Summary
This paper presents a review of extant literature about virtual worlds market research. We discuss the need for greater recognition of differences to traditional online and e-commerce web services, including social media. Our review considers what makes virtual worlds different and of particular interest to market researchers, including an overview of Second Life. We examine the issues faced and analyse how these link to research processes. We conclude that there is a need for a deep understanding of how user-participants behave ‘in-world’. This article contributes by raising awareness and informing the market research community of pertinent issues.

Summary
This study investigates if a gamified survey provides greater insight into the relationship between consumers and brands compared to a more traditional survey approach. The research found that moving from a traditional survey to a Flash-enhanced survey reduces respondent fatigue and increases quality of response. Equally, when you move from the Flash survey to a gamified one, responses increase even further. The gamified element allowed the researchers to learn more about how respondents felt about particular brands. The research concludes that when the differences between brands are nuanced a gamified environment can highlight feelings and indicate brand differentiation.

Summary
This research compares two competing views – the integration view and the interference view – to see whether presenting a brand placement in multiple modalities can enhance its effectiveness. Our results first show that majority of the children can not recall a brand placement embedded in a video game. Our results further demonstrate that presenting a brand placement in a single modality makes children more likely to choose the target brand at test than presenting it in multiple modalities. These results have important implications for both public policy makers and marketing managers.

Summary
This paper explores the effects of gamification and social sharing on consumer engagement with smartphone applications that are designed to collect users' data for market research purposes. The study involved developing a gamified smartphone application and a social feed that was designed to capture television viewing behaviours. Results from the study were that gamification appeared to engage respondents to participate whilst the addition of a social feed appeared to have little appeal or impact. Overall, the authors argue that the features appear to be important for re-engaging respondents that are part of a long-term data collection effort, with the cost and effort to develop the features making it less viable for shorter-term studies.

Summary
With the rapid development of online communities and social networks, marketers have started to use online opinion leaders to influence their social circles. In this study, we use a review dataset generated from an online forum to empirically investigate social influence on reviewers’ eWOM motives and readers’ feedback. Our results show that, first, community members’ reviews are not influenced by their forum involvement. Their evaluations mainly depend on product attributes. Second, the reviews from those who have established their expertise in the community generate more ‘buzz’ and more trust among online forum readers compared to reviewers with less expertise. The findings indicate that certain marketing strategies, such as ‘seeding’ targeted towards opinion leaders, may work better than a general buzz marketing strategy targeted towards a general audience. Our results also provide useful guidance on how to identify opinion leaders in the online community.

Summary
There has been a proliferation of more creative ways of asking questions in online surveys over recent years, epitomised by the idea of the gamification. But one key question is how well some of these new respondent engagement techniques will work in different countries and how relevant they are there. This paper addresses this issue through the fielding of an experimental survey in different countries containing a range of creative question formats and a comparison of responses. It offers a series of guidelines for designing international online surveys.

Summary
Using the example of a research project for the CSOB, a leading Czech bank, this presentation demonstrates how a research assignment can be turned into a highly useful, multi-purpose tool benefiting both the client and the bank's customer. Results delivered by conjoint analysis on the bank's personal banking product portfolio were used to develop an educative online game that simulates a sales communication of bank representatives with their customers. As an innovative concept for training the sales force, the game was eventually merged into CSOB's internal education system.

Summary
This presentation takes a quantitative approach to investigating the role of how the various interfaces available to us (traditional, Flash and gamification) resonate with online panellists. most importantly, it explores the "Buyer Beware" learning around "when" and "how" there are differences which must be taken into account. Demonstrating an ability to take a "methodologically-agnostic" position and to highlight key learning that can advance industry dialogue, this presentation will provide you with a true awareness of the implications for the future of market research online design.

Summary
This presentation addresses the role of games in market research. It provides a working definition of what a game is and why the role currently assigned to games by market research misses the broader opportunity that they offer. Research games can be used to get us closer to real-life mindsets. Market research can learn from game designers and how we might create great games and research experiences that can be enormously beneficial to clients seeking to understand and predict behaviour.

Summary
In this scene-setting presentation, Future Foundation will draw upon its extensive global research programme (including quantitative and qualitative elements) to signpost the key digital trends characterising the habits and expectations of diverse contemporary global consumers in 2012, and beyond. From the monitoring of personal metrics via sophisticated mobile devices to the growth of digital payments, Future Foundation will present the key trends we expect to grow in the decade of 2010, complete with insightful implications for brands and societies alike.