Pollfish Blog

Monetizing upon the illusion of being part of something

It is widely accepted nowadays that a very interesting need, that thrives among people, is the need of being part of something, even if that thing is not something tangible or something that users can actually benefit from somehow. Being able to apply such a concept around an app’s design, can leverage several monetization opportunities in the long run.

Being part of a story

A good story around an app can spike several different behaviours among the users. This story could be anything like solving a problem, rescuing a princess, killing the bad guy, or even just creating a better content in a news app. Users that engage in such a story, can become loyal and addictive, and this can be a good opportunity for publishers in order to apply techniques discussed in previous articles. A good narration script describing the story during the onboarding experience can excite and engage users, who later on can be confronted with scarcity monetization moments while trying to follow that story.

Being of a bigger cause or vision

People tend to believe in a bigger cause...or want to be part of a vision.  We could start this discussion from religion but we do not have to go that deep. In the past, several techniques were used, to increase revenues when promoting contribution in common good or a general good cause. Creating a concept around an app that convince users, that by using the app or its features, are contributing or being part of a certain vision, can leverage opportunities even if there is no direct benefit from that for the users. The need of staying aligned with such a vision or helping towards a certain cause, can bring monetization opportunities, especially on the fremium model.

Being part of a community

Leveraging social characteristics in an app is something we have already discussed in previous posts. Humans are social beings and therefore there is a constant need for people to socialize and be part of a community. Within a community an interesting option that could be enabled through an app by publishers, is the option for users to contribute. This is something known in the internet culture as the 1% rule. A part of users will contribute, others will monitor, study and others will comment or give feedback. Creating a community within an app  by empowering competitiveness, acknowledgement and contribution can easily expose monetization spikes.

Following up the latest blog posts about monetizing around user feelings, today we are going to discuss about monetizing around social behaviour.

Monetizing upon social competitiveness and acknowledgment

Every mobile app needs a loyal user base in order to be able to generate some serious money for its owner. One of the most difficult things out there is to attract users to the app and engage them, so that eventually later on, will spent some money within the app.

Build a community fist

Every app has a user base, that shares some common interests. After all, these users ended up using the same app for a reason. Converting this user base to an active community is a big challenge. App publishers should try, when designing their apps, to make them as social as possible. Initially they should focus towards growing their user base and creating a community around their app by leveraging a social environment. Users need a relevant audience to discuss and expose achievements or progress. Building a community around the app and allowing interaction between its members, brings engagement to the users, rise competitiveness and if exposed properly, can drive awareness about the app and bring virality and wider adoption.

Implement the right social components

While designing an app, publishers should choose the right social components to integrate based on the context of their app and their app’s userbase profile. Leveraging social behaviour through an app can attract users to come and use an app again and again for all kind of different reasons. Some of them would like to use it in order to compete with others for social acknowledgement and exposure; and others because they just want to be part of a social environment. Social components can be anything, from progress bars, badges, leaderboards, achievements, to virtual goods. Integrating these components and mechanisms properly within an app can raise community engagement, collaboration and competitiveness, increasing this way loyalty and adoption of the app.

Monetize upon social competitiveness and acknowledgement

When an app publisher has successfully integrated social characteristics and components in the app, and a loyal user base exists, monetization opportunities can be revealed where users, in the shake of feelings like social competitiveness and acknowledgement, are willing to spend money within the app. These opportunities may be in the form of in-app purchases for unlocking a stage and letting the user proceed, or gaining virtual goodies that will bring an advantage to the user against others, or even taking specific advertising tasks in order to help proceed further for example and get socially exposed.

In our last article we discussed about monetizing upon user feelings and in particular around scarcity, uniqueness and exclusiveness. Today we are going deeper around scarcity and we will discuss upon monetizing around user impatience.

