Pollfish Surveys Help Publishers Gather Real Data About Audiences

It’s no secret that mobile audiences are spending increasing amounts of time online. 73% of the population has a mobile phone, according to Mary Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trends report, that is 5.2B users. And they are online for around 2.8 hours a day consuming mobile digital media.

“Consumers everywhere are using their mobile devices as the remote control for their lives,” says Pollfish CEO, John Papadakis. These people are communicating more than ever before, and they are doing it via apps. Pollfish is a survey network that reaches consumers on their turf, on their cellphones, in-app, where they can take surveys at their convenience.

Here Papadakis explains how real-time surveys can gather valuable consumer insights from the mobile generation.

What is Pollfish and how does it work?

Pollfish is a simple DIY tool that lets publishers provide survey for their users to opt-in to. The SDK can be implemented in under two minutes and means no more annoying ads, automatic video views or “survey walls” – forcing consumers to answer surveys in order to access content Our surveys target a network of users, inside the apps that they are already using, through Pollfish’s partnerships. Users answer the polls in return for in-app rewards or a raffle of gift-cards.

Researchers can target via location, gender, age, — we can reach thousands of people in just hours. The survey kicks off with a screening question, helping publishers to ensure they always reach the right audience. We charge them $1 per completed survey, which is an incredibly low price, while also providing more accurate insights.

How did you come to create Pollfish?

Our founding team, Giannis Zaoudis, Zissis Bellas and Andreas Vourkos  and myself decided in 2013 that ads on mobile did not provide an engaging consumer experience for capturing good data. We know there had to be a better way for digital publishers to monetize their digital and connect with their audiences.

So, how is Pollfish different, and how does it provide a better experience?

Other survey platforms use traditional methods, such as long-form internet surveys, panels and telephone interviews to understand their prospective users. And they often get it wrong. A recent crisis in the polling industry has shown that traditional methods are no longer applicable. This is clearly evident in recent political events, such as the Brexit leave decision or Donald Trump’s candidacy for the Republican Party – no one saw it coming, and polls failed to gather these opinions.

Our mobile-optimized surveys are sleek, short and concise, providing the optimal experience for on-the-go consumers, on mobile, desktop or tablet. We have a network of over 290 million users across the globe, this means we can provide results in real-time, with great speed and at a lower cost than other providers.

What type of businesses use Pollfish, and what are they getting out of this?

Our customers are startup founders, entrepreneurs, marketers, brand managers, agencies, and market researchers. They are companies that need to reach consumers and capture data in real time. Mobile is where consumers are – and our clients want the ability to access them with the speed, reach, efficiency and low cost that the smartphone-enabled economy can provide.

What trends currently excite you in this industry?

The utility of in-person interviews, telephone surveys, and long-form Internet surveys and paywalls is diminishing. Researchers want to design their surveys with ease, access audiences accurately, and get high-quality data fast and affordably so they can make better informed decisions.

Typically, this type of research would take days and even weeks to conduct, and costs thousands. You can now reach several thousand respondents in hours, for a fraction of the cost. David Rothschild, a researcher at Microsoft and Columbia University, who also runs PredictWise, a site for predicting market trends recently highlighted big issues in the industry, and he revealed PollFish as an accurate alternative, as reported by Quartz.

How do you plan to develop Pollfish?

We will be able to leverage passive and active survey data from mobile devices in ways that in-person, telephone, or desktop surveys can’t, or can only dream of. This data will be crucial for researchers as we move towards providing meaningful insights in real-time, by combining data sets to provide more accurate information and detail about respondents, and the population they represent.