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The Dumbest PR Survey on Earth
Last week there was a flash of news coverage for a PR-driven survey that documented these important facts: Most Americans think Obama would do a better job than Romney in defending against an attack by...
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5 Research Lessons from Election Season Polling
During a presidential election year there is no escaping the flurry of public opinion polling and the intense scrutiny that surveys get from the media. But love it or hate it, there are excellent...
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Why I Love Creating PR Surveys
After leaving academic research for the world of applied research, I found myself doing a lot of surveys for public relations. These surveys are designed to uncover surprising or newsworthy nuggets...
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Our Top Sources for Innovative Research Ideas
The best way to stay fresh, interested, and excited about market research is to read, read, read. It’s the same thing I always told my students in social theory classes. Useful ideas come from those...
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Research Cites PR as Honest Abe of Business
PR gets a bad rap in market research. My data wonk colleagues imagine that PR is about spinning, shading, and manipulating the truth. But it is just the opposite, and that is why I love working with PR...
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AP Finally Moves to Online Polling
The Associated Press (AP) announced last month it is moving all of its public opinion polling from phone surveys to online surveys. This is progress, because over the last decade AP has been one of...
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How to Publish Your PR Research
A few weeks ago, The Patient, a peer-reviewed medical journal, published an article based on findings from two surveys conducted by Versta Research. This follows on the heels of a poster presentation...
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Math for Journalists
Communicating statistics is sometimes harder than doing statistics. While statistics is all about formulas and logic and precision, words and sentences are all about communicating layers of meaning...
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Telltale Signs of a Pointless Poll
Of course those 99% keep reading the pointless polls, and most research firms are happy to keep generating pointless polls. The problem? Too few research firms are willing and able to help clients...
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Using Surveys for PR: Our ARF Presentation Video
Last month we were honored to be on the main stage at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Re:Think 2015 Conference, sharing with the nation’s top research and advertising executives insights from our...
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Why You Need 4-Point Scales
One of the “best practices” for survey research I learned in graduate school and then early in my career is this: Survey measurement scales should have at least five points. Presumably that provides...
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Public Release Studies: Advice for the PR Team
Just back from LIMRA’s 2017 Marketing and Research Conference, I am happy to report a successful and productive “meeting of the minds” from both the Marketing Side and the Research Side of this...
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PR Studies: Advice for the Research Team
Research for PR is definitely not “research lite” as my former boss used to think. It is the opposite, and requires more attention to rigor than strategic research. Why? Because no other research gets...
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Does Starting with a Story Bias Your Findings?
Two audience members at our LIMRA talk (see Public Studies: Advice for the PR Team and Advice for the Research Team) asked questions about biased research findings. Doesn’t starting with the research...
View ArticleWhy Fake PR Surveys Outperform Real Ones
Sure we laugh at those ridiculously biased fundraising “surveys” from politicians. But for some reason, the poorly (but more cleverly) designed surveys put out by corporate PR departments often get a...
View ArticleHow Random Correlations Ruined a Gender Story
The problem with most business approaches to “analytics” is that they rely on automated, unthinking algorithms. The algorithms scan boatloads of data and generate correlations that are surprising and,...
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Versta Research Just Turned 10
Happy birthday to us! We were born on January 19, 2009 in the depths of a recession with nowhere to go but up. Many of the research firms that were around back then have disappeared, sold themselves...
View ArticleVersta Research in the News
The Versta Research spring newsletter comes out this week, and highlights some of the work we have done that is in the news and recently published. Here is a sampling: New Index for HR Management...
View ArticleHow Polls Pass CNN’s Quality Review
This list of 16 questions that CNN will ask before they are willing to publish your polling data is worth reading because somebody at CNN clearly knows their stuff. It is far better than anything I...
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This PR Survey Is a Dream Come True. If Only It Weren’t Nonsense.
This data we saw last week reflects the type of data that PR professionals absolutely dream about and hope for when they conduct surveys. It shows hugely dramatic differences among the 50 U.S. states....
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