Boomerang Ideas is a contemporary AI-supported platform for opinion and market research that uses social media to recruit and survey test persons and interview partners who can only be reached to a limited extent using traditional survey methods.

The platform is aimed at different target groups: On the corporate side, it is primarily aimed at large, multinational companies with millions in sales – while SMEs and start-ups can also benefit from the uncomplicated application.

This basic approach, which already resonates in the name “Boomerang Ideas”, is intended to help make opinion and market research accessible to everyone. By breaking down barriers to entry in particular, it becomes easier to obtain valuable views, attitudes, moods or wishes of the population or target group and thus support decision-making in companies.

The original idea was developed in collaboration with renowned institutions such as the University of Zurich. The aim was to radically change traditional survey methods.

Developing together, growing together

We started by looking for an experienced full-stack developer who was familiar with both Ruby on Rails and React – someone who could strengthen our team flexibly and efficiently. Panter not only provided us with this valuable expertise, but also went one step further and invested financially in the vision.

Traditional market research is often based on setting up panels, telephone surveys and paid interviewers. Even if these methods are justified in certain age groups and settings, it is often the case that the participants are not truly representative. Boomerang Ideas therefore opted for a radically different approach.

With the help of a specially developed platform, it was possible to reach target groups directly and easily via social media – without having to resort to already “used” participants. This fresh pool of test subjects showed a high-quality and natural response behavior. The ease of participation ensured a broader and more authentic data base, which was already reflected in the accuracy of the forecasts.

From start-up to the nation’s forecasting partner

Boomerang Ideas has turned social media sampling into a “commodity product” that could even be used to predict the 2024 US presidential election with a high degree of accuracy. This confidence in data quality has also won over the academic world. Since December 2024, Boomerang Ideas has been working closely with gfs.bern to deliver political forecasts for SRG across Switzerland in all languages.

The clear game-changer moment came with the first full study in collaboration with the University of Zurich and Innosuisse. When several federal votes were accurately predicted, it was clear: “We are ready to take the next step after the validated idea.”