Is polling and election research better, more engaging and more robust?

14th May, 2010 - Posted by Tom Raybould - No Comments

The wait is over, the dust has settled and the UK General Election has drawn to a close. It has been a fascinating process on many levels and of very much so for the research industry; the daily polls tracking the ever changing mood of the population and quantifying public opinion into easily understandable, and on occasion headline grabbing, numbers; the political debates where the “worm of sentiment” showed clearly that what the politician said had significant impact on instant opinion; the analysis of marginal seats and the likely swings; and that exit poll, which early on raised a lot of eyebrows as commentators pondered the accuracy of the findings but in the fullness of time became clear just how close to the mark they really were.

An event like the general election epitomises the requirement for robust, insightful, relevant and rapid research in landscape that is constantly changing. It was therefore fascinating to see the ever changing pre-election polls and heartening to see the art of research during election night being applied in such a varied and engaging way. Yes the pre-election polls did get the final result wrong but were they wrong or were they actually monitoring the pulse of a nation that was so undecided. For my money it was the latter as you only had to see how the political debates impacted the mood of the nation to see the results change. Are pre-election polls a good barometer of what’s actually going to happen, perhaps not, but is that what they are really measuring? I say hats off to all the researchers involved, it was great to see not only data being presented in an interesting way, but also how research is able to deliver meaningful and understandable insight.

As researchers we can all learn from this election; we should continually strive to find more interesting ways of presenting data, to understand customer sentiment better and deliver insight to our clients in a way that really shows the ROI of good research. I still think we shouyld say well done the researchers involved and the UK research industry.