We All Belong: Humanizing the Hard Conversations
The Gig
Dialogue-Based Recruiting Sets the Tone for Meaningful Conversations
The Band partnered with The Ad Council to support their Belonging Begins With Us campaign, which worked to advance a more welcoming nation where everyone, regardless of background, can belong. The campaign’s website features real stories of belonging from across the country, and—to ensure these stories could have maximum impact—we sought input from users across the ideological spectrum. Our conversational screening process proved a winning approach to find the right respondent for these emotional topics.
Approach
In order to facilitate the kind of honesty & vulnerability the research demanded, our trained recruiters utilized a dialogue-based approach-engaging potential candidates in natural, easy conversation. This screening method inspires trust and openness, allowing us to build a common language and sense of rapport with the participants and capture vital context before the research has even begun.
The team utilized our learnings in these initial conversations to develop a personalized bio for each respondent - highlighting details like their political views and news consumption. This helped set the story for cross team engagement, allowing members from all over the client's organization to participate in observation of the interviews.
“The Band has repeatedly impressed us with their ability to recruit a variety of audience segments for our campaigns and engage in thoughtful and open discussions on sensitive topics such as mental health and inclusion. The insights and recommendations they provided for our BelongingBeginsWithUs.org site allowed us to reduce our bounce rates and improve conversions.”
Impact
The good news? Participants across the ideological spectrum overwhelmingly connected to these deeply human tales of belonging. However, usability barriers made it difficult for the message to fully resonate, hindering the campaign’s efforts to shift perceptions or build empathy. We made recommendations for concrete changes to improve site engagement, which our partners at the Ad Council translated directly onto a to-do list for their web developer, to be actioned immediately. These optimizations led to measurable improvements in site performance.