Audience research
Five permission records for UGC marketplaces audience research in England
Keep five permissions apart in UGC marketplaces audience research in England: participation, data, later marketing, recording and content use, with withdrawal.
What to take away
- Keep five permissions as separate recordsresearch participation, personal-data processing, later marketing or recruitment, recording and quotation, content or campaign use.
- Agreeing to join a study is not permission for anything else, so each record needs its own evidence and its own withdrawal route.
- Consent to take part is not a UK GDPR lawful basis, and a privacy reviewer must document the basis.
- Research that promotes a supplier or captures leads is direct marketing, so keep any pitch out of the study.
- When someone withdraws, work out which permission they withdrew before you delete or suppress anything.
Why does agreeing to join a study not cover anything else?
Each later use is a different decision with a different risk. Agreeing to join the study is not permission for a marketplace account, creator recruitment, future marketing, content publication or commercial reuse. A single tick-box that covers all of them gives you five weak permissions instead of five clear ones.
Participants should also be able to say yes to one and no to another. A creator might be happy to be interviewed and unwilling to be recorded. A buyer might allow quotation inside the study report but not future contact. Separate records make those answers usable.
The same discipline applies to everyone in the study. GOV.UK's service manual says you need consent from all research participants, even if they work for your organisation. Seniority and familiarity do not replace a record.
What are the five permission records?
Each record has a minimum set of evidence. If the evidence is missing, the permission has not been given, whatever was said in the session.
| Decision | Minimum evidence |
|---|---|
| Research participation | Information version, affirmative agreement, session scope, withdrawal route |
| Personal-data processing | Purpose, controller, lawful basis, fields, recipients, retention, rights |
| Later marketing or recruitment | Contact purpose, route, authority, suppression check |
| Recording and quotation | Media type, viewers, permitted uses, expiry, withdrawal handling |
| Content or campaign use | Asset, parties, rights, channels, territory, term, edits |
Keep the five records in separate fields or separate documents. A participant file that holds one combined "consent" entry cannot answer a later question about what exactly was agreed, and it cannot be partly withdrawn.
Roles matter as well. An advertiser owns the commercial need, an agency may administer the brief, and a marketplace operator controls its service. A research supplier may run only the study, so its permission records should say so.
What must a participant understand before agreeing to take part?
They must understand who is researching, what will happen, what is collected, who receives it, whether recording occurs, how long it is kept and how to withdraw. That list is the information version named in the first row of the table, and it should be versioned like any other document.
For recording and quotation, add the media type, who will view the material, the permitted uses and an expiry. A participant who agrees to an audio recording for analysis has not agreed to a clip in a presentation. Record the expiry date so the recording does not outlive its permission.
Information given at recruitment should match the session. If the scope changes, for example a new recording or a new viewer, issue a new version and record a new agreement. The customer interviews guide covers how to run sessions that stay clear of sales.
Why is consent to take part not a lawful basis?
Ethical permission to join a study and a UK GDPR lawful basis for processing personal data are different things. The first is the participant's agreement, and the second is a legal ground that the organisation must choose, record and justify for each purpose.
The ICO's lawful basis guide says you must determine your lawful basis before you start using the personal information and you must document it. The basis depends on the organisation and the purpose, so a privacy reviewer must document it before the first invitation goes out.
The personal-data record should list the purpose, the controller, the fields, the recipients, the retention period and the rights. The data protection article follows personal data through one commission, from lawful basis to deletion, and it is the companion to this record.
How do you keep marketing and content use out of the study?
Treat later marketing and content use as separate requests, made only after the study and only with their own evidence. Do not hide a supplier pitch inside the study, and do not capture leads under the heading of research.
Research that promotes a supplier or captures leads is direct marketing. If a participant wants to hear from a marketplace later, record the contact purpose, the route, who has authority to make contact and the suppression check, as the table sets out.
Content or campaign use is the most complex record. It needs the asset, the parties, the rights, the channels, the territory, the term and any edits. The quality checklist shows which evidence should support the rights behind content, music, featured people and reuse.
What happens when a participant withdraws?
Work out which permission was withdrawn first. A person who withdraws from later marketing has not withdrawn from the study, and a person who withdraws from the study has not necessarily withdrawn a content permission already granted.
GOV.UK's service manual is direct about the research data: if a participant withdraws consent during a session, you must stop and delete any research data you have collected. These steps keep the response consistent.
- Record the date of the withdrawal and which permission it covers.
- Stop the session or the processing that depends on that permission.
- Find every record held for the participant, using the case reference.
- Delete or suppress the data the permission covered.
- Add the contact to the suppression list if marketing or recruitment is withdrawn.
- Count the withdrawal in the published tally.
Publish counts for invitations, eligible people, agreements, completed sessions, usable cases and withdrawals. A withdrawal count that is missing from the report suggests that nobody tracked it, which weakens every other number.
Common questions
Which permissions must stay separate?
Research participation, personal-data processing, later marketing or recruitment, recording and quotation, and content or campaign use. Each needs its own record and withdrawal route.
Is a creator profile consent?
No. A creator profile is not consent, authority or demand. Recruit on a recent, evidenced event, and record the participation agreement separately. The target audience article sets out how roles and recruitment frames work.
Can one case become a persona?
Not on its own. A single interview is a case, not a persona, and not proof of supplier performance. Consider buyer personas only when several eligible cases show a recurring decision pattern.
Where do results go?
Results belong in the study report, not here. This design has no participant findings, and the six evidence classes keep different kinds of evidence apart when findings are reported.
In this guide
- UGC marketplaces target audience: recruiting each role from recent commissionsDefine a UGC marketplaces target audience in England from recent paid commissions, with separate rows, screeners and quotas for every role and honest limits.
- UGC marketplaces buyer personas: evidence-card principlesHow to frame UGC marketplaces buyer personas as evidence cards, separate commissioning roles, assess research patterns and set review or retirement triggers.
- UGC marketplaces: how to run customer interviews that stay clear of salesRun neutral UGC marketplace interviews in England with recent-event prompts, separate permissions, accessible sessions and defensible limits.
- UGC marketplaces survey tools: four routes comparedChoosing UGC marketplaces survey tools? Compare four routes — manual, self-hosted, contracted and managed — on cost, control and the evidence to collect.
- UGC marketplaces competitor research: how to build a ledgerUGC marketplaces competitor research: learn how to classify service leads, record evidence by field, note unknowns and plan dated rechecks before shortlisting.
