Tremendous is a ‘game-changer,’ helping Forsta send $2 million in research incentives in 100+ countries

Forsta is a UK-based research platform used by more than 2,500 customers in 100+ countries, including eBay, DHL, Siemens, and Best Buy. Its human experience (HX) platform is built for professionals seeking rich insights into their customers, market, and audience.

Forsta offers its clients expert support every step of the way. So when it came to incentives, Forsta wanted a modern incentive provider capable of adapting to whatever Forsta’s clients needed. Multiple locations and currencies? Complex privacy requirements? No problem with Tremendous.

Since 2018, Forsta has used the Tremendous platform to send more than $2 million to 175,000 research participants in over 100+ countries. On average, Forsta sends incentives to 42 different countries per quarter on behalf of its global client base.

Sending global incentives presents a host of challenges, namely:

1. Supporting multiple geographies

2. Managing currency conversions and the choice of incentives en masse

3. Complying with international data privacy and security regulations

“With that level of complexity, we decided we needed a partner to focus on streamlining the incentive process, so that we could focus on what we do: providing the best technology platform," said Manny Rodriguez, SVP of Global New Business at Forsta.

Tremendous has helped Forsta achieve success running complex, international research projects, providing seamless global research participant incentives.

Note: The two research projects covered below were discussed during a presentation given by Manny Rodriguez and Nick Baum, CEO of Tremendous, at Quirk's NYC 2022.

Project 1: Sending incentives while protecting customer privacy

An enterprise fintech company engaged Forsta to conduct customer research on its SMB segment. Its goal was to discover new product opportunities for these customers.

Challenge

The client was particularly concerned about protecting its customers’ personally identifiable information (PII). This meant that no third party, including Tremendous, could have access to participant PII. In addition, the client wanted to fulfill incentives post-field via a link in a client-branded email.

Solution

• Forsta used Tremendous' bulk link export, which allowed them to assign a link to each recipient directly in the client's branded emails.

• Because link rewards are fulfilled directly to the purchaser, Tremendous didn't need to collect any participant PII.

• Tremendous geolocates recipients based on IP address, so Forsta didn’t have to worry about where each participant was located. They paid the face-value cost of the incentive, and Tremendous offered recipients locally relevant incentives in the appropriate currency.

“Tremendous’ tools also give us an extra layer of protection,” said Manny. "You can set dollar amount limits for campaigns, so if a bad actor gets into a survey, your losses are capped. We can also set an approvals workflow. This allows our project managers to approve or reject individual incentive distributions.”

Results

Manny said, “We anticipated this would be a difficult-to-engage group of small business owners based on previous research to similar users. The ability to offer incentives to these participants while working within the constraints of the client made all the difference.”

Forsta’s campaign was a smashing success.

• On average, survey response rates across all markets are less than 3%.

• For this project, response rates were 30-34%.

“Without the ability to quickly, nimbly administer incentives, we would have struggled to field,” he said.

Forsta’s client was so pleased with the research that they commissioned additional projects. Since this survey, the incentive-averse client has opted to use research incentives more often.

Project 2: Multi-spec survey posed a logistical challenge

An enterprise networking platform wanted to conduct a survey targeting 24,000 respondents across three of its brands. They targeted three different customer segments (advertisers, businesses, and creators) located in 10 different markets — no easy lift from a research operations perspective.

Project specs

• 24,000 respondents

• 3 audiences: Advertisers, businesses, and creators

• 3 brands

• 10 markets, including hard-to-reach areas like Indonesia, India, Thailand, the Philippines

• 12-week project timeline

• Incentives offered: gift cards, prepaid cards (Visa, Mastercard), PayPal

Challenge

Since the client had a tight timeline, it wanted to offer the smallest possible incentives that would still achieve the desired number of completions. To add to the challenge, the 10 target markets included hard-to-reach geos such as Indonesia, India, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Finally, the survey consisted of complex question types geared toward three separate audiences, for three brands, in 10 countries. Finding a scheme to control costs made the project even more difficult.

Solution

Forsta sent the survey in three waves, each lasting 3-4 weeks.

Forsta used Tremendous’ integration with its research platform to automate incentive distribution in real time.

Tremendous identified each recipient’s location and tailored the currency and incentive amount automatically. Depending on the participant’s location, they were given a selection of redemption options tailored to their locality, including:

• Gift cards

• Prepaid cards (Visa, Mastercard)

• PayPal

Results

Because Forsta automated incentive distribution through Tremendous, it was able to expertly administer a tiered incentive strategy with ease. Forsta completed the client's survey on time while working within a constrained budget.

“Tremendous helped save our client money,” Manny said. “They identified the recipient’s location and tailored the currency and incentive amount automatically. Without Tremendous’ API connection, IP location services, currency conversions, and broad international coverage, we wouldn’t have been able to complete such a complex project."

Key takeaways

Tremendous helped unlock Forsta’s international growth

“Tremendous was able to elevate what we were able to do on a global scale," said Manny. "The platform is instrumental in implementing complex incentive schemes that we simply wouldn't be able to do on our own. It’s led to successful outcomes for a lot of our tricky international research initiatives."

Forsta was able to stay nimble with Tremendous' flexible platform

“The Tremendous platform is flexible and allows us to adapt to our clients' specific needs," said Manny. "If we need to automate incentives so participants receive their money instantly upon completion, Tremendous makes that easy.

"If the client needs to protect the identity of participants, Tremendous has a way of distributing money without capturing any of the participants' information — a huge win for clients concerned about safeguarding PII. With Tremendous, we don't need to leverage multiple vendors. We get the benefit of working with just one partner.”

Tremendous saved Forsta clients money and unlocked new business

”Tremendous has been more than just another vendor. They’ve been a true partner."

“In the form of a true partner, Tremendous and its client services team go above and beyond to handle the incentive portion of your research so you don’t have to," said Manny. "When it comes to incentives, Tremendous has been a game-changer for us. It’s saved our clients money. It’s helped us land follow-up research.”

About Forsta

Forsta powers the HX (Human Experience) Platform, — a comprehensive experience and research technology platform that breaks down the silos between CX (Customer Experience), Employee Experience (EX), and Market Research — so that companies can get a deeper, more complete understanding of the experiences of their audiences. Forsta’s technology, combined with its team of expert consultants, helps thousands of organizations across a variety of industries, including financial services, hospitality, market research, professional services, retail, and technology. Forsta is recognized as a Leader in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Voice of the Customer. Forsta is a PG Forsta company.