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Everything You Need to Know About Omnibus Surveys

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Published: 15Apr2009
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What is an Omnibus Survey?

Omnibus surveys are a way to get proprietary information about the citizens of virtually any country in the world. An Omnibus is a shared cost survey, meaning you split the fielding costs with a number of other parties. This makes Omnibus surveys and excellent choice when budgets are limited.

A general population omnibus polls 1,000 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and over. Quotas are set for key demographics such as age, gender, region, and ethnicity to ensure results are nationally representative and can be held up to media scrutiny. However, Omnibus surveys can also be used to reach more specific audiences such as men or women, certain age, education, or income groups, or even individuals who engage in a specific behavior, such as shopping at a certain well known store or voting for a particular presidential candidate.

How do Omnibus Surveys Work?

Omnibus surveys can be conducted by phone or online, and are priced on a per question basis. Assuming the company you work with keeps with ethical standards dictated by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, online omnibus surveys utilize e-mail addresses obtained from tens of millions of respondents who have opted in to participate in research. Once respondents opt in, their information is collected and cross-referenced to produce a respondent profile. Respondents are then selected at random and offered the opportunity by an e-mail invitation to participate in a survey. Phone omnibus surveys are conducted using RDD, or Random Digit Dialing, of listed and unlisted numbers. Typically, online surveys are more cost-effective than phone surveys. Demographic questions are included on every omnibus, typically without any additional cost, allowing you to look at how different demographic groups (gender, age, region of the country, parents) responded to various questions.

Once questions are submitted, it typically takes no more than a week to return results, but sometimes omnibus studies can be run as fast as a day or two.

What Are Omnibus Surveys Used for?

There are a number of scenarios for which omnibus research may be useful:

- Understanding broader cultural trends, behaviors, and mindsets

- Tracking consumer opinion about your brand

- Providing fresh story angles to “exhausted” brands or programs

- Producing a great stat to get a journalist’s attention for the broader story

- Helping brands “bridge” to hard-to-reach media

- Establishing thought leadership or enhancing brand expertise

- Meeting or exceeding media impressions goals

- Understanding public opinion for crisis management

- Creating compelling, proven messages to combat negative publicity

- Developing talking points for celebrity or in-house spokespeople

- Improving new business pitches by showing a potential client you know their brand, consumers, competitors, and marketplace

How Do I Get the Most Out of an Omnibus Survey?

Since the number of questions on an omnibus survey is low, it’s important that each question be crafted extremely carefully. A few things to consider when drafting questions:

- Keep outcomes in mind as you develop questions

- Keep questions clear and concise

- Make creative comparisons

- Cluster the questions into appropriate sections

- Use language that has only one meaning or definition

- Use terminology that respondents will understand

- Don’t ask leading questions or use biased words

- Use broad response sets that allow for most, if not all possible answers

- Don’t be afraid to be creative

Gareth Schweitzer is the Founding Partner of the Omnibus Company. The Omnibus Company, a division of Kelton Research, provides fast and accurate Omnibus Surveys and strategic consumer insights to public relations and marketing professionals looking for newsworthy, actionable data.

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