Social Market Foundation collects 29,000 data points across 15 markets in 5 days
The Social Market Foundation is a leading British policy think tank and registered charity dedicated to promoting evidence-based policy to educate and inform the public and policymakers across a wide range of social and economic issues. To investigate the global scale of fraud and its impact on victims, they needed nationally representative samples across 15 countries, surveying nearly 29,000 respondents.
Challenge
This ambitious project posed several key challenges:
- Accurate translation & clarity – Ensuring complex fraud-related topics were conveyed accurately in multiple languages while remaining easy to understand.
- Speed & scale – Collecting a large sample size within a week of launching fieldwork.
- Hard-to-reach markets – Achieving a nationally representative profile in hard-to-reach markets while retaining high data quality e.g., in Japan, Mexico
Solution
With Focaldata’s tech-powered multi-market feature, the Social Market Foundation surveyed respondents globally, at speed:
- 15 countries – including the USA, Singapore, Japan, and Argentina
- 29,000 respondents
- 5 days – from fieldwork launch to completion
- 15 individual data tables, 1 combined dataset – enabling cross-country comparisons
Results
Unprecedented speed through technology
Focaldata’s tech-driven approach delivered nationally representative samples across 15 markets in just 5 days. This let The Social Market Foundation focus on survey design and deep data analysis, while Focaldata handled scripting, translations, fieldwork, and data quality—ensuring a seamless process.
Untangling complex requirements for success
Focaldata’s team provided expert research guidance from two key perspectives. First, their experience with online surveys ensured the design maximised respondent engagement and data quality. Second, their deep understanding of research principles helped refine question design, selecting the best formats for insight while avoiding bias in wording and answer choices.
This ensured The Social Market Foundation’s findings accurately reflected real experiences and honest opinions.
Making data accessible and actionable
Focaldata seamlessly merged datasets across multiple languages, enabling The Social Market Foundation to easily compare results across markets.
A combined multi-market dashboard–with native translations converted back into English–was delivered just one day after fieldwork completion, allowing for quick analysis.
This was followed by 15 individual data tables and one combined set for significance testing, equipping The Social Market Foundation with the insights needed to support their 80-page report.
Central to achieving our research objectives was the ability to survey the adult populations of fifteen countries – spanning both advanced and developing nations – about their experiences with fraud.
Focaldata were great to work with from the outset, providing quick and transparent quotes, expert support in developing the multi-country survey, and efficient execution from launch to results delivery.
The survey tackled a broad range of fraud-related topics, requiring clear and concise translation across multiple languages. Despite the complexity, Focaldata managed the process seamlessly. Their professionalism and expertise ensured the survey delivered exactly what we needed to support our project goals.
Richard Hyde, Senior Researcher
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