If you’ve ever procrastinated during a particularly dull day at the office, you might have succumbed to the odd online quiz or two – content which also serves as a nifty data intelligence tool for brands.

Buzzfeed is not the only culprit. An increasing number of brands are using quizzes to learn about customers and deliver a more personalised experience across the board.

Here are a few examples, as well as what the benefits are for the companies in question.

And for more on this topic subscribers can download Econsultancy’s new Content Strategy Best Practice Guide.

Warby Parker

Warby Parker uses a quiz to cleverly nudge customers into entering its ‘Home Try On’, which involves trying out five pairs of glasses for five days.

It’s not a ‘quiz’ per se, perhaps more of a questionnaire. However, it’s a similar formula, including questions about fit, colour and shape preference in order to narrow down suitable frame options.

Not only is this incredibly useful for customers who might be undecided or overwhelmed by choice, but it’s a great way to push customers down the sales funnel as well as capture valuable data.

Zenni Optical

Another eyewear brand, Zenni Optical uses its ‘You’ve Been Framed’ quiz to increase brand awareness and drive more traffic to its website.

The quiz takes a more light-hearted approach, asking questions to match consumers with glasses that suit their personal style and general lifestyle. This makes the quiz instantly shareable, with a fun and humorous approach prompting users to send it to their friends.

According to reports, the quiz was highly successful, generating 29,410 lead conversions and a 9,655% ROI in six months.

Disney

Disney is a massive media conglomerate, but one of its most unknown verticals is digital publishing. Oh My Disney is just one of the sites it runs, set up to engage and entertain Disney fans of all ages.

Quizzes are a huge part of the site’s content, including obvious Disney themes like “Could you be a mouseketeer” as well as more tenuous links like “Are you Chris, Chris, Chris, or Chris?” (i.e. Pratt, Hemsworth etc.…)

Like Buzzfeed, the site has built up an audience that returns time and again just for the quizzes, successfully generating traffic and social shares.

Topshop

Topshop uses a quiz to re-target customers and capture sales. The quiz acts as a personal shopper, asking questions in order to provide personalised product recommendations and style tips.

I was actually quite surprised how in-depth it is, going as far as asking detailed and specific questions about sizing, style preferences, and even body confidence.

The fact that it is also quite long means that customers are likely to offer up their data at the end, signing up to the retailer in order to view results. A great tactic which ensures Topshop is able to capture precious data.

Birchbox

Personalisation is key to Birchbox’s strategy, with customers required to fill in a ‘beauty profile’ in order to receive products tailored to them.

Elsewhere, the brand also uses quizzes purely for content marketing purposes, furthering the value it offers in the form of helpful tips, reviews, and how-to’s.

Its ‘Make Up Brand Spirit Animal’ quiz is a nice example, telling customers what their ultimate brand might be and why, as well as prompting them to share the quiz on social.

Airbnb

For seasoned travellers, it can be difficult to narrow down a destination. Should you explore the age-old streets of Rome, or enjoy the Scandi-chic of Stockholm?

This is the premise behind a new quiz by Airbnb, designed to promote its trips and experiences vertical. Essentially, it helps users find out what kind of traveller they are, before offering up the perfect destination – as well as a ‘trip itinerary’ that includes hand-picked accommodation, activities, and places to visit.

It’s a great bit of marketing, providing content of interest for travel-loving customers. Meanwhile, it also encourages users to explore various aspects of the site, leading them down a funnel that hopefully leads to a booking.

Knorr

Knorr originally created its food profile quiz as part of its ‘Love at First Sight’ campaign, which was based on the idea that shared taste in food helps people to bond.

It involves a set of questions relating to food and flavour preferences, allowing the brand to give participants a ‘flavour profile’, and you guessed it, a load of related recommended products.

The design of the quiz is what’s most impressive, as most brands do not invest as heavily into this aspect, typically viewing quizzes as a ‘flash in the pan’ form of content marketing.

Hyundai

Finally, instead of hosting the content on its own site, Hyundai used Instagram to host a quiz to help users find their perfect vehicle.

Starting out with ‘what time of day makes you happiest?’, the quiz involves asking users multiple choice questions, with each one leading to a new Instagram account for the next question and so on. Altogether, it involves 18 Instagram accounts and 390 different images.

A fresh and innovative take on the concept, it shows that quizzes don’t have to stick to the same old question-and-answer format.

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