Discovering What Germany Thinks
© Civey
Using machine learning-powered algorithms, a Berlin-based company is modernizing opinion polling by making it transparent, automated and fully digital.
Opinion polling is a marker of a free, democratic society. Without it, autocrats can simply declare the will of the people without knowing it. But how accurate is opinion polling data?
Not very accurate. At least that’s what many people said after the 2016 presidential election in the U.S., in which quite nearly every poll incorrectly predicted Hillary Clinton the winner. Since then, many have urged pollsters to modernize their methods, replying less heavily on call-based response methods and instead finding new ways to reach broader audiences.
Berlin’s Civey, a market and opinion research company, is heeding that call. Founded by Janina Muetze and Gerrit Richter, Civey is moving marketing and opinion polling into the digital future.
Participation Through Innovation
Civey’s innovative reputation centers on their transparent results. Participants are provided polling results in real-time, allowing them to see how their data is used and adding value to their contribution. This simple shift has had a profound impact. The Pew Research Center found that transparency is a major obstacle to recruiting polling attendees, and Civey’s large sample sizes affirm this. Every month, they accumulate around 15 million answers to their polls.
Using machine learning algorithms, Civey recruits and verifies participants as well as analyzes their inputs. Civey recruits their panel participants on more than 25,000 URLs of high-reach websites such as DER SPIEGEL, DIE WELT or T-Online.de. Using this method, Civey reaches participants with a variety of interests and backgrounds to respond to polls on topics as varied as politics, business, technology, sports and consumer behavior. All surveys are anonymous, and data is encrypted in transmission. Customers include the German government, Vodafone and Volkswagen.
In difficult political moments like the present, data should be used to fight misinformation and to guide important decisions. This is exactly the product value Civey aims to provide.
More at: civey.com