The Times used Electric Twin’s synthetic audiences to run 10x more research
The Times used Electric Twin’s synthetic audiences to run 10x more research
The Times used Electric Twin’s synthetic audiences to run 10x more research
The Times used Electric Twin to scale its audience research across product, marketing, and commercial teams.
Client
The Times (News UK)
Use Case
Audience Research at Scale
Industry
Media & Publishing
Teams
Insights, Product, Marketing, Commercial
From insight bottleneck to shared research layer across product, marketing, and commercial
10x
Research
volume
92%
Accuracy
vs. real panel
3
Business
functions
The Times used Electric Twin to scale its audience research across product, marketing, and commercial teams. This has led to a 10x increase in capacity, dramatic improvements in the speed of response and without growing headcount or budgets. The Times were able to validate their synthetic outputs against their 642,000 subscribers, achieving 92% accuracy against real-world panel responses. The Times even named their new business podcast using feedback from Electric Twin’s synthetic audiences.
The Times used Electric Twin to scale its audience research across product, marketing, and commercial teams. This has led to a 10x increase in capacity, dramatic improvements in the speed of response and without growing headcount or budgets. The Times were able to validate their synthetic outputs against their 642,000 subscribers, achieving 92% accuracy against real-world panel responses. The Times even named their new business podcast using feedback from Electric Twin’s synthetic audiences.
Challenge
The Times had an insight team doing great work. The problem wasn’t quality — it was capacity.
Product teams needed answers in days, not weeks. Marketing wanted to test more ideas before committing budget. Commercial partnerships needed audience modelling that existing systems couldn’t deliver at speed. With 642,000 subscribers, the data existed but there were limits to how much The Times could ask from its reader panel.
The question was practical: how do you get better answers, faster, without compromising quality or exhausting the goodwill of your audience?
The Times had an insight team doing great work. The problem wasn’t quality — it was capacity.
Product teams needed answers in days, not weeks. Marketing wanted to test more ideas before committing budget. Commercial partnerships needed audience modelling that existing systems couldn’t deliver at speed. With 642,000 subscribers, the data existed but there were limits to how much The Times could ask from its reader panel.
The question was practical: how do you get better answers, faster, without compromising quality or exhausting the goodwill of your audience?
Solution
The Times integrated Electric Twin’s synthetic audience platform across three business functions: product development, marketing, and commercial partnerships.
Each function defined its own use cases from the outset, rather than adopting a single workflow. The platform became a shared research layer, used differently depending on each team’s needs.
The Times integrated Electric Twin’s synthetic audience platform across three business functions: product development, marketing, and commercial partnerships.
Each function defined its own use cases from the outset, rather than adopting a single workflow. The platform became a shared research layer, used differently depending on each team’s needs.
What the teams could now do:
Test product concepts and design decisions
Run CRM optimisation, test copy and creative campaigns
Model audience overlap in partnership deals to avoid wasted spend
Validate synthetic outputs against their 642,000 subscriber base.
That last point was not incidental. The Times used a 10% holdout group from their own known-trusted audience to evaluate accuracy
The result: synthetic research achieved 92% accuracy, compared to approximately 93% for traditional methods. That validation was critical in building trust within The Times, enabling further adoption of Electric Twin.
The result: synthetic research achieved 92% accuracy, compared to approximately 93% for traditional methods. That validation was critical in building trust within The Times, enabling further adoption of Electric Twin.
“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
Product: faster decisions, fewer assumptions
Product teams used synthetic audiences to test product and design concepts before committing development time. Instead of waiting weeks for panel results or relying on internal opinion, teams could now identify potential audience reactions in minutes.
This tightened the feedback loop between insight and delivery.
One example revealed interesting differences in their audience: when asked about new ways to experience The Times, loyal readers expressed scepticism about AI, while prospective readers wanted summaries, AI explainers, and video. That kind of segment-level contrast - invisible in aggregate research - directly informed product prioritisation.
Product teams used synthetic audiences to test product and design concepts before committing development time. Instead of waiting weeks for panel results or relying on internal opinion, teams could now identify potential audience reactions in minutes.
This tightened the feedback loop between insight and delivery.
