1. If you want to develop a continuous stream of insight on a hard-to-connect-with
target group, get in line. Most marketers know the UK youth segment is notoriously
difficult to track. On the go. Super-connected. Mercurial. No patience with surveys.
Their ever-changing preferences are nearly impossible to keep up with.
Phones 4u was committed to putting the needs of these digital natives front and
center.As the leading independent mobile phone retailer for the youth market in the
UK, their unique brand is supported by irreverent advertising campaigns, a vibrant
social media presence and a market-leading smartphone lineup.
www.visioncritical.com
VISION CRITICAL
HELPS PHONES 4U
GO SOCIAL
WITH RESEARCH
TAP THE SOCIAL SIDE OF YOUTH SURVEYS
Their goal was to reinvent the way they listened to what their young customers were saying. To tap into the conversation,
they designed and developed the 3000-strong “uBar”community panel powered by Vision Critical’s Sparq technology as
a cost-effective tool for talking specifically with these valuable trendsetters.
Graeme Ford, who implemented the uBar community panel, is Head of Insight and Social Media at Phones 4u. uBar’s
ability to tune into the youthful voice of their customers on any day of the year enables Graeme to get answers that inform
commercial, marketing and operational decisions virtually overnight.
Vision Critical’s Sparq technology empowers Graeme to manage the panel in-house. Instead of researchers firing broad
questions to the panel, members of the panel are invited to input their own questions into the survey process. By tapping
into what members are already talking about, then encouraging them to feed those subjects directly into the survey,
Phones 4u can accomplish two marketing goals: recognizing emerging issues that matter most to the mobile youth
community, and engaging a hard-to-reach community in an ongoing conversation.

2. The key to successful panel management, according to Graeme, is constant innovation and change. Graeme says, “Keep it fresh…treat
the community as another social media channel. That means keeping the panel alive, keeping up with the market and keeping up with
new technologies.”
To keep it fresh, they use the full range of Sparq visual questions, and use questions in the form of short stories to really engage the
readers. Graeme is constantly working on adding more social media integration into the program with a uBar widget in the pipeline.
FOCUSING THE PRODUCT OFFERING
Phones 4u is founded upon satisfying customers’ needs. That drives everything from merchandizing choices to the creation of sales
agent and client services processes that help customers find a phone and a tariff that’s the perfect fit.
The majority of the insights gathered from uBar have been around product. Members help inform what Phones 4u customers want from
a handset, what functionality they need and how they want the tariffs to be structured. Opinions can shift at the speed of a twitter
posting or a prominently displayed handset in a celebrity photo-op, so the speed of data gathering from the online panel is an enormous
advantage for assisting in the choosing of handset models and features to emphasize when launching new mobile phones.
IMPROVING THE MEDIA BUY
Phones 4u can now track media preferences by asking panel members about their monthly television and radio usage. This advantage
allows the company to target messages to viewer behavior, saving money by reducing waste in the media spend. Improving the
efficiency of media buys has proven to be one of the strongest sources of ROI in the program. The panel members also helped Phones
4u select the right phone model exclusively with a major hand set manufacturer—and it has gone on to be one of their top sellers. “That
survey alone has paid for the panel 10 times over” says Graeme.
DIALING INTO THE NEXT GENERATION
According to Graeme, “There is lots of gold dust data out there but companies don’t utilize it. Now I can get everything in-house, get
close to the data, share it around the company and share research requests on a weekly basis. Now I am looking forward to taking uBar
to the next level with full social media integration.”
Contact us: +44 (0) 20 7065 7270
Vision Critical
Boston House
63 New Broad St., Level 3
London, EC2M 1JJ
ABOUT VISION CRITICAL
Vision Critical is a strategic interactive research company combining technology,
researchers and global panels. We help companies reduce research costs while
generating engaging and insightful relationships with consumers. Vision Critical uses
a virtual approach, panel technology and our own global panels to embrace markets
with the click of a mouse. The company has offices across North America, Europe and
Australia and a Global Partner program that provides other research companies and
consultants with access to out technology.