Research into the meaning of the Rotterdam Pass

The Rotterdampas, a household name for many Rotterdammers, because with the pass people can do more than 750 fun things for free or at a discount. The Rotterdampas was created by the Municipality of Rotterdam to keep everyone in Rotterdam (and in particular minima and elderly people) social, active and enterprising and thus enable them to enjoy life more. The Rotterdampas has now been in existence for 30 years and is still a great success with some 200,000 pass holders. But what exactly is the (emotional) significance of the pass for Rotterdammers? And how well does the Rotterdam Pass achieve its social objectives? Blauw found out.

Challenge

Vision

Qualitative research: in-depth interviews

To answer these questions, we conducted qualitative research in the form of individual in-depth interviews. In these we examined, among other things, the role of the Rotterdam Pass in the daily lives of Rotterdammers, their leisure activities, the role the pass plays in raising children and maintaining relationships with family, friends and acquaintances.

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Solution

This provided extremely personal stories that gave insight into the emotional, social and activating value of the pass. This allowed us to demonstrate that the Rotterdam Pass is enriching and enables everyone in Rotterdam to participate in all the fun things Rotterdam has to offer. Because employees of the Rotterdampas watched through our one-way-mirror, they gained immediate inspiration for their daily work. And that is exactly what makes qualitative research so valuable!

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Result

Social media recruitment: bringing the right respondents to the table

For this study, we spoke with pass holders of different ages and backgrounds. Think grandparents, (single) parents and singles. We conducted the recruitment through social media, in this case through Facebook. This new way of recruiting has several important advantages over the more traditional recruitment via a panel:

Facebook has about 10 million unique users per month. No other channel reaches as many people with a wide age range at relatively low cost. Response on Facebook can be positively influenced by proper targeting, attractive posts and by posting often enough.
Blauw has its own in-house digital marketing specialist. She is experienced in designing attractive content and knows which paths to take for optimal response.
Not only the attractive costs are an important advantage of this way of recruiting. We also notice that with this way of recruiting we are able to recruit 'fresh' respondents. People who have no experience in market research and are not registered with the large panels.

As an archetypal Rotterdam agency, we are proud to be able to conduct regular research for such a great initiative as the Rotterdam Pass.

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