From pay to play? What gaming elements could bring to market research studies

If you’re participating in a market research study, would you rather:

A. Get paid hard cash immediately following completion?

B. Contribute to the research purely to help the public at large?

C. Have a little fun either way?

According to Jared Cechanowiz, a researcher from the University of Saskatchewan, there are indications the answer for many people could very well be “C.”

Cechanowiz recently presented ‘Effects of Gamification on Participation and Data Quality in a Real-World Market Research Domain’ (J. Cechanowiz, B. Brownell, C. Gutwin, L. Goodfellow) at the Gamification 2013 conference in Stratford, Ont. The project, which won best paper at the event, involved deploying three versions of a gamified market research survey alongside a more traditional version to more than 600 participants.

The gamified studies were not unlike those shown just before the coming attractions of a movie theatre, where participants would slowly see pieces of an advertiser’s poster or logo appearing and guess which brand it was. Other versions involved matching slogans with a particular company or a five-second quiz.

As part of the study, the researchers told participants they could answer just one question in order to be paid for their involvement, but could keep answering the questions if they were having fun.

“Just adding that thin veneer (of gamification) increased the number of questions they were willing to do,” Cechanowiz said.

Though the project, which was co-funded by Insightrix Research and NSERC, suggests gamification could enhance market research, Cechanowiz admitted there was still more work to do in order to understand if game-like elements would have diminishing returns over time or how else it might influence participant motivation.

In the video clip below, Cechanowiz talks more about how gamification could change market research over time.