KRC's Social Sandbox

The Social Sandbox is a research tool that allows us to test social media content before going live.

We recruit consumers (or other target audiences) to spend time on a page that looks exactly like Facebook or YouTube but is customizable and fully secure. We post content on that page, inviting participants to comment freely and discuss what they see -thus providing us with immediate insight into the most effective messages and approaches.

Use the Social Sandbox to:

  • Test alternative messages, approaches, and formats
  • Assess breakthrough, comprehension, persuasiveness, brand fit, brand engagement
  • Safely explore higher risk strategies, identifying red flags and benefits
  • Gain insights into your audience – awareness, attitudes, needs, segments
  • Surface additional opportunities or trends
  • Inform budget priorities

By analyzing social media conversations and flow in a test environment likely consumer trends and reactions can be detected, allowing you to optimize your social media strategy before going live. Monitoring the reactions of target consumers to message concepts will remove guesswork and help enhance message development. The results are messages that are more relevant, more compelling, and more engaging to your target consumers. In addition, you can identify important subgroups within your target audiences and tailor messages just for them. Benefits include:
  • Refine and improve marketing content prior to going live
  • Detect consumer trends
  • Identify important attitudinal subgroups
  • Avoid communication mistakes
  • Reduce unnecessary marketing spend

Design the research

We work with you to determine your goals and develop an optimized Social Sandbox approach that closely mirrors your target consumers’ social media experience.

Build the sandbox

We mimic a social media page or create a new one.

We create and post a first round of content.

 

Launch the Sandbox

We recruit participants from the target audience.

We encourage them to interact (like, comment, and share) as if they were browsing through their own feed.

We periodically switch out the content to test different directions.

We actively coach and curate.

Deliver the results

We analyze and assess.

We present you with guidance on how to maximize the effectiveness of social media content.


  • Campaign and message development
  • Concept and product testing
  • Competitive message testing
  • Crisis planning and response
  • New business pitches