UK Parliament: Audience Insight Programme

The brief

The exam questions from Visitor Services and the Public Information Department at The Palace of Westminster were: Who are the British Public today? What are their political engagement levels? Who are our visitors? What are the motivations to visit us? What do they experience when they visit Westminster Palace?  And finally, what can we learn about their channel habits that will help us to engage with them better going forward?

Our approach

We needed to identify and interrogate vast amounts of data, so we secured the assistance of our strategic partner Experian to help us and to be kind in their consideration of fees. By using their strong MOSAIC groupings as a starting point on which to overlay data around voting sensitivity, plus 100,000 ticketing records from the visitor attraction, we were able to develop a strong picture of the state of the proverbial nation and their relationship with UK Parliament.

We then needed to understand more about the visitor experience from a qualitative perspective. Having agreed that 500 exit interviews would give us a statistically rich seam of information, we decided to build social value into the mechanics. We recruited a team of young people under 21 from deprived areas of London to deliver our exits – giving them free training, a good rate of pay and something for their CVs.

Face to face interviews with exiting visitors and over 40 staff on the front line, along with a review of over 10 years of extant research, filled in the gaps.

The deliverables were:

  • a picture of the British Public today
  • segmentation by interest in Parliament and the visitor attraction
  • insight around barriers and motivations to engagement and visiting
  • intelligence around channel sensitivity by segment
  • 15 rich personas against which to plan brand and marketing activity

Read another case study:

Barnardo’s Children’s Services
Breast Cancer UK
IKANO Bank UK
Islington Youth Council
Lincoln Castle & Heritage Skills Centre
National Grid
NHS Portfolio
Public Health England Drinking in Pregnancy
Shelter Commissioner Engagement
TATA Consultancy Services
The Palace of Westminster
Voluntary Services Overseas Shelter
Yorkshire Building Society Group