Interview mit Adam Sculthorpe, Premise “Our network has grown to cover most of the globe”

(Bild: picture alliance / Zoonar | magann)

What exactly does Premise do?

Adam Sculthorpe: Each year, trillions are spent understanding the world around us. Technology has given us phenomenal tools to help us do so at great scale - from satellites tracking population movements through to social media monitoring. But for some types of data, you simply have to ‘be there’. Whether that is measuring the effectiveness of in-store retail execution strategies through to understanding the perceptions of people at particular events.

And yet, the market has had to put up with the fact that, ‘being there’ has been slow, expensive and notoriously inflexible.

Premise is seeking to change that.  Our software has the power to give our partners the ability to derive insights directly from our network of local consumers, customers and citizens who are able to collect local observations and insights in real-time and at vast scale. Premise is a crowdsourced data and insights platform that connects our subscribers to over 4.6 million individuals in 138 countries who are incentivised to respond to surveys and tasks via the Premise mobile app. The data provided by our ‘Contributors’ can come in the form of sentiment, opinions, observations, images or videos and is made available to our subscribers in real-time through an online platform.  

What is the Premise story?

Adam Sculthorpe: As I demonstrated in my talk at IIEX Europe, Premise has been helping global organisations solve their most pressing business challenges around the world for over 10 years. Founded in Silicon Valley, Premise’s journey of rapid growth began by helping organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others in the International Development space solve humanitarian challenges. Due to the nature of the work these organisations are involved in, Premise grew its network and our ability to crowdsource data mainly across the global south. Today, our network has grown to cover most of the globe and our customers include CPGs, retailers, tech providers, government agencies and insurance firms.

Would you still consider what Premise does to be market research?

Adam Sculthorpe: Our customers use Premise to conduct market research, yes, but that is far from all. Organisations that subscribe to Premise can collect data on whatever it is that is important to them. This could be researching trends or sentiments across specific markets, continuously tracking the in-store execution of certain products or brands or as we do for for our clients in the insurance industry helping them understand risk and investigate the impact of loss events.

To what extent does Premise expand the spectrum of methods in market research?

Adam Sculthorpe: Premise is the only provider of mobile based crowdsourced data and visibility at the scale at which we operate. Also, focussing specifically on the CPG and Retail space, there is no other market research methodology or solution that can penetrate both the modern and traditional sectors at a store level in the same way Premise does.

How does Premise differ from an online panel or from mystery shopping?

Adam Sculthorpe: Premise differs in two key ways: speed and quality. The insights our data Contributors provide are available to our customers in real-time via our online platform. As soon as a Contributor submits a task response and it passes our quality control checks, that data is available to customers to view. In terms of quality, because Premise is able to target only the people, the locations and the stores that matter to our customers, the quality and relevance of our data is far greater than traditional mystery shopping or panel providers.

Simply, if you want to know what is happening with a certain product, in a specific store that day, only Premise can tell you that.

How do you recruit Contributors to Premise?

Adam Sculthorpe: Our Contributors love using our app to provide information and earn additional income. It is because of this that the majority of our 4.6 million Contributors have been recruited via word of mouth. Premise provides an opportunity for people to earn money whilst conducting everyday tasks. People naturally want to share this opportunity with their friends and family. When we do have the need to increase the size of our network more rapidly in a particular country however, we are able to leverage digital ads to accelerate growth.

In your presentation at IIEX, you used a journey around the world in 80 days to illustrate where Premise could have helped. Were those actual jobs or fictional examples?

Adam Sculthorpe: They were all examples of actual data collection Premise has conducted with some featured in publications such as The Economist. The images shown were submitted by Premise Contributors from around the world in much less than 80 days.

Are you a fan of Jules Verne?

Adam Sculthorpe: In all honesty, no. But I had COVID over Christmas this year and watched David Tennant’s Around the World in 80 Days 3 times in 7 days.

You give your community members tasks that can earn them money. Where do the tasks come from? Which tasks are particularly common?

Adam Sculthorpe: Tasks come from our customers. Organisations need data and Premise provides a reliable, efficient and cost-effective means to access this data from the places they need it. Common tasks differ by industry for example, the most common task for CPGs is to provide consistent in-store, SKU level visibility of both their products and their competition.

This is used to monitor pricing, promotional activity, product placement and stock availability.

Is it already possible to have tasks done in Germany and which other countries do you operate?

Adam Sculthorpe: Yes, in the last 30 days we have received over 20,000 task submissions from Premise Contributors in Germany, and we operate in 138 countries across the world.

What projects are you most proud of that Premise has done?

Adam Sculthorpe: I am most proud of the humanitarian work Premise is involved with around the world. The example that I included in my talk at IIEX where USAID used Premise to ask communities in Cali, Colombia to identify mosquito breeding grounds in an effort to halt the spread of the Zika Virus is one in particular that sticks with me.

Where has Premise had the most impact in the World?

Adam Sculthorpe: Premise has had the most impact in developing and emerging markets and has done so in two ways; by providing additional opportunities to generate income for Contributors and by helping global organisations better understand how to operate in these rapidly growing but underserved markets.