Monetizing upon user impatience

Periods of scarcity during an app’s lifecycle can reveal several monetization opportunities and drive irrational user behaviour, converting a user to an obsessive payer. Scarcity in terms of time usually drives user impatience. Therefore it has become a common practise nowadays especially in games and other social apps to see short or long periods of time of what we will call here “Moments of Silence” where users are prevented from keep using the app or are excluded from certain features. This strategy is driving one thing; obsession and is pointing upon raising user impatience.

If a user is able to play or use an app in an abundance environment, this drives users to play until one specific point and then stop and forget about the app. But when a user after a while, when being engaged with the app, a sudden Moment of Silence happens, that user starts thinking about the app, and when will time pass in order to be able to continue using the app. In the meantime that user becomes obsessed about not being allowed to to continue using the app, thinking about this all the time and coming back again and again to check if he is able to continue. During this obsession time, a monetization opportunity is available and that is the right time to provide an in-app monetization alternative to the user. Users impatience, raises at that Moments of Silence, one of the greatest monetization spikes that app publisher can capitalize upon.

Some brilliant examples of the implementation of this strategy is King’s Candy Crash where users can pay for new lives or wait for a specific time frame until they are able to continue playing again 

or Zynga’s Farmville app, where users have to wait for example for the crops to grow or they can speed up the process by paying.

Intro

With new car sales reaching an annualised rate of over 17 million vehicles, a flurry of great new product launches, and executives maintaining a disciplined approach to financial and operational management, automotive companies are generating record profitability from their U.S. operations. However even with these healthy sales, most U.S. OEMS and suppliers are taking a cautiously optimistic view about the future. While there is confidence in the state of the industry, growth in new vehicle sales is forecasted to slow. One of the key questions then, on everyone’s mind is, where do we go from here?

Click to see the interactive infographic

Why

Pollfish in its effort to reveal the car purchase intent status in US, has surveyed more than half a million US citizens! Pollfish placed the findings online and made them interactive, enabling not only to digest general conclusions, but also to draw individual inferences for specific areas of interest, all of which should help cut through complexity and extract the maximum value for relevant businesses. Within this infographic, insights about popular car types can be found, budgets per state and more.

How it works

Pollfish is a technology company which has access to over 100M smartphone users to whom it distributes surveys in order to get consumer insights! The methodology it uses is a sophisticated technique of river-sampling through through third-party smartphone apps. Pollfish worked with over 4k apps in order to collect results from all over the US, during the past six months. Each respondent had been surveyed on a smartphone or tablet while reading the news on his/her favorite smartphone app or while playing a game. More than 700k users started the survey and over 500k completed it till the end

There are a lot of things app developers can monetize around an app user but nothing compares with monetizing upon user feelings.

Monetizing upon scarcity, exclusiveness and uniqueness

Designing an app to work in an abundance environment is usually a wrong strategic approach in terms of monetization. Abundance is usually not appreciated by anyone and does not motivate a user. Creating short times of abundance within a scarcity period, can be quite appealing and challenging for a user, creating several monetization opportunities in the way. An app user that is in position to have everything he needs whenever he needs it within an app, is quite difficult to be monetized.

Moreover, if an app is designed in a way that the user feels some sort of uniqueness while making progress within the app, or he is offered the option to has access to something exclusive, this can end up to very good conversions monetization wise.

Scarcity

An app developer should control scarcity when designing an app in way that users are always able to achieve a goal which is difficult (or has a price) but always feasible. If a user does not have all features available at once or does not have unlimited ammo, or unlimited weapons οr lives within a game for example, that user will appreciate more the opportunity to renew, expand or reveal resources through monetization moments either through IAP or by completing specific tasks like watching a video, clicking an ad or completing a survey. Trying to monetize an app user who lives in abundance within the app, usually converts to frustration and affects retention rather than converting around monetization.

