3. Ensure the survey
incorporates a data quality
algorithm that doesn’t
penalize good faith
responders.
Avoid yes/no questions in
the screening phase so as
not to encourage
acquiescent and incentive-
motivated responses.
Use the ‘soft launch’ feature
to confirm questions and
answers are clear and all
encompassing.
+ Ensure the sample size is large enough to generate reliable results. Aim for at least 300 completes. This study used n=460 active gamers.
Begin with a research
objective that clearly points
to the desired target group.
4. Write a Clear Research
Objective
DO: Learn about
gaming opinions,
preferences, and
behaviours of the
average US adult in
order to create more
relevant marketing tie-
ins.
DO NOT: Do a gaming
survey
Select the Appropriate
Targeting Option in
Samplify
Select ‘Census Rep’
option to use the US
census defined
specifications for
gender, age, ethnicity,
region, and Hispanic
affiliation
5. Within a ‘check all that apply’ list,
incorporate 2 brands or products that
do not exist (web search to confirm).
•Responders who check BOTH fake
brands fail this test.
2 ‘Red Herring’ Questions 1 Grid Question 1 Open Ended Question
+ Insert or adjust several questions designed to identify and retain data from good faith responders.
Ensure half of the questions will be
answered positively and half
negatively.
•Responders who straightline this grid
fail this test.
Design it so that it requests a lot of
typing. E.g., “Please share 3 reasons
why you prefer this product.”
•Responders who type 10 or fewer
characters fail this test.
One failure is normal for good faith responders but data from people failing 2 or 4 of these tests should be deleted.
+ In this study, 6.8% of responders were participating in a distracted mode and so were removed from this analysis
6. The ‘Soft Launch option in Samplify allows you to adjust early on
any questions/answers that do not create good spread or are not
all-inculsive.
• Add a couple of hours to your timeline to validate your survey.
Generate at least 30 completes and examine the answers for
oddities. Which options are selected too often or not often
enough? Are responders complaining in the open-ends about
survey design?
• In this survey, the initial pricing question had too many low
dollar value options and not enough high dollar value options,
problems that were rectified in the final question
• After a review of the open ends, other questions were edited
to include additional game, website, and forum answer
options.
7. + To avoid acquiescent and incentive-motivated
responses to the screener question, provide a range
of popular and unpopular brands or activities for
responders to select from
DO:
DO NOT:
“Which of the following activities have you
participated in during the last 3 months?”
“Have you played computer games in the
last 3 months? Yes/No”
Responders cannot tell what is being ‘screened’ for and, as a
bonus, you can learn about secondary activities that your
target group participates in.
9. + If we know the psychographics of people attracted to each game, we can catch the attention of
other people with those same characteristics and encourage them to also purchase.
Which snacks should be shown in commercials with which games?
Which TV shows should incorporate which games?
Which celebrities should ensorse which games?
Which games should be sold together in combo packs?
Which games should be re-released in which retro gaming styles?
11. Celebrity Assassins Creed Call of Duty Diablo Grand Theft Auto Halo Legend of Zelda Pokemon Sims Super Mario Warcraft
Bieber 16% 22% 23% 27% 23% 21% 19% 21% 23% 20%
Damon 70% 67% 73% 65% 70% 68% 65% 69% 67% 72%
Diaz 63% 67% 63% 65% 67% 62% 64% 61% 61% 55%
Fallon 62% 58% 53% 59% 61% 66% 57% 59% 60% 63%
Feinstein 17% 15% 17% 13% 19% 15% 10% 17% 15% 16%
Garner 66% 64% 53% 62% 65% 63% 57% 60% 62% 62%
Kim K 20% 19% 15% 20% 24% 17% 19% 19% 18% 16%
Across 18 celebrities currently making media headlines, Matt Damon consistently generates the highest likeability scores and is therefore the main
contender for a celebrity endorsement. Cameron Diaz is also an endorsement possibility for Call of Duty and Halo.
Dianne Feinstein, Justin Bieber, and Kim Kardashian consistently generate low likeability scores by people who own these games and therefore should
not be considered as endorsement possibilities.
*Values represent the percentage of responses that were “Very” or “Somewhat” likeable on a 5 point scale, among people who own a specific game. “How likeable or unlikeable do you think each
of these people are?
