Video Research: Key Workshop Highlights

Co-chairing the conference “Market Research in the Mobile World: Europe 2016” in London I had a chance to participate in a workshop called: “Lights, Camera, Action- Take 2 for video research situations” led by Lightspeed.

Here I would like to share my key highlights from this workshop as well as discussions around video research which we had during the Conference.

Video research is taking a central position in consumer research. Nowadays video research can have different forms:

The beauty of video research is that it can incorporate both qualitative and quantitative components. Thus, video script with text analytics can be leveraged for quantitative purposes.

That means that video research can be combined with or used instead of open ended questions. Research conducted by Lightspeed shows that  answers on open ended questions include on average 8 words while video responses have on average 40 – 100 words and provide much deeper insights.

Videos can also help to create shorter surveys as per Lightspeed research one video can replace 3 open ended questions. However, longer timing for the results analysis should be taken into consideration here.

Another point of consideration in video research is linked with willingness of respondents to share their videos.

During the workshop Lightspeed shared the following respondents’ concerns related with video sharing:

We as research professionals should also always keep in mind the quality of content that we’ll receive in video research. Thus, for instance, even if consumers share a video quite often they show only house but not themselves.

So, the key hits & tips before doing a video research:

• Ask the right questions in the video interviews: describe, show…
• Determine the length of the video in advance.
• Specify what should be in the video/ what you want to know.
• Make questions individualized.

It’s also important to talk to the right people during the video research. Hence, one more watch out is a skew in people who are open to the video research. For example, Lightspeed highlights that introverts and “early mainstream” aren’t very open to participate in video studies.