Key results
10x
more research, with the same headcount and budget
92%
accuracy (NDAM) against The Times’ 642,000 subscribers
3 teams
running synthetic research independently
Seconds
to subscriber feedback, instead of weeks
What they did
Conducted initial product testing to decide which features to prioritise on the roadmap
Ran creative testing to decide on a name for a new podcast launch
Evaluated which partnership deals would help them reach new subscribers
The problem
The Times had an Insights team doing great work. The problem wasn’t quality: it was capacity. As a small team, they ended up being a bottleneck for the teams who relied on them, meaning that decisions often got made without their input.
What teams needed Insights for:
Product needed data to inform which features to prioritise
Marketing wanted to test campaign ideas before committing budget
Commercial wanted audience modelling to know which partners would reach new audiences
“We went from rationing research to running it on demand. The same team, ten times the output, and we could prove it matched our real audience”
Chris Courtney-Smith, Director of Data Operations, The Times
The solution
01
Initial concept testing use case
Better roadmap prioritisation
Product teams used synthetic audiences to test which concepts would appeal to their subscribers, to inform what to build next on their roadmap.
What they did
Tested which features would encourage readers to consume more content in a single session on the desktop version of The Times
Findings
Loyal readers were sceptical about changing any content
Casual readers wanted features such as summaries, AI explainers and video
02
Creative testing use case
Naming a new business podcast
Marketing used Electric Twin for image testing, copy testing and message testing to see how their campaigns would land.
What they did
Named The Times’ business podcast. The team tested four potential names with their synthetic audience
Findings
The winning name, “The Business”, scored well with the general reader panel but performed exceptionally with the specific demographic that the podcast was targeting
03
Audience discovery use case
Checking whether a partner’s audience was the right fit
The Commercial team used Electric Twin to do audience discovery, checking whether a potential partner’s audience overlapped with the one they already had.
What they did
Identified which partners had overlapping audiences, and which partners had audiences they had not yet reached
Findings
Enabled the team to back the right partners and spend their budget on reaching new audiences to grow their subscriber base
The impact
10x
increase in research volume, with the same Insights team headcount
92%
accuracy (NDAM) against The Times’ 642,000 subscribers
3 teams
running synthetic research independently
Seconds
to real subscriber feedback
1 new name
for a podcast product, tested across different audience segments
Subscriber growth
from signing partnership deals that helped them reach new audiences
Unlimited ideas
for teams who previously couldn’t justify the cost of traditional fieldwork
What happened next
The Times are expanding Electric Twin to more users across their organisation, so that all teams can test any idea with their subscribers for better results.
At a glance
Industry
Media and publishing
Location
UK
Teams
Product, Marketing, Commercial
Used for
Initial concept testing, creative testing and audience discovery
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