Mirror Group launches online research community

by Staff, Brand Republic 09-Jun-08, 11:40

LONDON - Mirror Group has launched an online research community called Mirror Mouthpiece, which allows the Daily Mirror to get a better view of reader's attitudes to advertising and editorial.

Mirror Mouthpiece includes a mixture of forums, net chats, product ratings, polls and blogs.

It has been developed on the back of the success of Mirror Group's 5,000-strong reader panel, which has run more than 100 surveys since 2003. These include client-specific surveys for advertisers such as Pedigree, Freeview and John Smiths.

Mouthpiece is linked directly to the Reader Panel and will allow for the first time interaction between the depth of quantitative panel data and the qualitative insight.

The online research community was created by Mirror Group's strategic planning team led by Suzy Jordan and Nicky Jones, in partnership with Market Evolution and online market research firm eDigital Research.

Richard Webb, Mirror Group's managing director, said: "The launch of Mouthpiece enables us to have a regular dialogue with our readers, putting them at the heart of what we do.

"Mouthpiece has already been used for advertiser projects and can give immediate insight and feedback on their campaigns."

One example of how it has been used is with the long-running campaign for the Food & Drink Federation, to promote awareness of guideline daily allowance food labelling.

Mirror Group monitored readers' awareness of the advertising and accompanying editorial content using their Reader Panel. Mirror Mouthpiece was then used to get "under the skin" of readers' relationships with food and the actions they take to keep themselves healthy.

The Reader Panel results showed that readers' usage of GDA labels increased by 19% over the campaign period and specific topic forums on Mouthpiece gave Mirror Group Advertising invaluable insight into why labelling was important to their readers.

Jane Holdsworth, GDA campaign director, said: "This isn't just about a label, it's about encouraging people to lead healthier lives. The results from the Mirror reader panel show that this activity struck exactly the right tone"

Comments

Matthew Rhodes - 10/06/2008

It's interesting, but not surprising, to see the Mirror launching an online research community. There's been a real change in the way companies do market research recently. Developments in social media and social networking allow you to create rich environments where people can discuss and comment on issues. Consumers are also more vocal online - they are talking about brands everywhere and so it makes sense to harness this. What the Mirror is doing is what we're going to see many brands doing - online communities really are offering a revolution in the way we can do market research. It's really rather exciting. I've written some things about online research communities and Research 2.0 (as it's known) on our blog - if you fancy having a look the link is below: http://blog.freshnetworks.com/index.php/category/research-20/