Exclusiveness

Investing on the feeling of exclusiveness can deliver real good results for the app developer. A good monetization strategy can unveil features of the app that can only be achieved or acquired by an exclusive subpart of the user base of the app. Providing features that a user cannot easily have, usually results to users pursuing aggressively such features. It is in human nature to seek for things that you cannot have. The feeling of being able to receive some things exclusively usually increases the desire of the user and ends up to more straightforward monetization moments for the developer.

Uniqueness

Making an app user feeling unique during the app’s lifecycle, creates several opportunities too. For example, during a game when a user completes a level, the app owner can reward that user for his performance and maybe give him the option to win/buy some virtual goodies or get a discount in a purchase because of that “special” achievement. This approach gives to the user the emotion of uniqueness and gives the feeling of seeing an opportunity because of achieving something..for outstanding from the crowd..for being unique...!! The app developer can capitalize upon this feeling, with several different monetization options.

Planning a monetization strategy upfront, is a key point towards an app's monetization success. Including in this strategy a proper handling of user's first experience, during the on-boarding process of the app, is quite important.

The first user experience

Getting an app visible and being downloaded many times is the first goal in the app store battle. App publishers can achieve that either through proper ASO or a well designed marketing plan or any other way. Keeping users engaged with the app, after downloading it, is the next achievement to be accomplished and therefore the on-boarding experience is very crucial. After all, you get a first experience only once!

It is widely known that most of the users abandon an app early on, and in particular, the first time that they try to use it. Several developers ignore this fact and usually do not separate, nor consider the on-boarding experience in their monetization strategy.

Through Pollfish network we have seen several examples and bad practises that affect first user experience. One of them, is overflowing users with ads in different parts of the app even before users are familiar with what the app can do and what it can offer, resulting to frustrated users leaving the app.

App publishers should not try to monetize their app too soon. Applying monetization techniques too early can affect retention. User first experience should be treated wisely and without the goal on an ephemeral revenue but focusing on increasing LTV for each user in the long run.

An appropriate plan for the on-boarding process would be firstly to inspire the user about the app's potential, engage him and then try to monetize him:

Excitement - Users should get excited with app's first experience. First time users, usually do not know what to expect from an app. App publishers should be able to show the real value of the app from the beginning and there are not a lot of chances on doing that. Therefore, during first app experience, full potential of the app should be exposed. If an app publisher manages to get users excited and give a glance on what to expect during the usage of the app, then the publisher is already one step ahead towards engagement. Depending on the content or type of the app this can be achieved through a small tutorial, or an interactive guide. Keep in mind though, that at that point of time, user should not receive superfluous information. Friction from steps like forced logins, should be avoided in general and loading time should me minimised or treated by giving something to the users while waiting.

Engagement - Managing to engage the user is also very important during the first experience of the app. Users should be able to move around and follow the flow of the app quite easily.This can be done with a proper UI design and content continuous reveal. For games for example, users should be able to proceed easily, at the beginning, to next levels rather than getting stuck on the first level too long. Early progress usually brings engagement and increases excitement too. Moreover, applying different first time user experiences can be a good approach that can eventually convert.

Monetisation - If app publisher manages to get user excited and engaged then that can be a good time to start applying monetization. However, even at that point the publisher should consider and adapt different monetization techniques. For example, different (lower) pricing could be used early on for IAP or for virtual goodies. Ad monetization should be integrated in the look and fill for the app and evolve as part of the flow of the app.

Are app users abandoning the classic buy/sell concept of paid model? Are paid apps on life support? Why do most top titles on app stores, follow the freemium rather than the paid model?

Paid apps monetization model is not a panacea any more

Paid apps have been one of the most popular and  traditional approaches since the first rise of app stores. This model has thrived for years especially on stores like AppStore where users were more willing to pay for apps. However, for years, app developers had the feeling that users would pay for apps like they were doing for desktop, nintendo, psp game titles and other consoles. That concept faded out through the years.  

Developers devote a lot of time on the development, design and marketing of an app and they believe that this effort should be rewarded straight away. Unfortunately this is not how the system works. At least not any more for most of the cases.

