Mirror Group introduces online research community

Mirror Group is launching an online research community in a bid to tap into readers’ views on advertising and editorial content. The initiative will tie-in with its existing reader panel, which launched in 2003.

The Mirror Mouthpiece website will combine forums, net chats, product ratings, polls and blogs, allowing readers to interact with each other and the publisher.

The forum is currently only open to Mirror reader panellists, who have been invited via email but a Mirror spokesman says it plans to open it up to the public. It will place links and ads in it national newspaper titles and website to encourage new users to sign up.

Mirror Mouthpiece has been developed on the back of the publisher’s reader panel, which has 5,000 participants. Since 2003 around 100 surveys, including client-specific surveys for advertisers such as Pedigree, Freeview, John Smiths and Tesco, have been conducted via the reader panel.

The company says its aim is to provide increased accountability to its advertisers. The combination of Mouthpiece and the reader panel aim to bring together its quantitative panel data and qualitative insight.

Richard Webb Mirror Group managing director (pictured), says: “Mouthpiece has already been used for advertiser projects and can give immediate insight and feedback on their campaigns.”