One Survey - But Too Many Questions for a Traditional Consumer Panel
Client
Virgin
Use Case
Partnership Strategy
Industry
Rewards & Loyalty
Teams
Insights & Brands
2
markets modelled simultaneously
1500
of qualitative
queries run
£0
additional cost for follow-up research
Virgin’s insights and brands team were exploring ways to further inform a major partnership strategy across the UK and US. With a clear segmentation, and target audience the Virgin team had the clarity to understand enough to tell them what members wanted — but not why. The exciting world of Synthetic Audience platforms provided Virgin with an interesting use-case and an opportunity to learn more about this new insight phenomena. Using Electric Twin’s synthetic audiences, built from their existing research data, the team ran multiple projects, including multiple follow-ups in a highly cost efficient manner . They explored reward motivations, tested partnership ideas that weren’t in the original survey scope, and compared UK and US member responses side by side.
Since inception, that initial brief has become an ongoing source of customer intelligence.
The challenge
One survey - but too many questions for a traditional consumer panel
Virgin is one of the UK’s most loved Brands and Virgin Red is one of the UK’s leading rewards and loyalty programmes, connecting millions of members with experiences, rewards, and partner brands. In 2025, the Group Brand Strategy and Insight team were looking for a tool that could support them in testing a series of ideas and strategies with customers across Virgin and Virgin Red, in a cost effective way.
Through an explorative trial with synthetic audiences the team found the technology could be helpful in refining ideas and prioritising them for further development and supplementary consumer testing.
Historically the team would have only been able to afford a smaller number of specific quantitative surveys to support this work – and with the wide remit of the exploration new questions may have organically emerged.
Every new question would have meant a new brief, new budget, and new timelines. The team saw an opportunity to get more from their existing research — to explore the “why” behind the numbers without going back to market.
The approach
Synthetic Audiences Built from Existing Data
Electric Twin worked with Virgin s existing market research data to build tailored synthetic audiences for both the UK and US markets. No new data collection was required. The model recreated Virgin’s specific target segments, so the insights and brands team could interact with their primary and secondary audiences directly from the platform.
The synthetic audiences provided additional qualitative layers that the team could return to whenever a new question arose.
Understanding reward motivations: from “what” to “why”
Using Electric Twin, the team asked follow-up questions to understand the motivations behind specific choices.
They could probe into
emotional drivers
lifestyle factors
and decision-making criteria that surveys alone couldn’t capture.
This qualitative layer helped the team move from “members prefer travel rewards” to understanding which types of travel experiences resonated and why. That kind of depth — invisible in aggregate survey data — directly informed which partnership conversations to prioritise.
Testing partnership ideas beyond the original scope
In a normal context, running fewer traditional surveys in this earlier stage exploration phase would have been challenging, and many ideas may have been left unexplored
With Electric Twin, those constraints disappeared. The team could test additional partnership ideas at no extra cost, getting instant feedback on concepts that weren’t in the original research scope. This enabled a broader exploration of potential partners before committing to formal research or commercial conversations.
Audience Segmentation: Comparing UK and US Markets Side by Side
UK and US member responses could be compared instantly, making it straightforward to identify where partnership appetite differed across markets. Rather than running separate studies for each geography, the team could query both audiences from a single platform and spot divergences in real time.
The outcome: one survey became always-on intelligence
Virgin’s insights team transformed this initial exploration into an ongoing source of customer intelligence. The team could now answer questions as they arose, rather than waiting for budget approval or fieldwork timelines.
Qualitative depth added to existing quantitative findings — understanding the “why” behind reward preferences
Hundreds of follow-up queries run at no additional cost
New partnership ideas tested beyond the original survey scope
UK and US audiences compared side by side from a single platform
Faster path from insight to strategic recommendation — days instead of weeks
Synthetic audiences remain available for continued use as strategy evolves
What’s next
Virgins synthetic audiences remain available for ongoing use. As new partnership opportunities emerge, new questions arise, or strategy evolves, the insights and brands team can continue querying their UK and US audiences without commissioning new research.
The broader lesson is practical: a single piece of quantitative research doesn’t have to be a single moment in time.
When paired with synthetic audiences, existing data becomes a living resource — one that teams can return to as often as decisions require.