When developers choose to go with the paid option approach, many things should be taken under consideration. Higher pricing does not mean higher revenue. Visibility on store and  users purchase intent are not granted, nor easily achieved. Yes, of course if 100 thousand people download an app and the developer sells it for $2.99 he can be rich. Unfortunately in real life this is wishful thinking..or a misconception on how the ecosystem works. Gaining attention on the app stores and seeing a paid app in the top grossing category is more than a painful road nowadays.

Asking users to pay upfront for an app means that users will have high expectations. Bug free operation, quality of app experience, rich content and updates frequency, play a key role here. Moreover, developers usually overlook the effort and costs needed in the process of maintaining and improving a paid app in the long run. Users can get disappointed easily and this can affect the app's reputation and eventually app's revenue.

Indie developers or even small game houses struggle to be successful on that model. App Stores out there have millions of mobile apps. It is not easy to differentiate. Paid apps can work quite good for brands or big established developers since users are more willing to trust them and pay their app experience upfront (however we have seen top tiles moving away form paid model recently). For small developers though, a major thing is the ability to properly market an app. Why should a user trust their paid app? There are tons of free apps out there with similar functionality. Being able to show off the value of an app and why it worths spending money for it upfront, without trying it, is one of the "make or brake" skills for the developer that chooses to go down that road. 

Paid version of an app free of ads! Another common misconception in the developers world. A lot of developers believe that offering a paid version of an app, without ads could become popular in current app's user base. This approach makes sense since it capitalises upon the perception that users are willing to pay of an ad-free version of an app. This is usually wrong. Some users may like an app and some times get frustrated by ads, but however, are they willing to pay for that enhancement? Does this app deserve that kind of sacrifice form a user that is already using it for free? Usually, only a small proportion of the app's user base can be converted into that "paid version without ads" concept and this also depends on the quality and engagement of the app.

But why big players have moved away from the paid model? Is it more profitable to them? One picture worths a thousand words:

To conclude, paid model does exist out there and it can be successful and quite profitable for publishers (there are lots of examples out there). However,  following this model should be a conscious choice of the implications involved. Understanding if this model fits for an app is very important. Latest statistic trends  show that more than ninety percent of revenue from different stores come from the freemium model. 

Today we are launching a new column around mobile app monetization with several tips and insights on how to define an efficient mobile app monetization strategy based on the experience we gained so far by running our own monetization network...Pollfish. During the last two years and through our daily interaction with developers and the apps' ecosystem we have seen a lot including several mistakes, bad and good practises and strategies . 

Our main aim is to provide a better and deeper understanding to the app developer community, on different monetization techniques that exist out there and help developers adjust and evolve within the current mobile monetization landscape in a way that will increase their apps' revenue.

The two types of mobile app users

One of the key factors when trying to understand mobile monetization landscape is the acknowledgement that there are two types of mobile app users out there:

App users that are willing to pay (even 1 cent) - These users have no concerns on using their credit card or any other type of payment during an app's lifecycle or even upfront. Developers can capitalize upon these users with different models like paid apps, in-app purchases, subscriptions and other. Understanding which of those models performs better in the context of a specific app will affect eventually the conversions achieved.

App users that are not willing to pay (anything ever) -  Some users will never pay for anything relevant to apps in general, or specifically for an app. 

Within an app's user base it is almost definite that these two types of users co-exist*. Developers can monetize upon both types. We will elaborate on this in the next paragraph. Identifying and implementing a monetization strategy based on these two type of users, can eventually increase app's revenue.

*In general the volume of users of each type within an app varies depending on location, context of the app, platform and several other params that we will cover in future articles.

