Finding the Story and Getting It Noticed
In the months leading up to this year’s Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, Wells Fargo worked with Versta Research on a national survey of LGBT Americans. The goal was to understand how changes in marriage laws were affecting decisions about money and marriage.
What did we learn about LGBT Americans? Here are two nuggets reported by USA Today:
Source: USA Today
What did we learn about getting research noticed and making a business impact? We will share all of our learnings and insights at the 2015 Corporate Researchers Conference in St. Louis, October 5-7. Here is an overview of highlights:
- Change means opportunity. Few LGBT Americans fully understood how marriage laws applied to them, and few fully understood the financial implications of legalized marriage. The research documented a real and compelling need for guidance. It was an ideal opportunity for Wells Fargo to reinforce its offerings and position itself as the leading financial voice to the LBGT community.
- Timing is everything. The storylines captured intense media interest because the first wave of survey findings were launched on the anniversary of an historic Supreme Court decision, and the second wave of survey findings were launched just after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. In the intervening year, we leveraged ongoing interest as marriage laws continued to change daily, state by state.
- The story matters most. We used a story-building methodology to conceptualize the research, to construct stories from the data, and to disseminate the research to multiple audiences. It involved designing the survey to ensure compelling storylines regardless of how the data fell out. The goal was to build a compelling narrative that formed the backbone for business deliverables: story-rich press releases and fact sheets, infographics for social media, and detailed presentation decks for business units.
The session with Wells Fargo is on Monday, October 5 from 4:00pm to 4:40pm. Here is the description from the conference program:
This session isn’t about finding stories in research. It’s about designing surveys that ensure compelling storylines . . . regardless of how the data falls out. Like many researchers, you want market research to generate leading-edge insights, the kind that capture intense audience interest. This story-building methodology will get you there, from conceptualizing the research and constructing stories from data to reporting in the form of headlines, each substantiated with a sequence of data.
We hope to see you there!
