If you need super-fast, super-cheap (but rigorous) research insights for thought leadership content, the just-published Versta Research Summer Newsletter is for you. It features an article, How to Use Surveys for Thought Leadership on a Shoestring Budget, that describes (in a video!) a new DIY process we used to launch ten extremely fast snapshot surveys…
Thank you for your interest in our July 16, 2020 presentation at the Quirk’s Event! Here is the deck we used for that presentation. Feel free to download and circulate. Soon, we will have a full video of the presentation available, as well. It will be part of the Summer 2020 Versta Research Newsletter. If…
This data we saw last week reflects the type of data that PR professionals absolutely dream about and hope for when they conduct surveys. It shows hugely dramatic differences among the 50 U.S. states. The media relations people were able to pitch local outlets in each state with a story about how their area and…
Surveys don’t get much simpler than this. It is from the New York Times, which I typically admire for its rigorous reporting, thoughtful analysis, and forward-thinking experimentation with data visualization. But even with such simplicity, this survey (published on April 22, 2018) manages to be terrible in at least three big ways: It asks a…
Sure we laugh at those ridiculously biased fundraising “surveys” from politicians. But for some reason, the poorly (but more cleverly) designed surveys put out by corporate PR departments often get a pass. Even worse, they sometimes get tons of visibility in both mainstream press and social media. I saw one such survey a few weeks…
A favorite pastime in my household is to laugh at the absurd statistics our local weatherman conjures up to make his reports sound dramatic, scientific, and driven by a deep analysis of data. Things like, “These are the first three consecutive days since 1989 of 90+ degree temperatures following an immediately preceding four-week string of…
If ever there were evidence that phone surveys are dead, it’s this: Gallup, the undisputed king of telephone polling for decades, has withdrawn from the race. The firm announced last week that it will not conduct candidate polling for the 2016 presidential election. This comes after the miserable failure of its polling in 2012, which…
Last month we were honored to be on the main stage at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Re:Think 2015 Conference, sharing with the nation’s top research and advertising executives insights from our work with Wells Fargo. I use the word honored for two reasons. First, we were selected from over 200 entries for one of the…
Readers of this newsletter and blog know how much we value and respect the New York Times. It is one of the few resources we cite regularly, as it always has relevant, authoritative information that informs our work and that of our clients. So my heart sank when I read this description of a new…
After leaving academic research for the world of applied research, I found myself doing a lot of surveys for public relations. These surveys are designed to uncover surprising or newsworthy nuggets of data that companies use to focus attention on topics relevant to their concerns. My first boss despised such work, believing that a public…