Insights Studio Series: Conducting Research During (and After) the COVID-19 Crisis

Market research, media research and advertising research all faced plenty of obstacles prior to the Coronavirus outbreak. Response rates and cooperation rates were already widely discussed problems. Access to gated communities, the wide use of Caller-ID, and restrictions on mobile phone numbers had already challenged survey researchers trying to achieve representative samples. Worries about “professional respondents” in online panels or in qualitative research databases did not arrive with the pandemic.

However the pandemic has introduced a whole set of new questions about the conduct of research. In a time of social distancing, how are field methods adapting? Is there evidence that staying at home is increasing response rates? Do rising unemployment rates change the demography of respondent pools? Is the more widespread adoption of video conferencing platforms affording new and improved methods for conducting face-to-face interviews or other qualitative techniques?

Will the short-term crisis-induced changes in methodologies result in lasting shifts in research practice? Will it herald a new balance between passively-collected behavioral data and data collected by asking questions? Will the crisis teach us new ways to improve data quality and will clients and end-users be reassured?

This program was comprised of panelists who have weathered other notable crisis such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. They shared the kinds of research they are doing and not doing now as well as best practices.