedell, executive director, hopefully, take it out completely, he says. EMEA, at Lucid. Traditionally, clients would work Postoaca likens survey fraud defence mechanisms with Lucid on a managed-services basis and then to the Swiss cheese concept, where an organisations move to a more direct approach once they have defences against failure are represented as slices of become familiar with the platform. But, explains cheese. If you slice it, you will have holes in it, but Beedell, what weve seen more of in the past if you put 10 slices one after the other, you will most six months is people coming directly to us asking to likely not have one hole going through skip that step. the whole flow. Thats how I see Thats not to say everyone wants to fraudulent respondents. be completely hands-on. Some clients Each and every method and tool you very much prefer managed services, Some clients prefer to apply will have holes, but put 10 says Beedell. They prefer to have the have the right experts methods and tools on top of each other, right experts on the case in terms of the on the case, ensuring and they will catch some respondents fieldwork and to have that reassurance things stay on track that will be fraudulent. that someone is on the other end Rely on just one slice, and you will of the phone or email, ensuring certainly have holes. things stay on track. That human element is still Postoaca adds: I was speaking with a client this quite important. week and the whole discussion was around the SurveyMonkey sees a lot of clients moving to a DIY approach once they have become acquainted needle-in-the-haystack kind of samples versus really with the platform. Its so much quicker for them having solid quality. What really worries me is how to get insights, especially in verticals where it really matters, such as financial services, where At the end of the day, market research is worthless theyre making investments and its a matter of unless its really good quality. If Im not comfortable hours before they need to make the decision, with the quality, I might as well guess myself. says Connor. Its clear that there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to DIY research. Beedell compares it A helping hand to visiting a travel agent on the high street or booking Lucid is seeing more clients coming directly to the Time to think The electric calculator didnt get by machines and allows time to be develop Hall & Partners Hub rid of mathematicians, says spent thinking about what this platform, used by clients to access Wojtek Kokoszka, chief operating means, or what the next idea insight. Automation should only go officer at Zappi. It means that should be. so far it should be in service of mathematicians spend their time As an agency, Hall & Partners great decision-making and thinking, solving real problems, rather than decided about two years ago to not a replacement for it, says Smith. adding and dividing numbers. shift its internal efforts away from We still need researchers to data collection. Global head of understand competitive context. If lot of research processes from delivery Natalie Smith explains: We its not personal and persuasive, formatting slides and cutting tables, know collection is being why collect the data? to billing. However, what it is quite commoditised and, for clients, what far away from doing is trying to really matters is inspiration Ive research, she adds, but where make head or tail of it all and got this data, what do I do with it? they apply their time has changed. Technology is used to automate a constructing a narrative out of it, The agency works with Dynata as People remain at the heart of Automation in support of people says Kokoszka. It frees up the a sample partner and the could be a bonus for a new low-level stuff that can be done companies worked together to generation of researchers. 26 Impact ISSUE 34 2021_pp21-29_Report.indd 26 18/06/2021 16:52