Pop-Up Communities are re-shaping the way we can reach customers, observe and understand experiences, run international research, and communicate insight. Run properly, they also enable a new, more iterative and collaborative way of working, linking multiple methods with a pause-analyse-reflect approach. While technology is the enabler, it’s the experience and expertise of the qualitative researchers using them that is critical. Without that you get a lot of information, but no insight. Verve share the know-how for unlocking the true power of this ‘real qual’ approach and how you can use it to gather in-depth, culturally and socially relevant qualitative insight in a way that is faster, smarter and more cost effective. This presentation forms part of the online Festival of NewMR webinar series. Presented by Anna Williams from Verve.

1. How pop-up communities helped bring
online qual to the mainstream
Anna Williams
Verve
The Festival of NewMR, March 2020

2. Sponsors
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The Festival of NewMR, March 2020

3. How pop-up
communities
helped bring
online qual to
the mainstream

4. 4
From the back room to the mainstream
A decade of pop-up communities:
2007
2020
‘The future’

5. 5
Debunking 3 myths of pop-up communities
They’re
cheaper, but
‘not as good’
01 02
They’re just for
‘mainstream
audiences’
03
They’re
restrictive and
stifle creativity

6. 6
Pop-up communities are
usually cheaper. But they
have much more to offer
than cost savings; they’re
often a better way of
meeting research objectives
than traditional approaches
We used a year-long pop-up community to
explore Millennial consumer attitudes and
lifestyles in the Nordics – with the ultimate
aim of uncovering how Samsung could better
fit into their lives.
Using journals, diaries, exploratory
discussions, longitudinal product trials and
live debates we were able to develop a
complete picture of the target audience which
is now helping to shape the next generation
of features, products, and services.
This approach allowed us to keep in touch
with respondents on a regular basis via their
go-to channel – and over the course of the
year, we built up a rich knowledge base about
who they are and what makes them tick.
01

7. 7
Prudential needed to understand financial
vulnerability in its various guises in order to
inform the development of new, customer-
centric products and services. Given the
sensitivities, we needed a methodology that
allowed respondents the time and space to
build trust, and discuss themes that they may
feel embarrassed or guilty about.
Using a pop-up community we built a close,
1-to-1 rapport with financially vulnerable
consumers over several weeks; this, along
with the relative anonymity of the digital
world, meant that they were comfortable
discussing a topic that they had been
studiously avoiding! Ultimately, this approach
allowed us to tap into more honest, authentic
insights.
Pop-up communities mean
some hard-to-reach
audiences can become less
hard-to-reach; we can
connect with respondents
on their terms. Online isn’t
a barrier to building trust
and rapport
02

8. 8
London & Partners wanted to understand the
needs of international businesses around
global expansion, to ensure that London
remained an attractive place to invest post-
Brexit. Given the exploratory nature of the
research, we didn’t know where we would
end up when we started – an iterative
approach, that could flex depending on
emerging findings, was imperative.
A three-week pop-up community was the
ideal way to engage 70+ global C-Suite
individuals in a broad and lively discussion,
with test-and-learn activities developed ‘on
the fly’ in response to emerging topics of
interest. The flexibility of this approach meant
that we could follow our noses in pursuit of
insights that would make a difference.
Pop-up communities give
researchers the time and
space to calmly think on
their feet – a responsive
yet considered way of
conducting iterative
research
03

9. Food for thought:
We live in a digital world.
So does online qualitative
research now = ‘Real
Qual’?

10. Q & A
The Festival of NewMR, March 2020
Ray Poynter
NewMR
Anna Williams
Verve

11. 11
london@addverve.com
The Clove Building
4 Maguire Street
London SE1 2NQ
United Kingdom
Verve London
a.williams@addverve.com
addverve.com
Anna Williams
Executive Director
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