Who Is Research Now, Inc.?

There are dozens of companies around the world that conduct consumer research and no matter what survey site you may use you are likely to find many of these companies hosting surveys for you to take.

One of the most prevalent you’ll find is Research Now. As with many consumer research companies, Research Now has many tentacles. In the case of Research Now, it was originally formed as e-Rewards, Inc. and was co-founded in 1999 by a loyalty-marketing expert, and the former president of Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Perot Systems Corp. (Do you remember Ross Perot, once a U.S. presidential candidate?)

In 2009, e-Rewards acquired Research Now Limited, a London-based panel company with a very similar background as e-Rewards. Co-founded in 2000 Research Now owned and operated the Valued Opinions panels, which if you are taking a lot of surveys you’ll recognize for it’s own survey site. Research Now boasts over six million panelists in 37 countries worldwide and calls itself the leading global online sampling and data collection company.

In 2010, e-Rewards acquired San Francisco-based Peanut Labs, Inc. Founded in 2007, Peanut Labs had become well-known as a fast growing innovation, technology, and social monetization company that connected researchers to social media and helped publishers maximize their earning potential via virtual goods and currencies. As part of the acquisition, the Peanut Labs research business became integrated under the Research Now name, but continues to operate the social media monetization business as Peanut Labs.

In November 2010, e-Rewards, Inc. completed another acquisition, this of e-Miles, LLC. e-Miles was launched in November 2006 by similar investors as e-Rewards’ initial investors and is an interactive advertising channel that rewards consumers for the time they spend viewing ads online – similar to the e-Rewards Opinion Panel model which rewards panelists for time spent taking market research surveys.

e-Rewards is headquartered in Plano, Texas and its combined businesses employ over 1000 employees in over 22 offices around the world.

So, as with most if not all survey sites Research Rewards is in the business of conducting research and e-marketing for its clients. It’s very successful. Of course as a survey taker you are one of the vital cogs in the big wheel of data collection Research Rewards needs for its client base. Not vital enough, however, to pay you a lot for your time and effort. But, you don’t take surveys for the money, do you?

New Badge Program for Opinion Outpost

Opinion Outpost – one of the best survey sites – has introduced a new feature called a Badges Program. According to OO, “We have created badges for various activities you engage in on Opinion Outpost every day, like "Surveys Completed", "Total Points Earned", and many more!”

It’s not entirely clear what one gets from accumulating badges, but OO promises there’s more information to come. Why they couldn’t have announced details when they announced the program’s launch I don’t know.

The badges on my OO dashboard show that I completed more than 100 surveys, I’ve been an OO member for over a year, completed more than 20 surveys in a month, earned thousands of points, completed my profiles and more. There are various levels of performance for each badge.

Hopefully these badges will mean something of value in the near future. Stay tuned.

Forget The Video Surveys

I’m all for speeding through surveys, even though the survey companies always warn against it. I’m also picky about what surveys I take and which I don’t. Often the ones that seem to take a lot of time for little reward are surveys I pass on. One of the surveys that fit this description are surveys involving watching videos.

There are several types of video surveys, but the majority of them are ads rather than surveys. In other words, they are not really interested in your opinion. They are pretty much the same as watching a television commercial – all the advertiser wants is to have your eyeballs glued to their product for a time in the hope that you’ll be mesmerized into buying their product or service. Advertisers and manufacturers know that these days they can’t rely on the 30-second television commercial anymore. Viewers spread their attention over multiple devices and viewing technologies, so they have to try harder to get consumers to view their messages. Surveys are one of those methods.

The trouble with videos on survey sites is that they are invariably long – very long in most cases. They are also, in my experience, very miserly when it comes to paying – whether the amount or points they pay, or in forking over the cash/points you are due.

There’s one survey/video that pops up from time to time that has you view several unrelated videos and then launches you into selecting various products that have nothing to do with the videos. It’s an excruciating experience and often ends up with you having been excluded as “not being right for this survey” or being informed that the “quota has been reached” – even though you’ve completed the survey. Anytime I recognize that survey I opt out or just close my browser.

There are other surveys that contain video content and while a few might have some value for us survey takers, by and large most of them do not. I’ve found that there are quite enough plain old check-the-boxes surveys that I don’t often bother with ones that I have to sit through and watch commercials and videos.

So, when I see a survey offer that involves videos I usually pass on it. When I take a survey that starts to download videos I stop the download and move on to another simpler survey.

You may feel differently about this and that’s ok. But, my time is valuable and I want to make the most out of my survey experience and videos just slow me down. For me it’s just not worth it.

New For Toluna

Toluna, one of the largest and most popular online survey sites, has launched a new service – Global Lifestyle Surveys.

As yet, it’s not entirely clear how this new survey system differs from the regular Toluna surveys members complete. However, in the initial email that I received there was a very interesting pitch. The new survey system says it offers 10,000 points for completing it’s initial Global Lifestyle Survey (plus 3,000 more points for each follow up survey you take – and there were about a dozen to take. It takes about 45 to 60 minutes to get through all of them in one sitting going quickly, although you can take some surveys and come back to the others as time permits). Also, for completing the surveys you are entered into a prize drawing that includes a car, Kinect system, luxury vacations and more. Wow!

Unfortunately, there is no other information about this new system. It says that in the months to come there will be other, shorter, follow-up surveys that will come via email. There’s no word on how this will differ from any other Toluna surveys that one takes.

It’s also not clear if this new system will only be available to current Toluna members or if all Toluna members will be asked to participate. But, the initial offer of thousands of points and the prizes offered (better than I’ve seen in any other prize offerings by any survey company – although I’m not holding my breath that the odds of winning any of these prizes is anything but extreme) makes it well worth your while to keep an eye peeled for this offer and to participate.