The two different revenue models for your app

There are two different revenue models that a developer can follow in order to make money from an app. These models are highly correlated with the two type of users identified in previous paragraph. Based on the acknowledgment of these two types, developer can use one or both of the following models:

App user pays - Since such users exist within the user base of the app, defining a strategy that will help them convert at some point within the lifecycle of app usage, is a key point that will help increase app's revenue. This model includes strategies like in-app purchases, paid apps, subscriptions and other formats.

Mobile Monetization Network pays - Since the majority of the users of an app, are not willing to pay anything, developers should find different ways to capitalize upon them. This is something that can be achieved by partnering with different mobile monetization networks and by using different formats and models like banners, interstitials, offer walls, surveys, pay per installs and others. 

A data engineer with algorithmic and mathematical thinking.

A Scala lover, data enthusiast and systematic debugger ...

This is what our newest member at Pollfish family is all about.

Stavros is a super star software engineer that joined us to apply his craftsmanship to Pollfish's brand new analytics platform.

We are very happy to welcome Euangelos Linardos in our team for the role of Data Scientist.

Euangelos is a data scientist and hacker. He loves data and Mediterranean food. He is also a keen cyclist and runner.

Euangelos' main responsibilities will be to discover hidden patterns and trends from surveys, using advanced machine learning and distributed computing techniques

Data is a first party citizen at Pollfish. Our goal it to improve our targeting capabilities and provide unique insights to our clients.

Euangelos brings over two years of Data Science experience in the Marketing & Advertising sector, with his latest stint being at Adello, a Swiss-based real-time analytics platform and award-winning deep learning technology for mobile advertising.

The purpose of this study was to find out the patterns of consumer showrooming behavior and measure the effectiveness of suggestions made for retailers to take an advantage of this increasing trend. The survey consists of 13 questions that ask about demographic, showrooming behavior and ways to increase in-store sales and sales via mobile. There were 283 survey respondents with 141 males and 142 females. Teenagers, college students, and young adults make up about 70% of the respondents whereas older adults and baby boomers are roughly accountable for 30%.

  Being accountable for 32% of 10 retail stores, the Wal-Mart was the retail store where most of the respondent shop followed by Target with 17%. The Macy’s represents about 9%. The rest of the retail stores such as Bloomingdales, Dillard’s, Kohl’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, J.C. Penney, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Sears have less than 7%. The retail apps that the respondents mostly use are Wal-Mart, Target, and Macy’s. The rest of the retail apps have fragmented share of 8% of less. About 60% of the respondents answered that they think those retail apps provide personalized shopping experience while 30% said they are neutral and only 10% provided negative feedback. Nearly 80% of the respondents stated that they compare prices when shopping at retail stores. As seen in existing studies, the survey results indicated that showrooming is common across all age groups. Amazon Price Check and Google Shopper are the most frequently used apps for the showrooming; these two apps account for about 73% while Flow represents 18% and RedLaser is accountable for 9%. The two questions of the next three questions were specific to Amazon. The Amazon has a patent on its “1-Click Ordering” payment process that contributes to increased sales. About 70% said that they use it once a month, once a week, or more than once a week. 30% stated that they use it once a year. Only 0.31% said they never use it. 75% stated that they would shop more on mobile if the checkout process is easy. The respondents were asked if they are willing to switch to the Amazon’s Fire for its optimal shopping feature. Surprisingly, about 45% answered yes. The last question asked why the respondents made a purchase at retail stores after comparing prices. All 4 answers to pick from have similar shares. The consumers are able to find good in-store mobile coupons, like customer service at retail stores, find loyalty program useful, did not want to pay and wait for shipping, return, and delivery. Brick and mortar stores also offer price matching.

  The survey results indicate that the consumers mostly shop at Wal-Mart, Target, and Macy’s using these retailers’ apps that provides satisfying personalized shopping experience. Most consumers use Amazon Price Check and Google Shopper to compare prices. Consumers’ willingness to switch to the Amazon’s Fire phone for its shopping feature shows that mobile shopping has become prevalent. The easy payment process is one of factors to increase sales via mobile, as the consumers frequently use the Amazon’s 1-Click Ordering. In order to drive in-store sales, it is suggested that retail stores keep the loyalty program, offer price matching, maintain good customer relationships, and provide good in-store mobile coupons.

