By Tom Wood

In one of the most interesting projects with which we’ve been involved, Foolproof has been collaborating with Direct Line on ‘ideas lab’, a pioneering Facebook user insights programme. The programme has even caught the attention of Facebook’s senior management who saw an innovation with the potential to influence profoundly the global financial services industry’s social media perspective. In fact it is the only market research case-study showcased on Facebook’s worldwide hub - and just their third-ever UK case-study across all categories.

Interactivity the key

We worked with social media agency Techlightenment to devise and develop a ‘canvas app’ on Facebook for the project. This created an engaging, interactive space where participants could share and rate ideas for Direct Line’s iPhone app ‘On the Road’.

The user experience research included both qualitative and quantitative aspects. This allowed us to make confident recommendations about the overall proposition, and also give detailed feedback about features and content within the app.

To recruit participants we used targeted Facebook advertising. Techlightenment’s Alchemy ad platform allowed us to reach specific audiences and then optimise the campaign to lower costs while maintaining a balanced research sample.

Consumer insights, channel learnings & reputational benefits

A new version of Direct Line’s On the Road app is now live on the iTunes App Store. The new user experience reflects many of the findings we took out of the project.

Over 200 Facebook members participated in the study. We were delighted with both the quantity and quality of participation. The project delivered a range of additional benefits to Direct Line:

High-quality insights

The data captured is being used to drive product and service design decisions. In this instance providing insights on features for the next phase of Direct Line’s iPhone app. There was high quality participation in open-ended questions and, perhaps most significantly, we achieved our target for ‘Full Access’ data.

Channel learnings

We have acquired enhanced know-how on staging complex research projects within Facebook together with media learnings that can be used in the client’s future direct response advertising both inside and outside social media.

Reputational benefits

ideas lab has made a clear, positive and very public statement about Direct Line’s desire to collaborate with customers on product and service design. Consumer feedback on the concept has been excellent with 98% of comments positive and / or constructive.

Financial services do have place in social space

There is a widespread perception that the very nature of financial services means the sector is inevitably destined to sit outside the ‘social space’. However, Direct Line has shown that this need not necessarily be the case. Social media users are willing to collaborate financial services brands, at a product-specific level, provided presentation and execution are properly thought through.

About the author

Tom Wood is Co-founder and Managing Partner of Foolproof, one of the UK’s largest digital experience design agencies. He has been planning, moderating and analysing qualitative research throughout his career. Prior to Foolproof, Tom was Head of Advertising at Virgin Money where he pioneered usability research and brought home the value of understanding customers and seeing the world through their eyes. The idea that user experience is primarily a marketing discipline – rather than an IT discipline – was the founding insight for Foolproof.

About the company

Foolproof is an experience design agency specialising in user-centred design and customer-driven innovation. Our clients come from a variety of sectors including travel, financial services, utilities, gaming, media and telecoms. We've worked in over 20 markets including Brazil, US, Canada, Mexico, China, Australia & many EU countries. Our mission is to help our clients and their customers collaborate to produce valuable digital experiences – user research and insight is the cornerstone of our way of working.

Relevant links

Link to Facebook’s case study hub:

http://www.facebook.com/FacebookAds?v=app_7146470109

Direct link to the ‘ideas lab’ case study:

http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/RBS_Insurance_CaseStudy.pdf