Mercury Analytics launches Omnibus survey for rapid insights

Mercury Analytics has unveiled a new research service, the Mercury Analytics Omnibus, designed to help organisations make rapid, evidence-based decisions through a recurring national survey.

The company said the omnibus allows teams to insert a few tailored questions into a regularly fielded survey of around 1,000 U.S. adults, receiving analysed results within days. It aims to provide a "quick-turn" solution for decision-making needs that fall between larger, in-depth studies.

"Momentum matters," said Ron Howard, Founder and CEO of Mercury Analytics. "When timing is tight, you need a simple way to hear from people and make the right call. We launched our omnibus service with exactly those moments in mind."

Focus on speed and clarity

Mercury Analytics said the new omnibus is anchored in both speed and clarity, supporting a range of familiar question formats including multiple choice, rankings, short grids, and open-ended feedback. The tool can also evaluate different types of creative materials, such as text, images, and short videos.

Participants in the survey are drawn from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults, balanced by region, age, gender, household income, ethnicity, and political affiliation. The omnibus survey runs every second Wednesday of the month.

Teams can submit as few as three questions to take part. Once submitted, Mercury handles programming, audience balancing, quality checks, and data delivery. Findings are returned in a format designed to be easily shared across teams.

Uses and applications

The company outlined several common applications for the omnibus service, describing it as particularly well-suited to "everyday decisions that fall between major studies."

Among the suggested uses are:

• Final checks of messaging before a campaign launch
• Quick comparisons of creative concepts or A/B testing
• Fast reads to guide communications, policy, or product choices
• Small data inputs that help cut second-guessing and keep projects moving

Submission process

According to the company, getting started with the omnibus is straightforward. Clients share the decision they are trying to make and the audiences that matter, submit three to ten questions (and any creative materials to test), then select the next available fielding window.

Mercury takes care of the rest, from programming the survey to delivering what it calls "decision-ready results."

Delivery and analysis

The company said clients receive their complete results within 72 hours of launch, accessible through the Mercury Analytics Workbench. This platform provides built-in segmentation tools, crosstabs, ratings, and open-ended responses, along with full access to Mercury's Ask MercuryAI suite.

All clients receive access to both their own questions and Mercury's standard demographic questions. Through the Workbench, users can generate their own data cuts, visualisations, and AI-driven summaries.

Standard deliverables include one Mercury-generated crosstab and an Excel summary table for grid questions, with up to four demographic category cuts - such as gender, age, household income, and ethnicity - not exceeding ten total audience segments.

Demographic data available in the omnibus includes region, age, gender, household income, ethnicity, political affiliation, voter registration, education, marital and parental status, living area, and media consumption.

Media testing options

The omnibus also incorporates Mercury's suite of creative testing tools. These include dial-testing for video or audio content, text highlighting, and image testing. Teams can also add MercuryIQ Enhanced Open Ends for deeper qualitative feedback.

The company said that all of these capabilities are "delivered with the full Analytics and AI power" of its platform.