13. TV Shows
Assassins
Creed
Battlefield Grand Theft Auto Halo
Kinect
Adventures
Legend of Zelda Minecraft Starcraft Warcraft
Breaking Bad 74% 74% 65% 70% 64% 61% 59% 61% 64%
Big Bang Theory 77% 77% 67% 75% 75% 72% 68% 65% 76%
Under the Dome 49% 48% 49% 55% 51% 39% 42% 41% 45%
Greys Anatomy 42% 51% 49% 52% 49% 43% 46% 32% 43%
MythBusters 71% 69% 67% 74% 76% 74% 72% 73% 67%
NCIS 75% 75% 73% 74% 62% 67% 68% 69% 74%
Across 11 television currently making media headlines, Big Bang Theory consistently generates high scores from game owners. It is therefore the main
contender for product placement. NCIS, and Mythbusters also generate good product placement potential.
However, Grey’s Anatomy, and Under the Dome consistently generate low scores by game owners and therefore should not be considered as product
placement possibilities.
*Values represent the percentage of responses that were “Excellent” or “Good” on a 5 point scale, among people who own a specific game. “What is your opinion about each of the following
television shows?”
15. Across all game-owners, salty snacks were
most preferable. Owners of Starcraft were
most likely to choose salty snacks, owners of
Assassin’s Creed were more likely to choose
sweet snacks, and owners of Sims, Kinect
Adventures, and Starcraft were more likely to
choose healthy snacks.
Co-branding or co-packaging opportunities
should focus on pairing salty snacks with
games, though some considerations for sweet
snacks would be appropriate for Assassin’s
Creed.
*Values represent the percentage of game owners who choose each snack. “While you’re playing video games, what kinds of food do you snack on?”
17. Correlations Animal Crossing Assassin’s Creed Battlefield Call of Duty Diablo Grand Theft Auto Legend of Zelda Minecraft Pokemon Starcraft
Call of Duty 0.09 0.41 0.25
Diablo 0.25 0.22 0.12 0.10
Grand Theft Auto 0.07 0.35 0.37 0.39 0.24
Halo 0.12 0.49 0.32 0.35 0.21 0.35
Kinect Adventures 0.24 0.22 0.29 0.06 0.21 0.12
Legend of Zelda 0.27 0.36 0.16 0.15 0.20 0.18
Pokemon 0.37 0.20 0.24 0.05 0.13 0.10 0.39 0.31
Starcraft 0.49 0.11 0.22 0.05 0.39 0.07 0.21 0.24 0.30
SuperMario 0.16 0.33 0.21 0.22 0.19 0.26 0.39 0.31 0.35 0.07
Warcraft 0.20 0.42 0.24 0.25 0.24 0.18 0.30 0.44 0.26 0.33
Animal Crossing 0.11 0.22 0.09 0.25 0.07 0.27 0.18 0.37
Players of Assassin’s Creed are also likely to play Halo, Legend of Zelda, and Warcraft. These represent obvious game bundling opportunities.
Less obvious combinations that offer opportunities for reduced-price game bundling include Animal Crossing+Starcraft, and Legend of Zelda+Pokemon.
*Values represent the percentage of responses that were “Excellent” or “Good” on a 5 point scale, among people who own a specific game. “What is your opinion about each of the following
television shows?”
19. Starcraft and Animal Crossing owners are more likely to own an Atari system suggesting that creating those games in the style of the Atari system may be
appealing to them.
Call of Duty owners are less likely to have outdated gaming systems and so represent less of an opportunity in the retro-gaming area.
*Values represent correlations between games recently played. “Which of the following video/computer games do you own?” “Which of the following gaming systems do you own?”
21. Data quality algorithm eliminated 6.8%
of low-attention records
Screening question styled as “check all
that apply” from multiple categories
held acquiescent and incentive-
motivated responses low.
‘Soft launch’ allowed us to ensure
questions and answers were clear and
all encompassing
22. RESEARCH RESULTS
+ Matt Damon and Cameron Diaz are highly rated by
gamers and are therefore possible game endorsers
+ Big Bang Theory, Mythbusters, and NCIS are highly rated by gamers and
therefore represent opportunities for product placement
+ Salty snacks are preferred by gamers and are the preferred
food to be featured
+ Animal Crossing+Starcraft, and Legend of Zelda+Pokemon are co-owned
surprisingly frequently and could be a successful bundled combination
+ Starcraft could be successful as an Atari retro release
23. 460 US Census
representative
adults who have
played a
video/computer
game in the last
week.
Randomly
Selected from the
Peanut Labs online
research panel.
Margin of erorr for
a probablity
sample of n=460 is
4.6 points.