All over the world, Disneyland is known for its magical history and family entertainment especially through the amusement parks.  Since first opening its door in Anaheim, California in the United States on July 17, 1955 by Walt Disney, it has seen millions of visitors from all over the world each year.  From just Disneyland alone, the resort has grown and expanded and now includes Downtown Disney, Disney California Adventure, Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier Hotel, and the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.  The success of Disneyland alone has inspired new openings of other Disney amusement parks all over the world, from Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.  Thus, the Disney name and culture has become a worldwide phenomenon for all generations.

For this study, 952 participants from the United States were questioned about their familiarity with the Disneyland Resort in Southern California.  All mobile participants indicated that they have visited the Disneyland Resort before. The vast majority of these 952 participants reside in California at 28.68%, with Texas, New York, and Washington coming close.  From these origins, 82.35% indicated they were not Annual Passholders.  Being an Annual Passholder, individuals have the choice of purchasing a certain pass that allows them to visit the parks on the selected days chosen by the Resort. When asked have often they visited the resort on average, per year, 72.37% said they have visited 0-1 times and 18.59% said 2-5 times a year.  And when asked if they had children, 50.95% said they had children with the remaining 49.05% with no children.

When asked which park in the resort they have visited, 84.87% said they gone to Disneyland Park and 47.06% to adjacent Disney California Adventure, which focuses on the history and culture of the state of California.  The popular reason to why these participants visited the Disneyland Resort was the amusement rides.  About 43.59% said Disneyland Park was their favorite from Disneyland Resort.  

With the various lands and themed districts in both parks at the Disneyland Resort, each guest will be guaranteed to have a favorite that suits their liking and interests.  Concerning Disneyland Park, Adventureland was the crowd favorite at 26.79% and Fantasyland coming next.  At Disney California Adventure, Hollywood Land was the majority favorite at 21.11 with the newly added Cars Land at a close second with 16.70%.

At the Disneyland Resort, three hotels are located for the guests’ convenience and magical experience.  Participants were asked if they stayed at the three resort hotels, other hotels, a relative or friend’s house, or their own house, and the majority of 43.70% indicated they stayed at other hotels than the resort hotels.  Lodging at the resort hotels received the lowest percentage compared to the choices given.  Due to this, the reasoning for their choosing of lodging was asked.  About 45.19% said they chose their choice of lodging due to price, which is high factor for most vacation choices.  When booking their travel and lodging, 43.01% said they had used discounted travel websites, such as Kayak and Expedia.  This is another indication that price is an important factor for families and individuals on vacation.

From this study, the majority of Americans have visited the original Disneyland Resort and have made smarter choices in saving money in order to better enjoy their time at the “Happiest Place on Earth” and to experience the visionary Walt Disney’s creation.

Surprisingly low adoption rate of online grocery shopping amongst Gen Y and possible solutions

This is an interesting time for the Online Grocery industry. According to the latest IBISWorld report, the industry is expected to rapidly grow in the next 5 years and reach $10 billion in revenue with the growing competition of pure and brick and mortar online grocers. With that said, the online grocers have tested out different distribution models and services in an effort to find a way to gain market share in this scattered market, and the landscape of the industry is constantly changing accordingly. Developing an in-depth understanding of the wants and needs of Generation Y is one of the key success factors. With a sample size of 331 millennials, this survey aims to get a better sense of the millennials online grocery shopping behaviour through 13 questions.

