Using Video to Introduce Tasks & Exercises

by Stephen Cribbett, Dub

Why using video is important for marketing researchers and community managers alike.

Here at Dub we see video being used to capture the thoughts, ideas and emotions of consumers so much more than it was even just three years ago. This is largely due to quicker and more stable broadband and the increase in integrated webcam technology making it more accessible. But perhaps most importantly, user-behaviours have matured to the point where creating and sharing video clips is a more widely accepted method of online communication. Users of all ages are now less comfortable in putting themselves in front of a camera, where once they would shy away and leave it to only the most brave and adventurous.

Within online research communities using our IdeaStream platform, we are also seeing more researchers and Community Managers using video (webcams) to introduce tasks and exercises. It provides some fantastic results as it has the effect of leading the horse to water and encouraging your members to use video themselves as the preferred response method.

But there’s more to it than that. Here’s why we think it is such a valuable technique:

We’ve said it already, but in using video to announce your tasks and exercises, you’re more likely to see your community members use video to respond. By demonstrating to them that you are in fact human, not robot, you increase the likelihood of them sharing their own ‘human’ lives and behaviours with you.
It imbues your tasks and exercises with more personality and character, and makes it more engaging, than, say, a task introduced by text alone
Video methods work particularly when engaging youth audiences - one of the largest video user groups
Video-based response allows the researcher to interpret the emotions and decode behaviour in a more potent way than, say, text base response.
Video recording is now available on an ever-increasing number of mobile phones and smart phones, making it a more convenient for consumers to capture video when ‘out and about’ (video accounts for approximately 70% of all mobile data traffic).

Our prediction is that text-based bulletin boards, like surveys, will soon become the ‘walking dead’. They offer limited response methods and are not as native to consumers as other methods. At Dub we always strive to help researchers deliver better, more creative research. This means harnessing the ways in which consumers are interacting with their friends and family everyday and re-appropriating it.

So researchers, it’s time to stop thinking and acting like you are removed from your participants, and start using the tools and channels that they themselves are using in the most natural of ways. If you’re interested to know how Dub can help you execute creative online research with the smarted tools, contact Stephen Cribbett at stephen@dubstudios.com.

This content was provided by Dub. Visit their website at www.dubstudios.com.