Q: What’s the world’s most inviolable deadline?

A: December 25, local family wakeup time.

And according to the National Retail Federation, more than half of U.S. Christmas shoppers will be frantically trying to meet it in the next few days. Among the findings:

– As of Dec. 12, with 12 shopping days left, only 12% of respondents said they’d finished their holiday shopping.

– Among respondents who hadn’t completed their shopping before Dec. 12, 51% expected they’d still be at it during the last five shopping days before Christmas.

– Of the shoppers who still had gifts to buy, 51% said they’d be shopping online, 41% were headed to department stores, 26% were looking to discount stores and 21% to clothing and accessories stores.

– Among those who already had made all or some of their gift purchases, the most popular categories were clothing and accessories (54%), toys (39%), gift cards (39%), books, movies and other media (35%), consumer electronics and computer accessories (25%), food or candy (25%) and experiences, such as tickets to an event or admission to a spa or a class (23%).

– More than a fifth of consumers said they wouldn’t complete their shopping until the last two days before Christmas – with 16% looking to get the job done by Saturday, Dec. 23, and 6% on Christmas Eve.

– And 5% said they’d simply blow the big deadline and give belatedly.

Emotion plays a role in any purchase decision, and for hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers, the feelings peak with their holiday gift decisions. The best way to understand what’s feeding those emotions, and how they translate into purchasing decisions, is to talk to shoppers all along the path to purchase – but especially in the moments when their choices are made, or are freshest in mind. Researchers in the Smartphone Era are able to home in on that Point of Emotion®  by harnessing advanced mobile geolocation technology that tracks shoppers into a store, where they’ll receive push notifications to take a survey while they’re still shopping, or to take an after-visit survey within a day or two after they’ve left. Expect same-day response rates of 50%, thanks to the particular engagement that a smooth-functioning mobile interchange commands. For a productive conversation about how advanced, mobile-app research can meet your projects’ specific needs, just get in touch by clicking here.

Do you believe in Santa Claus? Retail executives and managers whose companies need to maximize sales during the Christmas season can’t afford not to, because they are Santa Claus. Or at least they must act like Santa Claus by spreading good cheer in their stores, and whatever else it takes to ensure that shoppers leave satisfied.

America’s retail-executive Santas collectively depend on a U.S. labor force of some five million retail workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In lieu of a workshop full of elves, decision-makers in charge of the nation’s stores must secure the right strategies and support for the workforce they depend, while stocking the right kinds and quantities of products. It’s no easy task, especially under the pressures and high stakes of the holiday season. The Santas of the business world can be forgiven if they’re not always exuding jollity and ho-ho-ho-hos. But if they succeed, their CEOs or board members likely will.

Being a good retail Santa takes smart planning, nimble execution, and good communication – especially with the consumers the nation’s stores need to please. That means establishing reliable and effective lines of communication to connect with consumers to obtain timely, accurate and emotionally vivid feedback about their holiday shopping expectations and experiences. 

What if you could identify holiday shoppers who are looking at a particular product category, and question them in the very moment and the very aisle where they’re deciding whether and what to purchase?

What if you could survey shoppers on their smartphones just as they leave a retail location? You could get straight, fresh-in-mind and therefore emotionally revealing answers about what they’d just experienced, from the store’s cleanliness to the friendliness and helpfulness of its personnel to the way it handled long checkout lines. And, of course, you could ask them about what they’d bought and why.

What if a brand's insights professionals could identify and validate its buyers (or its competitors’ buyers) in a retail location, then follow up with a survey within a week or two, to learn how well they and their family had enjoyed the special holiday gifts and treats they'd bought for themselves and immediate household members? 

These aren't "what-ifs." They're real and present capabilities of advanced mobile solutions, made possible by marrying innovative location research technology to an engaged and representative panel that enjoys taking consumer surveys. MFour’s satisfied panelists include many of your shoppers. To get in touch with them, get in touch with us. Just click here – right now, if you're still looking for last-minute holiday shopper insights, or in the new year.