One example revealed interesting differences in their audience: when asked about new ways to experience The Times, loyal readers expressed scepticism about AI, while prospective readers wanted summaries, AI explainers, and video. That kind of segment-level contrast - invisible in aggregate research - directly informed product prioritisation.
Marketing: testing at the speed of ideas
Marketing applied the platform to CRM optimisation, copy testing and campaign evaluation. The team had previously always struggled with limits on the number of questions they could ask. With synthetic audiences, the team could explore a far greater volume of ideas - without additional fieldwork cost or panel fatigue.
A standout example: naming The Times’ business podcast. The team tested four potential names with their synthetic audience. The winning name - “The Business” - scored well with the general reader panel but performed exceptionally with the specific demographic that the podcast was targeting.
That kind of segment-level precision would have been difficult and expensive to achieve through traditional research.
Marketing applied the platform to CRM optimisation, copy testing and campaign evaluation. The team had previously always struggled with limits on the number of questions they could ask. With synthetic audiences, the team could explore a far greater volume of ideas - without additional fieldwork cost or panel fatigue.
A standout example: naming The Times’ business podcast. The team tested four potential names with their synthetic audience. The winning name - “The Business” - scored well with the general reader panel but performed exceptionally with the specific demographic that the podcast was targeting.
That kind of segment-level precision would have been difficult and expensive to achieve through traditional research.
Commercial: The Times used Electric Twin to check whether a partner's audience was the right fit
Before committing to a partnership, the commercial team used Electric Twin to check: does this partner reach the same people we already reach? That evidence - which didn't exist before - helped them double down on the right deals.
Before committing to a partnership, the commercial team used Electric Twin to check: does this partner reach the same people we already reach? That evidence - which didn't exist before - helped them double down on the right deals.
What it actually took
The most important learning from over a year of working with Electric Twin was not methodological but the team learned that it was cultural.
Synthetic research surfaces two distinct groups within any organisation: those who see expanded capability, and those who see a credibility threat. Managing that divide requires more than accuracy. It requires ongoing validation against real responses, visible human oversight, and a consistent message that synthesis extends what researchers do - rather than substituting for it.
The second learning: how you frame value matters. Rather than measuring whether individual decisions improved, The Times measured research volume uplift and speed to delivery. That framing was honest, concrete, and compelling to senior leadership.
The most important learning from over a year of working with Electric Twin was not methodological but the team learned that it was cultural.
Synthetic research surfaces two distinct groups within any organisation: those who see expanded capability, and those who see a credibility threat. Managing that divide requires more than accuracy. It requires ongoing validation against real responses, visible human oversight, and a consistent message that synthesis extends what researchers do - rather than substituting for it.
The second learning: how you frame value matters. Rather than measuring whether individual decisions improved, The Times measured research volume uplift and speed to delivery. That framing was honest, concrete, and compelling to senior leadership.
Results
Over the course of the engagement, The Times transformed its research practice without transforming its team.
10x increase in research volume with the same insight headcount
92% accuracy against real panel responses, validated using a 10% holdout from 642,000 subscribers
3 business functions running synthetic research independently - product, marketing, and commercial
Named “The Business” podcast using segment-level audience testing across multiple name candidates Faster speed to delivery - days instead of weeks for audience feedback
Research expanded beyond the panel - testing ideas that couldn’t justify traditional fieldwork
Over the course of the engagement, The Times transformed its research practice without transforming its team.
10x increase in research volume with the same insight headcount
92% accuracy against real panel responses, validated using a 10% holdout from 642,000 subscribers
3 business functions running synthetic research independently - product, marketing, and commercial
Named “The Business” podcast using segment-level audience testing across multiple name candidates Faster speed to delivery - days instead of weeks for audience feedback
Research expanded beyond the panel - testing ideas that couldn’t justify traditional fieldwork
"Electric Twin gave us a way to keep the research conversation going long after the survey had closed. We could test ideas, explore motivations, and compare audiences without going back to the field."
Chris Courtney-Smith
Director of Data Operations, The Times
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Stop guessing.
Start predicting
Ready to ask your first question? Book a call and we'll help you answer your hardest audience questions.
Book a demo