By Lauren Coates

As a market research professional, it is vital to keep up with the latest techniques and trends in the industry. The New England Marketing Research Association (NEMRA) holds semi-annual conferences allowing those in the field to connect, share ideas, and learn new and useful ways to conduct research.

All of the sessions presented at NEMRA this spring were educational and useful, but Jeffrey Henning, founder of Researchscape International, delivered my favorite (even though I didn’t win any of the trivia prizes). His presentation described several ways to easily “gamify” research studies. By adding games to online surveys, participants are more engaged and are more likely to provide actionable insights. Here is a sampling of his gaming techniques:

Time limits. Rather than asking survey respondents to simply recall cereal brands, turn it into a fun activity by saying “I challenge you to name as many cereal brands as you can in 30 seconds.” This phrasing will bring out competitiveness of respondents and make them want to give it their all.

Scoring. Another helpful tool for engaging survey respondents is to turn the questionnaire into a quiz. In a scoring game you would tell the respondent you are going to quiz them on their knowledge of cereal brands, then present several pictures of cereal boxes (without the names) and have them name the brand. For every cereal that they correctly identify, they would get a point added to their score. Again, this easy game will engage respondents and result in more accurate results.

Reward. A third way to excite respondents is by offering a non-monetary reward at the end of a survey. Similar to the scoring exercise, you could present respondents with a quiz and say that you’re going to test their cereal IQ. In addition to earning points for correct answers, you could also provide them with tips. For example, if a respondent incorrectly answers a question about the amount of fiber in a serving of cereal, you could give the correct answer AND information about why fiber is important to include in everyday meals.

I highly recommend NEMRA’s conferences. If you want to learn more about NEMRA Follow them on Twitter @NE_MRA. To check out more news from Anderson Robbins be sure to Follow us @ARResearch.