Happy holidays and best wishes to all. May the season and the year to come bring you many experiences that deserve a rich and hearty ho-ho-ho.

What makes an ad click with consumers on social media? The usefulness of $20 billion a year in U.S. ad spending depends on the answer -- and now there’s a reliable way to get it. A recent GreenBook webinar explored how a new technique called Social Ad Testing helps advertisers take the guesswork out of developing the right creative content and choosing the right platform for a campaign. The key is to do your testing in the actual personal news feeds of panelists who match the ad’s target audience. Not a simulation, but test occurring n the same ecosystem where the social campaign must succeed. 

If you didn’t attend the webinar, “Mobile Ad Testing On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Feeds,” no problem. It’s been archived on GreenBook’s website, and to watch and listen, just click here.

Here's your Friday roundup of 3 items from the MFour blog to keep you up to speed on mobile. Just click and read!

Change Is Hard, but Getting Mobile Right Is Worth It

How Mobile GeoLocation Takes Research Where You Need It To Be

Watch Webinar: The $20 Billion Answer to Social Media Ad-Effectiveness 

And here's a Friday video to give your holidays a big, happy bounce.

Graphic Designer Raymond Tuason and Research Consultant Allyson Wehn are the latest additions to the MFour team. Raymond will bring the eye of an artist to shaping MFour’s visual brand, and Allyson has 15 years’ experience as a market researcher.

Allyson arrives from CKE Restaurants, where she was a Senior Consumer Insights Manager feeding data to the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s quick-serve chains. Before entering the world of burgers and fries, she was a longtime research manager for Southern California Edison. At MFour Allyson has the important job of delivering research reports to our clients, representing the data clearly and interpreting the results to point them toward sound, reality-based business decisions. Allyson earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She enjoys camping excursions and is a devoted pro basketball fan who’s delighted that her team, the Boston Celtics, is doing so well this season, especially compared to the Lakers.

Raymond has an established track record in creating images and designs for the Smartphone Era, having worked as a graphic designer for Boost Mobile, Sprint Pre-Paid, Assurance Wireless and Virgin Mobile, along with freelance consulting. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art, with a Graphic Design focus, from California State University, Long Beach. While earning a living with his eye, Raymond also has been creative with his ears as a club DJ.

Welcome aboard, Allyson and Raymond!

Marketers are always being urged to “get mobile right,” and of course it’s just common sense, given mobile devices’ rise to utter dominance. But getting mobile right is easier said than done. After all, we’re only ten years into the Smartphone Era that began with the first iPhones in 2007. It's wrong to assume that businesses can easily process the challenges and opportunities that come with new information and communications technology that puts them -- and the consumer -- a tap or two away from a universe of shopping and marketing opportunities that would have been unimaginable a scant decade-and-a-half ago. Any sweeping technological change that takes virtually complete charge of how we all live needs time to sink in and get right. It took nearly 30 years to go from the first commercial dial-up internet service to the introduction of iOS and Android mobile wireless operating systems. The takeaway is that if you're still not sure how to get mobile right, it doesn't mean you're dreadfully behind the curve. 

The advertising industry has been especially concerned about how to get mobile right. There's still widespread uncertainty and anxiety over how to determine whether a particular digital ad really works. In the most recent issue of the Advertising Research Foundation's Journal of Advertising Research, two comScore executives examine the state of ad measurement in an article titled “Are You Using the Right Mobile Advertising Metrics?”

The authors, Gian M. Fulgoni, cofounder and CEO of comScore, and Andrew Lipman, the company's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Insights, write that relying on how frequently consumers click on a digital ad is an example of “murky mobile metrics.” Among other insights, they argue that audience reach should be a key metric for mobile, especially as it compares to ads viewed on desktops. They cite comScore’s own research to quantify the extent and efficacy of that reach. Among their findings:

– Measured by viewing time, mobile claims 75% of Facebook’s audience, 69% of YouTube's, and 99% for Instagram.

– In a comScore study of 14 advertising campaigns in 2016, mobile ads had a nearly 10-point advantage over desktop ads in reaching the brands’ target audiences.

