Do surveys, the lifeblood of media engagement, still work? If so, what does the media look for in surveys? How often do they get covered? Do they help leverage the brand? A report titled, “Surveys to Know, Surveys to show”, compiled by GBM Live! Newsroom, with Impact Research & Measurement, seeks to answer these questions. The findings show that while a single survey can generate as many as five stories, increasingly and expectedly the rising focus in on visual storytelling.

While in 2013, 25% of the survey articles carrying an infographic allocated 100% area to the infographic; this has risen to 32 % for 2014:

Business dailies such as The Economic Times, Business Standard and The Financial Express carried the maximum number of articles on surveys, closely followed, and sometimes trumped, by The Times of India. While the business dailies primarily featured surveys on Consulting and Research, The Times of India was more HR- and IT-centric than other print publications.

Independent in-houses surveys on the rise, sample sizes no longer a challenge

The survey also reveals that while earlier it was important to have a verified external agency carry out the actual survey, today the media is more open to in-house surveys as well as a smaller sample size as long as the content is relevant. This has led to a rise in the number of independent in-house surveys

The study also shows that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get company officials quoted in surveys, hovering just one –third of the total stories on a specific survey:

The news drivers’ study based on an analysis of two years of published survey reports (2013 & 2014) across 14 English mainline print publications in India, reconfirms the huge potential offered by research and survey reports in generating newsworthy stories in the print media.

In 2013, the Indian print media published 1,750 stories based on survey reports commissioned by 258 companies in India. In 2014, the numbers increased to 2,004 stories, based on the survey reports commissioned by 261 companies in India: