EU Campaign UX Research “European Commission”

PROJECT OVERVIEW

MY ROLE: UX Research Intern ” analytical contribution & independent report “

Organisation: DUX Agency, Brussels – UX Research Consultancy

Client Type: European institutional communication team

Research Type: Quantitative survey

Contribution: Survey observation, data analysis, independent research report

Timeline: May 2026

CONTEXT & PROBLEM

As part of my internship at DUX Agency, I had the opportunity to observe and contribute to a UX research project conducted for a European institutional client. The client needed to understand how effectively their social media communication campaigns were reaching and resonating with a national audience.

The research aimed to answer three core questions:
Do people actually know what the EU does for them locally, or do they just support it in the abstract?
Are the campaign materials creating genuine recall, or are they lost in the media noise?
Which campaign format generates deeper engagement, and what does that mean for future strategy?

MY ROLE & PROCESS

My involvement in this project included three phases:

Phase 1 :Observation & Context Building
I observed the survey design process, learning how research questions are structured to minimise bias and maximise actionable insights.

Phase 2 : Data Reading & Translation
I received the full survey results and independently read, translated, and interpreted the findings. This required me to move beyond surface-level numbers and ask:
what does this data actually mean for the client’s communication strategy?

Phase 3 :Independent Analysis Report
I produced my own analytical report, structured around a researcher’s critical lens rather than a simple data summary. This included reviewing the methodology for potential biases, identifying the most strategically significant findings, and formulating concrete recommendations for the client.

KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

1. The Emotional-Knowledge Gap
   The most striking discovery was a significant gap between how positively people feel about the EU as an institution and how well-informed they feel about what it concretely funds and builds in their communities. Sentiment is strong; concrete awareness is weak.
2. High Reach, Low Recall
   A large majority of respondents reported some exposure to EU-related content in the previous months. However, specific recall of campaign messages was much lower. People were being reached by the content, but it was not sticking in memory.
3. Platform Mismatch
   Despite high weekly usage of video platforms among the target audience, EU communication was not effectively utilising these channels. There was a clear disconnect between where people spend their media time and where they were encountering EU content.
4. Two Videos, Two Strategic Purposes
   The study tested two campaign videos. Rather than one performing better than the other, the data revealed that each serves a distinct function in an engagement sequence:
   Video A : Drives intellectual curiosity and information-seeking behaviour, ideal for deepening engagement.
   Video B : Drives emotional connection and social sharing behaviour, ideal for expanding reach and warming audiences.
5. The Personal Relevance Gap
   Even when respondents reported positive emotional responses to the videos, personal relevance scores were notably lower. People appreciated the content in a general sense but did not strongly connect it to their own lives and communities.
   
   

WHAT I LEARNED AS A JUNIOR RESEARCHER

Research is interpretation, not just data collection
The numbers in this study told part of the story. The analytical layer asking why the gap exists, what it means strategically, what should change is where research creates real value for clients. Learning to move from data to insight to recommendation was the most significant skill I developed in this project.

Methodology transparency builds trust
DUX Agency’s approach of openly documenting the study’s limitations (self-selection bias, social desirability effects, sample size constraints) was a valuable lesson. Strong research does not pretend to be perfect, it clearly communicates what the findings can and cannot tell us.

Quantitative survey provided depth knowledge
The numbers showed what people think. As a UX practitioner, this reinforced my understanding of why research always works as a Quantitative survey.

My content background is a research asset
+10 years of building and growing digital audiences taught me to think about what content resonates with real people and why. Reading this research data, I found myself naturally connecting the findings to audience behaviour patterns I had observed first-hand a perspective that enriched my analytical lens beyond the purely academic.

Conclusion

This project gave me the opportunity to analyse real research data and understand how insights can support communication decisions.
Through this analysis, I identified several key challenges, including the gap between public support for the EU and awareness of local EU-funded initiatives, as well as the difference between campaign reach and campaign recall.
Most importantly, this experience strengthened my ability to move from raw data to actionable insights and recommendations.