Strategic Sample Design for More Representative, Consistent Data
Business decisions are only as reliable as the data behind them. Yet many believe that online sample sources are easily interchangeable. They are not.
Each panel can differ in its respondent composition, recruitment practices, participation patterns, attitudes, and behaviors. Those characteristics also change over time, potentially influencing study results and creating inconsistencies between projects or waves.
Simply combining more sources does not necessarily solve the problem. When providers are stacked or aggregated primarily to reach feasibility, the sample mix does not account for the differences between sources or the potential bias that can be introduced into your data.
IntelliBlend® takes a more strategic approach.
Common Problems Strategic Sample Blending Can Solve:
Sample Source Bias
Limited Feasibility
Poor Quality
Data Inconsistencies
IntelliBlend® – The Premier Approach to Strategic Sample Blending
IntelliBlend® is EMI’s patented methodology for developing customized, strategically blended sample plans. Rather than adding providers solely to achieve feasibility, we intentionally select complementary sources, control their allocation, and adjust it over time based on panel changes and the study’s specific audience, objectives, and methodology.
The approach can incorporate traditional online panels, expert networks, social media, custom communities, and other controlled non-traditional sources. Each blend is designed around the project rather than a predetermined sample asset.
By accounting for demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal differences between sources, IntelliBlend® helps reduce panel-related bias, strengthen representation, improve quota delivery, and produce more consistent data.
When combined with SWIFT (EMI’s proprietary sample management platform), we are able to build you a custom sample plan and then launch and manage your project. We can launch, field, and close studies with more speed and accuracy than other panel providers. Using the SWIFT platform, EMI can deduplicate respondents, eliminating fraud in your study. We also provide tracking of results by each partner used in the sample blend, so you can see where your results are coming from. For each wave of the study, the strategic sample blend is replicated within SWIFT, which enforces sample-source quotas, ensuring data consistency.
Built on Vetted Sources
Every provider considered for an IntelliBlend® sample plan must meet EMI’s standards for quality, consistency, and reliability. Panel partners undergo our rigorous Partner Assessment Process before entering the network, and continued inclusion is never guaranteed.
Using our proprietary Quality Optimization Rating, EMI monitors partner performance across pre-study traffic health, in-survey respondent behavior, and post-study data validation. Quality findings, respondent removals, and blocks are communicated back to partners through an ongoing feedback loop. Sources that fail to maintain EMI’s standards can be restricted or removed.
This ensures that IntelliBlend® is built from actively managed sources rather than providers selected solely because sample is available.
Key Benefits of IntelliBlend
- More accurate and representative demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal data (due to the differences in panels)
- Reduces the bias of panel sources (panels are different and changing)
- Increases feasibility and ability to deliver quotas
- Avoid costly and potentially harmful “top-up” situations. When replicated from wave to wave, it ensures data consistency
- Reduces bias of a single sample source if and when that panel source composition changes over time (which it will)
- Ideal for concept testing, trackers, wave studies, or ongoing program work
Designed for Trackers and Wave Studies
IntelliBlend® is especially valuable for tracker studies and recurring research, where changes in sample composition can make it difficult to determine whether shifts in the data reflect the market or the sources used to collect it.
For ongoing studies, EMI develops a custom blend that can be monitored and replicated from wave-to-wave. After each wave, the sample plan is reviewed against current panel performance and research-on-research findings to identify changes that may require adjustment.
This controlled approach helps maintain greater consistency while still allowing the blend to evolve when evidence indicates that a change is necessary.
IntelliBlend Safeguards
- Periodic reviews of the custom sample plans
- Source-level allocation monitoring
- Comparison with current research-on-research findings
- In-field metric tracking to custom sample plans
- Wave-end performance reviews
- Documented adjustments when source conditions change
- Proactive discussion and problem resolution
Layered Quality Protection
IntelliBlend® is supported by EMI’s broader Data Quality Suite, which combines technology, proprietary processes, and human oversight throughout the research lifecycle.
These protections allow EMI to monitor quality across the complete sample blend rather than evaluating each provider in isolation. This broader view helps identify threats that may move across panels, surveys, devices, or sample sources.
Data Quality Suite Components
- Layered bot and fraud detection
- Digital fingerprinting and de-duplication
- Respondent activity-level tracking
- Centralized block-list management
- Real-time traffic monitoring
- In-survey quality flagging
- Proactive fieldwork oversight
- Post-study validation and data scrubbing
- Partner performance feedback
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