Mobile market research 'now' - an interview with Eduardo Carqueja, CEO of AppGeneration

In the lead up to the 2nd International Conference on Market Research in the Mobile World on 19-20 July in Atlanta, we are interviewing a series of key speakers prior to the event. Next is up is Eduardo Carqueja, who is the CEO of AppGeneration and also the creator of the popular NPolls app. He talks to Jasper Lim (a straight shooter) about why the market research industry should take a closer look at his mobile polling app and what benefits it can bring to research companies.

JL: I'm pretty sure not many people have heard about NPolls. Can you tell me what it is and why it was conceived?

EC: We wanted to create a mobile polling app that can be easily navigated, visually appealing as well as fun for the respondents. On top of that, we also wanted the app to present visual statistics of polling questions in real-time. The app was so successful in our initial testing stages that we decided to release it under our own brand called "NPolls". Under our own brand, we built and managed our own online communities and selling results to research companies. We also offered our software license to companies that were interested to have their own branded mobile polling apps.

JL: There are literally thousands of mobile polling apps out there. Why should research companies use yours? What makes yours different from the rest?

EC: There are several advantages. First of all, we have a large online community base. Within 6 months our releasing NPolls, we have built up a community of more than 60,000 users! We publish polls everyday and gets about 5.000 targeted answers in less than 3 days! Our polls are straight to the point, consisting of short answers. We approached the market with topical and intriguing polls, thus eliminating 'boredorm' often suffered by respondents through traditional surveys methods.

Secondly, NPolls allows users to view general results immediately after answering a poll. This means that the initial hypothesis have become a reality when results are published. I believe this is something that users enjoy doing and will continue to answer questions given their interest as well as the intuitiveness of the app. In our recent survey, 86% of respondents claim NPolls is a more fun, interactive way to answer polls. With an average of 4.5 stars in  iTunes app store, it also shows that NPolls has a good appeal among the users.

If all platforms of polling are taken into consideration (i.e. phone surveys, personal interviews, web polling, focus groups, mail and email surveys), AppGeneration has created an affordable, likable system surpassing all traditional polling options. This is what separates NPolls from the rest. AppGeneration’s main goal is to make surveys fun and easy, while evolving market research by making it fast and more effective.

JL: Apart from the usual description of features and benefits, can you name me a big company that have used your app successfully in their business?

EC: Of course! Expresso Newspaper,  the largest weekly newspaper in Portugal was one of the first adopter of our technology. Expresso released 'vote Expresso' specially for the national elections containing news highlights and conducted daily polls. The results were published daily on their website and relevant data was used to create content in their articles.

AppGeneration is now in advanced talks with “El Pais” in Spain and “Le Monde” in France to replicate this case study with the goal of starting a new era of interactivity between companies and their audiences.

To see a complete list of speakers, agenda and a range of other topics that will be discussed at this conference, please visit: http://www.merlien.org/mobileresearch

Eduardo is the CEO of AppGeneration and developer of NPolls for smartphones. He has a Master of Science in Consumer behaviour from the Oporto School of Economics and a MBA in International Business from ESADE. He has previously worked as a Professor in Marketing, Marketing Research and Sales Management in Oporto School of Economics from 1994 to 2002.