One of the consistent things we hear at Revelation is a sense of surprise about how much data a Revelation-based project can generate. It seems new customers, who are more familiar with focus groups, are often most surprised by the amount of information their participants can generate within only a few days.

So why do Revelation Project studies generate such an unexpected treasure trove of information? There are two reasons that work together to produce so much data: the amount of active participation time and the nature of the activity-based approach. 

Let’s talk about participation time first. This is just a simple case of math. Compared to in-person focus groups, participants in a Revelation-based study spend a lot more time actively participating. Howard Zaltman in his book “How Customers Think” estimated that the average focus group member actually only actively participates – the time they are speaking - for 7 minutes. Think about it – a focus group participant may contribute a total of two hours to a focus group. But in a room with ten people and a moderator, they have only a limited amount of time they can actively contribute. 

In a five-day Revelation study, for roughly the same recruiting and incentive cost as a focus group, participants often actively participate for 20 minutes per day. Over the course of the study that can add up to 100+ minutes, nearly two hours of active participation. The huge difference in active participation time adds up to more data over the course of the study.

After active participation time, the nature of an activity-based approach is the second factor in Revelation-based studies producing a surprising amount of data. Activities elicit participant responses by creating opportunities to express beyond just answering questions. Let’s take, as an example, a photo metaphor exercise where participants are asked to post three images and descriptions to represent three different brands. With 15 participants, the total number of photos posted would be 45 images and accompanying descriptions, 15 for each brand. That is just one activity in  a series of many more activities over the course of a week. Add a video activity for 15 participants that solicit two video clips of two minutes from each participant. This would generate 30 video clips and an hour of video to watch and analyze.

As you can see it starts to quickly add up! In just two activities, participants have generated 45 photos and texts from the metaphor activity and 30 video clips from the video activity!

The great thing about this is that recruiting and incentives are about the same for Revelation Project studies versus traditional focus groups, which means that you are getting a lot more contribution from each participant – and more data – for your research dollar.

To learn more download our new white paper Cost Effectiveness Comparison: Immersive Research™ Compared to Traditional Qualitative Research Methods.”