What's the Difference Between Flash and Spark Models?

Overview of Flash and Spark Models

Resonate provides advanced custom data solutions designed to address specific business objectives, including market sizing, competitive intelligence, customer acquisition, and retention enhancement. Two principal custom modeling solutions offered are the Flash Model and the Spark Model. While both are designed to answer targeted business questions, they serve distinctly different purposes and yield different types of insights.

Flash Models

Purpose:
The Flash Model is intended for delivering rapid, targeted insights regarding a narrowly defined audience. It is particularly suited for projects that require swift answers to focused questions, often supporting immediate audience targeting and activation.

Key Advantages:

• Expedited turnaround time of approximately 4–6 weeks
• Custom surveys conducted independently of the U.S. Consumer Study (USCS), allowing flexible timing
• Primarily designed for audience activation and tactical applications

Important Caveat on Flash Insights in the Platform
While Flash data attributes may appear in platform reports and allow users to “view insights,” these insights reflect only the unprojected Flash study sample and should not be interpreted as representative of the general population.

This means:

• You can see insights in-platform on Flash attributes.
• You should not interpret them the same way you would for Spark attributes or USCS-derived data.
• These values are directional only and are valid within the context of the Flash sample, not the broader U.S. online adult population.

Correct Usage Example:
✔ 21% of shoppers in our Flash study who indicate that home fragrances help them destress are Hispanic (based on the Flash attribute combined with USCS attributes).

Incorrect Usage Example:
✖ 21% of Hispanics in the U.S. use home fragrances to destress (this incorrectly assumes the Flash sample is representative of the U.S. population—Flash insights are not projectable and should not be interpreted as national estimates)

Spark Models

Purpose:
The Spark Model is designed for strategic, scalable insights that support full market sizing, broad consumer profiling, and comprehensive analysis linking custom survey results with Resonate’s extensive attribute library.

Key Advantages:

• Data projection calibrated to the entire U.S. online adult population
• Rich, attribute-based analysis encompassing media behaviors, political orientations, brand affinities, and more
• Suitable for both audience activation and market-wide strategic profiling
• Ideal for large-scale initiatives requiring population-level insights

Timing Considerations:

• Integrated with USCS waves, leading to a processing period of approximately 4–5 months
• Custom data typically becomes available within the platform roughly 6 months after finalization of the questionnaire

Usage Example:
✔ 7% of high-income mothers planning a vacation within the next 12 months prefer the Southwest brand (enabled by Spark data projected to the full U.S. online adult population).

Comparative Feature Summary:

Final Recommendation

For projects requiring rapid, targeted insights on a narrowly defined audience segment, the Flash Model is the appropriate solution; however, it should not be used to extrapolate findings to the broader market. For scalable, strategic insights capable of profiling the entire U.S. online adult population, the Spark Model is the recommended approach.

For further guidance on selecting the appropriate model for your business objectives, please contact your Resonate account team.