Q: What do you do with survey results?
A: Urban Life results are used in two main ways. Firstly, to provide the inspiration for editorial articles and features that appear in Metro Herald. Secondly, results are used by our commercial team to understand what kind of lifestyles readers lead and the brands consumed most often by young, urban professionals. You can see in the Press Cuttings section of the website a selection of the articles written using Urban Life results. We also post result highlights on the website - the results from the previous wave will be available for you to view after you have completed each main survey.
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Q: Are the prize draws all a big con?
A: We can assure you that prize draws run after every main Urban Life survey and take place amongst all of you who have filled in that month's main survey before the given deadline. All our prize draws are managed independently by our research company Behaviour & Attitudes. Prize draws are conducted anonymously with winners randomly selected according to strict guidelines set down by AIMRO (which is a consumer Watchdog, but for the research industry).There will be around 2,000 Urban Life members. In total we will give away 100 lots of All4one vouchers worth €30 each. Additionally we will give 4 x €1,000 cheques, one for each main survey, and the final prize of €2,000. We will also run a refer a friend price draw for €500, and a further 3 prizes totaling €500 for the best member profile.
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Q: Do you pass on any of my data to companies?
A: We never pass any of your personal details on to any persons, companies or organisations. When we get the aggregated data from each survey from Behaviour & Attitudes, we are not given your name or address alongside the results. The only time we will see your name or address is when we are sent the contact details of the prize draw winners. This information is sent separately from the survey results. So rest assured, if you have confessed to any crimes or sins during Urban Life, then they are safe with us (or more precisely, safe with Behaviour & Attitudes who have encrypted them!).
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Q: Who are the Urban Life Team?
A: There are four of us in total managing the Urban Life project. Chris Cowley, the Editor of Metro Herald, you know already. Kieran Forde is Urban Life's Marketing & Research Manager and runs the project on a day-to-day basis. Luke Reaper and Ian Goulding work for Behaviour & Attitudes, our Urban Life research partner, and ensure the project runs smoothly and complies with AIMRO guidelines.
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Q: Do you publish a list of prize draw winners every month?
A: Under AIMRO's guidelines and the Data Protection Act, we are actually not allowed to publish the names of the members who have won prizes without their permission. However, if we do have permission, we do publish information about the prize winners each month and the grand prize winner at the end of the year. So if you have won a prize and would like to tell others about it - please feel free!
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Q: Do you get paid for asking certain questions?
A: We never charge anyone for putting questions on to an Urban Life survey. As such, there's no such thing as a "sponsored" question on Urban Life. We do not make any money from selling questions. This is one of the key things that sets Urban Life apart from most other surveys: it is highly accessible and it is free.
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Q: Why so many marketing/advertising questions?
A: As a free newspaper, Metro Herald is completely funded by advertising revenue. To justify the existence of Urban Life, we need to demonstrate that we are helping our advertisers better understand the "Urbanite" audience they reach by advertising in Metro Herald. To do this we need to understand the brands you consume and the advertising that sticks in your mind, hence the number of questions about advertising in our surveys. As mentioned in the answer to question 4, we never "sell" brand-specific questions and so do not make any money directly from them. However, by offering our advertisers free insights we do strengthen our commercial relationships with them, which in some cases has resulted in new advertising business for Metro Herald.
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If you have any other questions which we have not answered above, please feel free to email helpdesk