“Always on” brands ›› The relationship between people and brands has changed dramatically. Today it is no longer about a one-way monologue, brands are expected to be always on, opening themselves up to an “on-going” dialogue. They actively seek feedback, ideas and participation. Increasingly brands have access to people’s conversations, listen attentively and respond appropriately. The power in the relationship is now in the hands of consumers.
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YourWord is the place for people to talk to and about brands » An engaging, multi-functional digital platform. YourWord enables you to have conversations about your brand, directly with people you want to talk to. You can have an intimate conversation with a few people or with lots of people in a ‘pop up’community. The conversation can be short or and be over a longer period of time. YourWord lets you structure your conversation (via surveys and bulletin boards) or have a more free flowing discussion (via webcam or private blogs). People can access YourWord on their mobile, helping you talk to them whenever and wherever they are, whether on the street, in a taxi, in a bar, inhome or in-store.
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Who gives their word? Âť YourWord engages with the people you want to talk to. YourWord gathers people you specifically want to talk to. Sourcing people from customer databases, online panels, web intercepts or pre-recruiting them. It also helps you seek out and engage with the most influential people on the web, bringing them closer to your brand.
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An engaging environment Âť The Facebook of research. YourWord in our mind is the Facebook of research. Unlike the traditional world of research, it seeks to actively engage people in a lively, social environment. We constantly refresh the content to create on-going engagement and involvement in YourWord. We provide links to fresh, interesting or exclusive content (e.g. product reviews, film/TV top viewing tips). We run regular fun polls, start new discussion topics and invite two-way conversations to keep the dialogue fresh, involving and to limit drop-out. And of course, we always thank people, make users feel valued and allow them to give feedback on the experience.
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An unrestricted dialogue  Watch people think through ideas, thoughts and feelings over time. People answer our questions or each other’s when they want. We can then explore their answers with further questions. They can also start their own conversations for other people to follow. The conversations can be highly controlled and moderated, or left alone, allowing people to post directly to each other and evolve the conversation on their own terms.
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“Pop Up” Community » Community engagement on a specific task. We create “Pop Up” Communities on YourWord to explore an issue over a longer period of time. This allows people to come together, share each other’s ideas and solve problems together, creatively. We have used this to provide insight on a shopper journey, or for doing a deep dive into a specific category behaviour. It is also a great approach for exploring co-creative innovation.
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Intimate Conversations Âť Talking personally and privately. We also set up private blogs for when we want to have more intimate conversations and wanto to avoid the influence of a group. This is particularly useful for sensitive topics such as health, or for some contentious or emotional issues. It is also helpful for contacting busy or hard to reach people, such as business professionals or doctors. The blogs are great for diary studies, and give us an opportunity to do a study over a longer period than is possible in person and at a lower cost.
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Getting visual » Bringing their world to life. We ask people to use their mobiles, webcam, video or digital camera to capture and upload their experiences. They can then share these with other people and us. This is great for adding texture and nuance to their feedback. We can also ask them to do self-ethnography, shop-alongs, in-home visits, brand and media audits and even a day in their lives. It is also perfect for capturing a real experience or for generating a ‘brand eulogy’ or ‘personal ads’ for brands. People love the opportunity to get creative, using pictures to support their ideas.
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Your Views and Votes Âť Many points of view. When you want to talk to larger number of people we can use YourVote or YourView. ourVote involves short and quick questions, running for only a couple of Y minutes. While YourView can run with more questions up to twenty minutes. hey can be used to explore a new product concept where you have lots of T ideas to screen out, or when fast feedback is needed (overnight or over a week), or when you want a more in-depth measure of different points of view. They are also helpful for exploring hot topics or hypotheses and when you want instant feedback.
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Engaging conversations Âť Using YourWord. We have used YourWord in so many different ways. It has helped us innovate, experiment and reveal insights which otherwise may have gone unnoticed. These are three examples of how YourWord has helped us.
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Understanding what makes sex so exciting » We used YourWord to find on inspiring insight for one of the world’s leading sexual well-being brands. We used it to identify a new brand positioning and new product concepts. We expaned the love and sex lives of American couples. The YourWord’s platform helped people to feel more liberated and able to talk openly and candidly about their relationships. We also asked about their perception of sex in the media and how this influenced their sex lives. What we learnt fed into co-creation workshops, with couples. The outcome was a new, audience-inspired, brand territory that was disruptive within the category. A new advertising campaign was developed, and this led to double digit growth for the brand.
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Influencing the automotive shopper journey  Our automotive client wanted to explore today’s experience of choosing for a new car. Specifically, they wanted to understand how digital tools were being used in exploring buying a new car. Our job was to determine where they should be focussing their efforts. We carried out a two week conversation among fifty people, at various stages of the auto shopping journey. People were asked to document their activities throughout the two weeks, everything from web sites used, who they spoke to and the dealerships they visited. We asked them to describe their emotional states during each step. Our insights helped our clients to develop digital activity to enable search and drive a more engaging experience along the different touchpoints
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Developing support services to enhance the patient experience » Our client wanted to develop a best in class patient support programme, to reinforce their position as the most patient centric brand in the category. We used YourWord to capture patient ‘day to day’ life experiences, ‘in-context’ and the emotional struggles and unmet needs. We talked to patients at different stages of the disease, from mild to severe. We asked them to keep a multi-day journal to record their hopes and fears. The anonymity of YourWord allowed patients to freely share their most private thoughts. The final outcome was a clearly defined patient journey. We were able to identify critical unmet needs on multiple levels – emotional, social and practical. Our client used this information to create innovative solutions and services to support their clients.
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What else will YourWord do?  We constantly refresh the content to create ongoing engagement and involvement in YourWord. We provide links to fresh, interesting or exclusive content (e.g. product reviews, film/TV top viewing tips). e run regular fun polls, start new discussion topics and invite two-way W conversations to keep the dialogue fresh, involving and to limit drop-out. And of course, we always thank people, make users feel valued and always give feedback on their and others’ answers.
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Find out more » If you would like to learn more about YourWord and how it can help with your business issues, then please get in touch. CAPE TOWN » capetown@hallandpartners.com CHICAGO » chicago@hallandpartners.com JOHANNESBURG » johannesburg@hallandpartners.com LONDON » london@hallandpartners.com LOS ANGELES » losangeles@hallandpartners.com MELBOURNE » melbourne@hallandpartners.com MUMBAI » mumbai@hallandpartners.com NEW YORK » newyork@hallandpartners.com SEATTLE » seattle@hallandpartners.com SHANGHAI » shanghai@hallandpartners.com SINGAPORE » singapore@hallandpartners.com SYDNEY » sydney@hallandpartners.com
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