Opinion formers and Influencers - Soft Power

Consultancy Brand Finance requested RONIN to deliver data collection for their high profile multi-country research study to be presented at their inaugural Global Soft Power Summit. The study explores the soft power of 60 nations and is the world’s most comprehensive study on the subject.

The brief was exceedingly complex; 1,000 surveys across 71 countries with high-profile respondents (Politicians, NGOs, Think Tanks, Captains of Industry and elite Academics), and administered in 20 languages.

RONIN’s recruitment team selected potential participants based on individual capability through traditional methods as well as innovative targeted social media campaigns. RONIN worked collaboratively with Brand Finance to recognise the need for and to develop an effective sample frame. RONIN CATI department then trained language specific teams of interviewers to desk research the 15,000 targeted respondents.

The final challenge was to reach respondents who are not typically contactable by phone. For this RONIN utilised our innovative Digital Recruitment team, who by contacting respondents directly through professional networks and forums could engage with and bring the respondents back to telephone screening and interview completion.

We set RONIN International a big challenge: can you deliver a high-quality global sample of experts and influencers of many different types, and deliver on-time and on-budget?  RONIN assessed sample sourcing and management very competently, with a practical approach to including opinion from smaller nations.  Interviewers presented both RONIN International and Brand Finance very professionally, and all deadlines were met.  We have obtained a rigorous and credible ‘expert view’ on this big issue.

One key part of the research was to engage hard to reach experts across Academic, Thinktank, NGO, Political, Media and Business communities. Working collaboratively with RONIN we decided on a CATI methodology to data collection with digital (self-completion) as a back-up, for when phone wasn’t convenient. This proved efficient and respondent-friendly. With a substantial challenge of completing 1000 interviews across 71 countries, RONIN swiftly implemented an approach to managing the sample down to individual quota cells which proved highly effective.