Like many other businesses at this time of year, Dub has reached it's financial year end and completed the all important annual management accounts. What they confirmed was that Dub has had a great year!

During the year ending March 2012, we not only doubled staff numbers, we more than trebled our turnover. Staggering!

These results are down to pure hard work and effort by every member of our team (in the UK and US) in our focus in delivering a world-class service and great relationships. Don't get me wrong, the year wasn't all rosy - there were plenty of ups and downs like the time when one of our developers resigned, only for us to persuade him to stay based on working more flexible hours and from home when he wanted to (he's expecting a child shortly and wanted to travel less). Only by putting our people at the heart of our operation are we able to achieve this success, and it's this approach that we want to underpin next year by involving all staff in key business decisions and having a more transparent operation.

We don't get everything right the first time, but we try and experiment and to listen carefully to what our clients are asking for. We're investing heavily this next year, in people, technology, process and our passions. If you didn't get what you want from us this year, we're hopeful we can make bigger strides this year and deliver behind your needs. And if we achieve this, we hope you'll be equally as open as we try to be and tell your peers, friends and colleagues about the work we do together.

So thank you to everyone involved in making this year a big success, to our staff, suppliers and clients. Thanks for sticking with us, for trusting in us and for the investing in our biggest asset - our people.

The big challenge now is how to continue this curve....

Stephen Cribbett,
Co-founder and CEO
stephen@dubstudios.com

Earlier this week I sat down with one of Dub’s UK clients to ask them about the year ahead and how we could help them meet their challenges. What came to light was that despite them being extremely eager to do more online qual and research communities, it was still proving difficult for them to convince their clients of the benefits.

We talked about this and coming away from the meeting I thought it would be a good idea to share with you some hints, tips and stimulus researchers can use to win over clients and get them excited about online qual. Here’s what I came up with, some of which was inspired by a great discussion in LinkedIn. If you’ve got more to add, please feel free to comment....

• It’s a more cost-effective way to engage geographically dispersed consumers
• For the budget spent, you’ll get more time, more focus and deeper engagement per respondent than traditional f2f methods
• When talking to clients, always try and have case studies in your pocket ready to show them.
• Quote literally show them examples of the participant, client and researcher experience so they can see how easy it is - seeing is believing, and far outweighs conversation alone
• Demonstrate the breadth of creative exercises you can set participants beyond just bulletin-board style questioning (projective exercises, creative production of materials etc)
• The depth, complexity and volume of contributions is staggering - share examples that display a level of thought and richness they won’t get with other methods
• Be prepared for client objections with a ready-made set of FAQs
• The comfort of a familiar place (the participants home or office, for example) results in greater honesty and more revealing answers
• Let your clients know you’ve battle-tested the method and the technology, made the mistakes and learnt (on someone elses time and money!)
• There’s no real domination in online communities, and as such the discussions are open and meandering. Everyone is equal.
• Participants say exactly what they think and feel, and don’t behave as though they have to be politically correct. This level of honesty is staggering, even to the most seasoned researcher.
• Online qual provides time for participants to consider their response and the conversations that have taken place beforehand. This reflection works exceptionally well when deep-diving.
• Participants also have more time to listen, reflect on and respond to the responses posted by others
• Participants get safe, secure environments to talk about sensitive subjects such as personal illness
• The asynchronous nature of online qual gives participants a better opportunity to respond to open-ended questions
• The ability to reach audiences with low incidence is much greater
• Being able to iterate the research provides much greater value as time is not lost
• Be patient, they will come around and start asking for it sooner or later!

If you'd like case studies, screenshots or further help and guidance on how to convert your clients, don't hesitate to get in contact with me at stephen@dubstudios.com or by calling +44 (0) 20 7247 3327

If you're not familiar with it then HeadsUp by Dub is a great way to engage your clients with your research work and the insights they've spent a lot of money building. It brings team from various destinations together to collaborate and share experiences and insights, and it saves client's time in meetings and on the phone by keeping them up to date with the latest developments on their project, all via an online portal.
One of clients, TNS, has been using HeadsUp with great success and has provided some feedback that we felt deserved to be shared as it neatly sums up what HeadsUp is all about...

