Relevance & Research Question: Mobile market research provides a way to engage with consumers and citizens in an interactive and fast fashion. This raises a number of methodological questions. How often can such app respondents be surveyed? What role do incentives play with regards to response speed and the final response rates? Does speed come at the expense of truthfulness? How effective are push notifications in relation to email notifications?

Methods & Data: We tested these questions by polling a sample of 1,668 active biopinio app users in December 2015. The sample was divided into 6 demographically similar groups (n=278), each of which was incentivized and notified in a distinct fashion, but with an otherwise identical questionnaire:

Group A: secure win, push and email notifications

Group B: secure win for first 200 participants, push and email notifications

Group C: lottery with 20% chance of winning, push and email notifications

Group D: lottery without transparent chance of winning, push and email notifications

Group E: lottery without transparent chance of winning, push notifications only

Group F: lottery without transparent chance of winning, email notifications only

Groups A-D differ in the type of incentivization the user was offered. Groups E and F have the same incentivization as Group D, but were notified either just by push notification or just by email. A measure for truthfulness was included through a disguised repeat question in all groups.

Results: Given the incentivization structure we expected Group B to respond the quickest (which was the case). There is little indication that speed came at the expense of truthfulness. The response rate varied between 64% and 80% with a guaranteed win resulting in the highest participation rate. Push notifications on their own are the least effective notification tool. App participants indicate a willingness to respond at high frequency (several surveys per month or even week).

Added Value: The results provide insights into how to optimize survey design, incentivization and frequency for mobile settings. App users' high engagement can be utilized for new types of market research designs.