– Campaigns that devoted more than 10% of their impressions to mobile had a 10-point advantage over campaigns that invested in television alone.

Another article in the same edition of the Journal, by Kristin Stewart, an assistant professor of marketing at California State University, San Marcos, and Isabella Cunningham, professor of Communication at the University of Texas, Austin, also treats the momentum toward mobile advertising as a given, driven by mobile's reach.

“As the frequency of consumers’ interaction with…platforms changes…so should the distribution of advertising dollars. Platforms’ allocation typically has lagged behind platform usage.”

Again, that lag time is understandable amid dizzying and comprehensive change in how consumers and brands access each other. Getting it right requires signposts and proven best practices that are still being developed. But some things never change. In advertising, the enduring imperative is to hone messages that work, regardless of platform or medium. And so the constant challenge and opportunity presented by sweeping change goes on.

With the need for mobile learning in mind, MFour is offering a GreenBook webinar on how brands can maximize their campaigns’ effectiveness on social media before the campaign begins -- by using an innovative new method called Social Ad Testing. Powered by new technology and an app-based survey panel, it tests ads in the natural environments in which they’ll need to succeed: the actual social media news feeds of the brand's target audience. The webinar, “Mobile Ad Testing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Feeds,” begins Thursday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. Eastern, hosted by a trio of operations and solutions experts from MFour. To sign up (and get a leg up on getting mobile advertising right), just click here.

Brands are spending nearly $20 billion a year – and rising fast – to reach U.S. consumers with social media advertising. It’s obviously crucial for their ads to succeed with mobile consumers on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. But will a given ad even be noticed when it appears in targeted recipients’ news feeds, competing with friends, family, entertainment and all the other attention-grabbers social media presents?

There’s a huge advantage in getting a reliable read on the answer before a high-stakes mobile social media campaign has even begun. A new ad-testing approach that lets advertisers obtain timely data on an ad's likely performance is the focus of a GreenBook webinar this Thursday (Dec. 14) at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Attendees will get a clear, concise introduction to Social Ad Testing, an innovative research method that gives advertisers a pre-launch sneak preview of how their messages will fare in the natural wilds of social media. The webinar, entitled “Mobile Ad Testing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Feeds,” will introduce you and your team to research capabilities and processes you haven’t encountered before. You’ll come away with a working understanding of how to maximize your social campaigns’ odds for success, by observing in advance their actual, real-world impact on research panelists who match the profiles of your most likely consumers. Social Ad Testing is NOT just a simulation.

Learn about new technology that sends planned social media ads into test panelists’ natural news feeds, to obtain insights into whether the concepts and creative content will really work.

Get acquainted with test methodology that allows advertisers to measure recipients’ behavioral interactions with an ad they don’t know to be a test, and then take the test a step further by obtaining qualitative survey feedback about why the ad works – or doesn’t.

See how comparative testing can tell you which social platform gives your ad the best chance to have its intended impact.

Understand the key opportunity Social Ad Testing affords: launching with confidence, and perhaps investing more intensively, when an ad tests well – and getting just-in-time second chances to make specific, pre-launch fixes when test ads underperform.

Your guides from MFour Mobile Research are Research Manager Michael Schmall, along with Director of Sales Alex Colao and Chief Revenue Officer Mike Gaffney, who’ll walk you through Social Ad Testing's specific features and uses.

Register Now! Just click here.

Judging the effectiveness of packaging is as much a staple of consumer research as breakfast cereal is in household pantries. And an ideal way to evaluate whether a cereal box or any other product’s packaging is grabbing shoppers’ eyes is to accompany them into the store and ask. In the past that required sending a researcher to stand at shoppers’ shoulders to observe and ask questions. Today it can be done by reaching shoppers on the smartphones they carry everywhere to answer questions while they’re right there in the cereal aisle – or any aisle relevant to a brand or a product. Here’s how:

• Members of a proprietary consumer panel keep their phones’ location feature on so they can receive location-specific surveys they take with an advanced mobile research app.

