IBOPE Inteligência is respected nationally and internationally for its public opinion and polling research capabilities. We have more than two decades of experience in this field, with a team of seasoned editors who are adept at producing media-ready analysis, and a vast network that pushes out content throughout the US.

We conduct single or multi-phased opinion research for a wide range of public and private sector organizations, including government entities, banking and financial services institutions, insurance companies, hospitals and medical facilities, retailers and developers, religious institutions, cultural organizations, colleges and universities.

There are various polling methodologies that we offer to our clients. 

IBOPE Inteligência Interactive Surveys

Our proprietary method of polling online uses an in-house method of identifying a relevant random sample for each individual project.  We maintain a highly secure database of c300,000 potential participants, allowing several thousand completed surveys to be collected overnight.

Our online interactive panel has some unique advantages compared to traditional telephone polling:

• According to a May 2010 study by Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, 79% of adults in the US now have access to and use the Internet – and we expect this to continue increasing. This fact, combined with the fact that a high and increasing proportion of the population does not own a landline telephone, means that the Internet is one of the most viable ways to reach some key demographic groups.
• Interactive polling shares some of the desirable properties of face-to-face research, allowing for more in-depth questions, more expressive and detailed open-ended responses and the ability to test subjects using audio, video and other multi-media techniques.
• From an operational point of view, interactive polling provides value via lower costs and faster turnaround times. This means that larger sample sizes can be easily financed and quickly fielded, allowing for powerful advanced analytics and prompt recognition of emerging groups and patterns. In a world where events can change by the hour, short turnaround time is an important factor in maintaining the value of public polling.

Quality control

We take several measures to guarantee the security and veracity of our polling product:

• Representation of US households is measured and assured in different ways.  When the panel begins to diverge from the demographic makeup of the overall US population, adjustments are made (via recruiting new panelists) to ensure that the panel remains in sync with general population trends. 

• Quality is also controlled by randomly checking the authenticity of up to 4% of each online respondent sample via our call center: Live operators ask respondents a random sample of the survey questions to check that their responses were accurately and reliably recorded.

Sampling

Here’s how it works:

• Panelists cannot choose the polls they will answer or ask to participate in specific surveys. They are randomly selected to receive an invitation from the IBOPE Inteligência database, based on the demographics needed for each individual survey. They are subsequently sent an email inviting them to respond to the poll.
• As a security measure, each email is uniquely linked to each particular panelist, so it cannot be transferred, nor can it be used more than once.
• Panelists do not know when they are going to get an invitation to take part in a survey, or what the subject matter will be, until they click on the invitation link in their email.
• The survey is active on secure servers until such time as it is deemed that the appropriate number of respondents has completed the survey to fulfill the requirements of that particular polling project.
• Once the desired number of panelists has completed a survey, IBOPE Inteligência technicians process the results, weighting each poll according to standard practices, in order to reflect the demographics of the population that each particular survey is designed to measure.
• When needed, our interactive polling is supplemented by telephone polling in order to ensure a full and proper representation of all demographic groups / target subgroups.  The telephone polling is conducted via our in-house call center.

IBOPE Inteligência Telephone Surveys

While most polling firms outsource their telephone survey data collection, IBOPE Inteligência houses its own proprietary call center in upstate New York, with more than 160 highly qualified, trained CATI interviewers. 

Quality Control

Our system of quality control is second to none. Our interviewers are among the most professional and most effectively monitored in the polling industry today:

• We pride ourselves on consistently exceeding industry standards, by keeping interviewer-to-supervisor ratios low 12:1. This allows for real-time quality checks and instant feedback for interviewers.
• Call center supervisors are experienced former telephone interviewers whose performance and commitment to standards set them apart.
• Ten percent of all call center work is validated.

Sampling

We are dedicated to data accuracy and accountability.  Our data has had a significant impact on employment, public policy, education, health care, economic development and global marketing. Whether for a small regional company striving to improve its market share or for a large multi-national conglomerate competing for global markets, the reliability of our research has made IBOPE Inteligência highly respected in the industry. Our sampling methodologies are a critical component in ensuring reliability.

The IT department at IBOPE Inteligência generates the majority of the telephone lists used for polls and surveys. Vendor-supplied lists are used for regions with complex specifications, such as some Congressional Districts. Customer-supplied lists are used for special projects like customer satisfaction surveys and organizational membership surveys. On request we also provide address based sampling. The sample frame we use for this methodology is the US Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File (DSF), a database of over 135 million addresses and considered to cover at least 98% of all households in the US.

Telephone lists generated by IBOPE Inteligência’s IT department are culled from a nationally published set of phone CDs of listed households, ordered by telephone number. Addresses are sorted by home and business, and then coded by region to create a parent list. A well-tested algorithm is then used to create a smaller source list.

The resulting source list – whether from IBOPE Inteligência International, a vendor or customer – is loaded into the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) system and the randomize function within the CATI software is run to further assure a good mix for the final telephone list. Regional quotas are employed to ensure adequate nationwide coverage. 

IBOPE Inteligência Mail Surveys

IBOPE Inteligência has extensive experience using mail surveys to conduct quantitative research. Mail surveys are often used to poll people who may not have access to technology or are otherwise difficult to reach, such as members of a gated community or a congressional district.

Quality Control

Mail questionnaires are carefully crafted for concise, clear language suitable for a survey that will be filled out without interviewer administration.  Pre-tests are conducted to test the language, comprehension and structure, ensuring that respondent uncertainty about the meaning of the questions is all but eliminated.  IT staff review and code returned surveys, eliminating incomplete or suspicious surveys from the data, before our specially trained coders enter the data.  The data for each individual survey is checked by a different team to make sure that the data has been correctly entered.

Sampling

The client often provides a list of potential respondents but an address based sample can also be purchased from an appropriate vendor. The sample frame we use for this methodology is the US Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File (DSF), a database of over 135 million addresses and considered to cover at least 98% of all households in the US.

Additional Polling Techniques

• Intercept Interviews are useful when data needs to be captured at a specific site/location, such as a busy street corner or an historic site.

• In-Depth Interviews are useful for small, specialized audiences, such as opinion leaders.

• Dial Testing is useful when testing audio/video clips or when surveying audiences in real time. Survey results are collected through a hand-held voting device and can be displayed in real time for immediate use.

• SMS Polls are useful for rapid response surveys, allowing users to text their responses to a given number from anywhere using their mobile phones. 

Weighting

At IBOPE Inteligência, we work extremely hard to ensure that samples are random and scientific. In addition, weighting is used to balance the responses from actual respondents with the targeted demographic profile of the survey. The proportions comprising the demographic profile are compiled from historical exit poll data, census data, and from IBOPE Inteligência International’s extensive survey history.