HeadsUp bridges the gap between great online communities and client engagement. It became an indispensible tool for a study we ran in five markets, bringing together over 40 stakeholders scattered across the globe. Blogging our way through fieldwork (both online and offline), HeadsUp can be more than a content curation tool for communities- it can help breathe life into a project as it unfolds and serve as a central hub bringing together clients, discussion and project materials into one virtual space.

If you'd like to know more about how HeadsUp brings your client closer for longer, email stephen@dubstudios.com or call +44 (0) 20 7247 3327 or +1 310 997 5779

The award recognizes and promotes excellence in qualitative research on an International level. A panel of respected industry judges reviewed entries on project design, scope and execution, along with the study’s impact on the client’s business objectives.

Layla's qual study for her client, The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC), was selected for its strong efforts to:

• Tackle an important health issue with creative research techniques
• Uncover valuable patient insights on a sensitive topic
• Provide a solid business plan for the client’s five-year strategic communication efforts

The study focused on identifying relevant communications channels in which the CCFC could better engage with patients of Crohn’s Disease and Colitis. The 10-day study aimed to understand how to get the right information into patients’ hands at the right times.

Understanding that the disease often dictates patients’ lifestyles, Layla designed a study that would allow respondents to participate on their own schedules. She used an online discussion board (hosted on IdeaStream™) to encourage openness and honesty in a supportive environment. Important conversations took place among participants as they revealed details of their struggle and found support.

During each day of the study, respondents were asked to complete a different task or share opinions on a different topic. For example, patients at varying stages of the disease were asked to recreate the moment of their diagnosis, recommend valuable information sources, review and offer feedback on various CCFC publications or describe how the syndrome affects their day-to-day work/school life.

The study revealed different communications opportunities at various stages (prior to diagnosis, at diagnosis and post diagnosis), as well as types of information and tools that would assist in providing future patients with knowledge, empowerment and support to most effectively control the disease.

The CCFC has used the results of the study to develop a five-year strategic plan that would guide the organization’s approach to patient and health care provider engagement and communications. The CCFC now tailors its communications in a meaningful way to each of the defined patient audiences to provide appropriate information at appropriate times.

Layla and the CCFC will receive the 2012 QRCA Qually Award at the upcoming Worldwide Conference on Qualitative Research, April 25-27 in Rome, Italy that Dub will be exhibiting at, so why not drop by and say hello.

We can't wait to meet you!

If you're in the US and have run some offline focus groups recently but been left with unanswered questions, or if an idea for a concept came out of your groups but you want to work with respondents to refine it further then why not take advantage of a fantastic new offer from Dub's global recruitment partner, WatchLAB.

The idea is simple. If you've run a focus group but want to efficiently and cost-effectively re-engage respondents to get more answers then WatchLAB will manage an intense 3-day online research community. Sounds easy, well it is. What's more, the advantages to engaging respondents post-group are many, including the capture of more considered responses and the chance to assign more involved, creative exercises or immersion.

To find out more, follow this link.

Dub's online qual and research community software, IdeaStream and UpClose, is now available in Hungarian. For further details of the multitude of languages available - 19 in total - click here.

To find out more about how Dub and it's online qual research software and services can help you deliver research studies around the world without leaving your desk, contact Stephen Cribbett by emailing stephen@dubstudios.com

If you're running an online insight community, be it project-based or longitudinal, you might experience times when the level of discussion is lower than you'd like it to be. When this happens, there are a number of ways you can stimulate conversation.

Here are some suggestions of the kind of conversations that rarely fail to get people posting with vigour. As you'll see, nearly all are 'about them' and provide a platform for them to talk about their favourite subject, 'themselves'.

What are the three favourite things you couldn't live without?