• You can talk to natural cereal shoppers who’ve been GeoLocated as they enter a store, with state-of-the-art accuracy powered by proprietary GeoIntensity^® and GeoNotification^® technologies.

   

• Each GeoLocated panelist will get a push notification; those who respond and say that cereal is on their shopping list will qualify for the survey.

• Ask away – and don’t forget to exploit smartphones’ multimedia capabilities to see the cereal aisle and its offerings through the shopper’s eyes, and hear what they think and feel in-the-moment by asking them to record video selfies.

• GeoLocation also identifies when shoppers are leaving a store. You can hold off until then to push a survey to find and interview the natural buyers who are relevant to your study. 

• Mobile-app survey response rates for after-visit questionnaires are typically 25% within an hour and 50% in a day or two. Asking about a fresh-in-mind experience counteracts memory bias and yields the most trustworthy data about behaviors, attitudes and emotions.

• Photos of  products on shelves or of cash register receipts provide firm validation of respondents’ authenticity and their data’s accuracy.

• Trace shoppers’ paths beyond the moment of purchase by fielding a follow-up survey. Ask validated buyers whether and why they enjoyed the product – or didn’t. And get insights into what makes them want to buy it again – or not.

For an in-depth conversation about how mobile-app surveys can address your specific projects’ requirements and get you the quality, validated data you need, just get in touch by clicking here.

Here's your Friday roundup of 3 items from the MFour blog to keep you up to speed on mobile. Just click and read!

Here's Why Quality Data Isn't a Given, But Has To Be Earned

The Data You Can Trust Is the Data You Can Verify

Marketing Execs To Santa Claus: Make My Gift Quality Data

And here's a Friday video that's a funky ode to authenticity.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year," is a musical refrain you'll be hearing quite a bit in the coming weeks. True as the song's cheerful message may be for most people during the holidays, it's easy for December to turn into the most hectic time of the year. Unless you're lucky enough to have a job or a work environment that slows to a comfortably accommodating speed during December, the holiday season can turn into a double-dose of demands on your time and energy, as getting your work done competes with the need to shop and prepare for family celebrations. Another famous musical refrain, courtesy of Simon & Garfunkel, says, "slow down, you go too fast." But good luck with that.

The challenge of too much happening too soon has been framed by Dr. Stephanie Brown, a Bay Area psychologist and author of “Speed: Facing Our Addiction to Fast and Faster.” Here are some of her key observations about the consequences of increasingly hectic living, both at work and in private life:

– "The need to be efficient and instant leads to a dumbing down of information intake.”

– "Constant notifications and incessant pinging conditions us to look forward to the next e-mail, the next text, fueling an agitated inner state.”

– "People become scanners…cruising…across the screen to pick up bytes, rather than delving toward a deeper understanding.”

– "The link between speed and success is continually reinforced by American culture.”

But the right technology, properly used, can buy us time and relieve some of our work-induced stress. In consumer research, that technology includes advances in do-it-yourself survey creation and fielding. MFour's contribution to the cause is MFourDIY® - a platform that lets you automate the process, from designing to programming to fielding and receiving your data. Among other features, you can essentially put a sequence of similar projects, such as tracking studies, on automatic pilot, dropping in new questions or tweaking others as needed, but otherwise just pushing a button.

– Access all the complex targeting and programming options you need in an intuitive, simple to use format, including complex quotas and logic and piping.

– Conduct in-store and after-visit exit studies powered by mobile GeoLocation.

– Tap into the multimedia capabilities of mobile panelists' smartphones, including obtaining  "video selfie" responses for particularly vivid insights that let you fulfill the storytelling imperative to "show, don't tell."

– Get real-time support and hands-on data cleaning from an in-house staff.

Of course you're busy, but If you can spare a few minutes to learn more, don't be surprised if you come away with the tools to save hours of labor that you can instead devote to all those other December demands. Or to kicking back and enjoying the moment. To set up a productive conversation about how mobile DIY studies can meet your projects'  specific needs, just get in touch by clicking here.