The majority of the respondents have a high school or some college degree working part- or full-time. They are more likely to be single living in a small city. With a limited budget on hand, they go on to shop online where they can compare prices and get good deals. However, the online grocery shopping adoption rate by the millennials is remarkably low. As opposed to a quarter of the respondents that never shop online, there were more than 75% of them that do not buy groceries online. Those who never shop for groceries online are highly concerned about the quality and freshness of the food and privacy and security in electronic payment. On a side note, there were some respondents that do not buy groceries online because online grocery stores do not serve their city. In the follow-up question, they were asked if they would be interested in online grocery shopping if it is available in their city; more than half of the respondents said yes. On the other hand, the other Generation Y that takes advantage of the online grocery shopping said that they could manage their budget more effectively because they pay less for groceries and make fewer impulse purchases online than in store. Although most the millennial online grocery shoppers make purchases daily, vitamins and other health products are on top of their shopping list followed by meat, fish, and other deli items. Millenials want more than just faster and cheaper delivery. They want the personalised shopping experience. On top of that, they demand to see locally grown produce.

In conclusion, the Gen Y is indeed afraid of buying groceries online. In spite of the convenience and cheap prices that the online grocers offer, they prefer in-store shopping experience that they can handpick their groceries without having to worry about privacy or security at the check-out stand and waiting or paying for delivery. Perceived advantages and disadvantages on online grocery shopping leave an ample room for the online grocers to improve. What the survey results suggest are that online grocers need to put a greater emphasis on the effectiveness of their distribution channel and secure payment method to attract more consumers and generate more revenue. Strategic decisions on market expansion that have a high potential to serve more consumers will be needed in not so distant future. The personalized shopping experience could mean different things: providing service on multi platforms, suggestions made for an individual user based on their past purchases or coupons. Providing services such as locally grown produce to satisfy a high level of social consciousness of the millennials are also another important actions to make.

Pollfish always tries to be socially responsible by providing its tools to college students and professors in order to make their research more resourceful. Heather Scrittorale, Director of Insights at Pollfish, has been connected with the College of Business Administration at California State Polytechnic University and provided market research services of $10,000 value from Pollfish in the Behavioral Research Lab. We really hope these services prove to be handy! Also we would like to thank Jae Min Jung, Professor of Marketing, who sent us the letter below:

I had hosted Heather Scrittorale from Pollfish on campus in our last day of the spring quarter.  She is one of the most amazing persons I have ever had the privilege to meet in market research industry!!  Even when she had a difficult physical condition (Heather is 8 months pregnant), she showed full range of energy and professionalism and engaged with our students on the various topics of the marketing research world.  It appears that Pollfish is growing fast and has an innovative way to connect with consumers around the world. I thoroughly enjoyed her visit and definitely want to have her back in the future. I would like to also acknowledge the generous donations of research resources Pollfish offered. Heather offered us free access to Pollfish's consumer panel that would cost my students and faculty $10,000.  I am so grateful for her generosity. This would allow our students in the Behavioral Research Lab to tap into consumer minds around the world to test their research hypothesis and gain insights into consumer behaviors of their choice, preparing themselves as the next generation of market researchers. Thank you so much!!!

With the summer season for the United States in tow, Americans all over have been busy making plans and going on summer vacation trips, due to a large number of schools being on break and the exceptional weather. With a respondent pool of 213 individuals from all over the United States, thirteen questions were asked about their plans for the summer and insights about vacation destinations, reasoning, and income. From these 213 respondents, 44.6% reported they were male and 55.4% reported they were female. The age group of 17 and under was eliminated from the survey respondent pool, as they are not old enough to finance their own travels. The 213 respondents stated: 32.4% were ages 18­24, 20.7% were 25­34, 23.9% were 35­44, 13.1% were 45­54, and 9.9% were older than 54 years old.