No matter what type of person or character they are, all members have products or certain things they couldn't do without, so it's an easy in and always get's a response. What's more, members love to look at what other members have said, so make it a public profiling exercise if possible

What is your goal in life?

Again, members are always keen to spend time sharing their goals and how far they have come in achieving them, so use this conversation at the start of your community to get people motivated.

Place the following items in order of preference

This could be musicians or bands, tv shows or personalities, for example. It never fails to attract attention.

Who do you most admire in life and why?

This is a very philosophical and thoughtful conversation, and is always a winner when looking to focus members on upcoming exercises that require deep thoughts and reflection.

Tell me about your typical day?

Good or bad, everyone likes to share their day with you, from the moment they get up to their journey to work. It's an easy-in and always provides unique response

To find out more about how Dub can help inject some life into your insight and innovation community, contact stephen@dubstudios.com or call +44 (0) 20 7247 3327

At Dub, we help our global clients (brands and agencies) create private, invite-only online communities for the purpose of delivering game-changing insights, collaborative innovation and co-creation. This means helping bring together a brand and its customers, but also those who aren't yet consuming their products or services, or those that actively don't want to. These are often referred to as outliers or abstainers, and they are the people who can deliver the best ideas and the richest insights.

The insight communities we help create can be categorised as either Project-based or Longitudinal.

1. Project-based Insight Communities

As the name suggests, these communities are short-lived; typically a couple of days up to a a few weeks. They are tasked to meet a single project objective (research, insight or co-creation) and once this has been achieved, they are quickly disbanded.

Being focused on a single objective means that activity is over a shorter period but is likely to be intensive. Members of the community are likely be assigned exercises on a daily basis, and these can range from blogging, keeping diaries, roleplaying, group discussions, surveys and polls, and brainstorms. Unlike traditional research techniques, members have a much clearer idea as to what is happening with the information and ideas they share since the asynchronous nature of the engagement affords the Community Manager / Moderator the time to feedback. This in itself motivates participation.

In support of project-based insight communities, Dub has the leading platform called IdeaStream

2. Longitudinal Insight Communities

Brands like the opportunity longitudinal insight communities afford, since it's like getting a large number of their most valued customers together in a room and making them available to answer any questions anyone in the organisation has at any time, 24/7.

Because of the longer-term nature of these communities, different tactics and resources need to be deployed to keep them alive and active. This includes going behind just the task-based level of interaction seen in the project-based communities, and allowing members to go off-piste and start their own discussions. The community (and insight) will also benefit from letting members strike-up their own relationships, as it allows the brand to witness their customers talking about their products and services in the most natural, unfacilitated fashion.

To help you deliver successful longitudinal insight communities, Dub has developed the UpClose platform.

In addition to providing the best technology, Dub has a wealth of experience in how to find the right people for your community, how to engage and optimise your time with them, and how to ensure your members are motivated and rewarded over time. Dub can help you plan how long your community should be and give you guidance on how to deliver design effective online research.

To find out more about how Dub can help you fire-up your insight communities, make better decisions and be more innovative, contact stephen@dubstudios.com

If you've embarked upon the creation of a longitudinal insight community consisting of customers, non-customers, outliers and abstainers, then one of the challenges you might find is how to pro-actively fire-start new discussions around topics that are a) relevant to the community, b) going to get a good response, and c), most important of all, are insightful.

Take time to look around (outside the realms of your community) at some of the most actively engaged communities in the same topic area. Pay attention to the news and latest issues affecting consumers or culture, for example. Ask yourself if these discussions would ignite within your own insight community and consider kick-starting them.

Within longitudinal insight communities, you can create the topic areas and allow your members to add the threads within it, so carefully consider the construction of the topics to encourage this interaction.

This afternoon, our founder and CEO Stephen Cribbett will be speaking on Radio NewMR alongside Rosie Campbell and Lenny Murphy (Green Book, US) about where he sees MROCs going and what's going to make waves in 2012.

To tune in and listen to the debate, click here