All 213 respondents replied that they wanted to take a vacation during this summer season. Over 61.5% of the respondents stated there were either from the East or South region of the US, where the weather is mildly cold to very humid and hot. When asked where they wanted to travel to, 38.5% reported another state within the United States, 22.1% said the Caribbean Islands, and 12.6% in Europe. These most popular destinations are close proximity to the United States, which means costs for travel would be significantly lower. When asked where they wanted to visit at these destinations, an overwhelming 78% indicated the beach, as it is the perfect location and climate for the hot summer season. About 39.9% of the respondents said activities were the primary reason why they wanted to visit these destinations.

When asked on average, how many vacations does each respondent take each year, 52.6% stated only 0­1 times, and 37.1% said 2­4 times. Only 7.5% respondents said they take 8 or more vacations each year. The frequencies in vacations each year correlates with each individual's’ household incomes, as money is a large factor in taking vacations. The majority of 46.0% stated they make less than $45,000, 19.7% saying they make $45,000­$49,999, 7% said $50,00­$59,999, and the remaining 27.2% making $60,000 or more. These numbers would play a significant role in vacation destination and hotel choice.

The majority of 54.9% respondents stated that they go on vacations with family and 21.1% said it was a personal vacation. A significant 50.7% responded that their financial budgets plays the most important part for their vacations. This can be seen by their method of booking and planning their vacations. About 57.3% said they use discount online websites, such as Expedia, Kayak, and Orbitz, to book their vacations. This is largely due to convenience and faster service. Again, when asked what determines their choice in hotel, the majority of 46.5% stated it was due to price, compared to various advertisements or testimony.

Overall, from this survey on 213 respondents throughout the entire United States, many have the desire to travel to nearby destination that has beaches or a tropical climate, where the weather is significantly cooler than their hometown. These locations offer more activities for tourists and visitors, as their weather are more ideal and bearable to endure. The majority of these respondents only take vacations 0­4 times a year, perhaps explained by their average household income. As a result of these incomes, price plays the most important role in planning and choosing a vacation destination and hotel reservations. Coincidently, the majority of these respondents use online discount websites as their method in booking their vacations and travel itinerary. All in all, Americans this year are primarily focused on saving their money and planning the best vacation they can at the best and most affordable values.

Google released in Google Pay Services v4 a new id, the Advertising ID, to be used for advertising and analytics purposes. Developers or analytics and ad networks should use this identifier to track a device as stated in Google Play Developer Program Policy beginning by 1st of August. This id is resettable and enables the option to a user to opt-out from interest-based advertising.

The release of Advertising ID follows the release of Apple's IDFA similar concept, which is now forced when releasing in AppStore. The enforcement of using a unique identifier on mobile across networks that can be used for analytics and advertising purposes it's a good thing and eventually will bring higher revenue to developers and more relevant interest-based ads to the users. Moreover, it brings back the control to the user when it comes to advertising and interest-based ads. Mobile users can now reset or even opt-out whenever they want, something that was quite difficult the previous years.

What should developers know about Advertising ID?

According to Google Play Developer Program Policy, all apps and updates released in Google Play beginning by 1st of August should use this identifier for advertising purposes. Same things apply to the libraries that apps use.  

The use of Advertising Identifier either by the app or by a library that the app uses, should be disclosed to app's users through a privacy policy notification.

The access of the status of the identifier should be verified each time to verify the Opt out of Interest-based Advertising option.

The Identifier should not be associated with any personal related information nor with any previously resettable identifier without prior user consent.

To sum things up, we do not know how strictly will Google try to enforce the use of Advertising Identifier by 1st of August, however developers should act pro-actively to make proper use of this identifier according to the Google's policy terms and choose wisely their partners for advertising or analytics to ensure the proper use of this identifier by them too, before using them within their apps.

Our team is growing and we have one more member in our family.

Everybody say hi to Thanasis!

   Thanasis is a rock star developer.. Seriously, he is in a rock band and also a front end developer.

He loves front end development, his new Mac and music.

At Pollfish, Thanasis will create tools to organize and visualize data from surveys and other sources.

His goal is to make sure our clients  will get the most out of our data with to-the-point, organized and digestible information.