Incentivized Reviews
This tutorial introduces developers to incentivized badges and incentivized review count in the Android SDK.
Introduction
Authenticity is a core value at Bazaarvoice. This means indicating, or badging, user generated content (UGC) where the author has been offered an incentive. FTC regulations concerning consumer-generated content, as well as the Bazaarvoice Authenticity Policy, require that reviews display a notification (either as a graphic badge or plain text) any time the consumer has received or been offered material compensation for writing their review. This includes, but is not limited to, any of the following being provided to the consumer in exchange for writing a review:
- Entry into a sweepstakes
- Coupons or Discounts
- Loyalty Reward Points
- Free products, either before as in a Sampling program or after, as a Thank You gift
In addition to badging incentivized reviews, you can display the count of incentivized reviews for each product or author, which may be required depending on local regulations. This count is referred to as the incentivized review count.
Prerequisites
Prior to submission and rendering incentivized badges, your implementation must be configured to support such options. Please contact support to inquire about enabling this option.
Displaying incentivized review badges
How Incentivized Review badges are displayed for Android SDK clients is left up to creative interpretation. Bazaarvoice has several suggestions when displaying badge information.
- Incentivized reviews must always be identified.
- Icons or text can either be used. In the case where icons are used, the meaning or definition should be easily available. This could mean including alt text, implementing a tooltip, or popover which will display on the mouseover event.
The badging of content does not need to appear the same across syndicated sites, but must be present. For example, graphical icons on the origin site and text labels on the destination site is acceptable.
The following examples demonstrate several ways to display badges:
Displaying the incentivized review count
The Android SDK returns the count of incentivized reviews for each product or author. Use this count to show consumers how many of the reviews for a product or written by an author have been incentivized through a sweepstakes, coupon, sampling program, etc. Bazaarvoice considers a review incentivized if it was marked as an incentivized review during submission, as detailed in prior sections of this topic, or if the review content indicates an incentive was present.
Use the incentivized review count to:
- Show consumers a badge or informational message that highlights the count of incentivized reviews for a product.
- Increase consumer trust in your business.
- Comply with global consumer laws and regulations.
The following image demonstrates how you can display the incentivized review count beneath a ratings display.
Based on our user experience research and authenticity compliance guidelines, Bazaarvoice recommends using the following text to describe the incentivized review count:
incentivized review count of total review count reviewers received a sample product or took part in a promotion
Usage details
To retrieve incentivized review data, call the addIncentivizedStats(true)
in the Android SDK. Use this approaches in conjunction with other parameters as described below in order to return the needed data.
Products
Request incentivized statistics for products in bulk
BulkProductRequest request = new BulkProductRequest.Builder(productId)
.addIncludeStatistics(PDPContentType.Reviews)//
.addIncentivizedStats(true)//
.build();
final BVConversationsClient client = new BVConversationsClient.Builder(BVSDK.getInstance()).build();
client.prepareCall(request).loadAsync(new ConversationsDisplayCallback<BulkProductResponse>() {
@Override public void onSuccess(BulkProductResponse response) {
for(Product product : response.getResults()) {
int incentivizedCount = product.getReviewStatistics().getIncentivizedReviewCount(); // check for incentivized count of reviewStatistics
if (incentivizedCount > 0) {
List<DistributionValue> distributionValue = product.getReviewStatistics().getContextDataDistribution().get("IncentivizedReview").getValues();
// check for the context data value properties of the incentivized review using distributionValue object
}
}
}
@Override public void onFailure(ConversationsException exception) {
// HANDLE ERROR
}
});
Request incentivized statistics for Product Detail Pages
ProductDisplayPageRequest request = new ProductDisplayPageRequest.Builder(productId)
.addIncludeStatistics(PDPContentType.Reviews)//
.addIncentivizedStats(true)//
.build();
final BVConversationsClient client = new BVConversationsClient.Builder(BVSDK.getInstance()).build();
client.prepareCall(request).loadAsync(new ConversationsDisplayCallback<ProductDisplayPageResponse>() {
@Override public void onSuccess(ProductDisplayPageResponse response) {
for(Product product : response.getResults()) {
int incentivizedCount = product.getReviewStatistics().getIncentivizedReviewCount(); // check for incentivized count of reviewStatistics
if (incentivizedCount > 0) {
List<DistributionValue> distributionValue = product.getReviewStatistics().getContextDataDistribution().get("IncentivizedReview").getValues();
// check for the context data value properties of the incentivized review using distributionValue object
}
}
}
@Override public void onFailure(ConversationsException exception) {
// HANDLE ERROR
}
});
Reviews
Request incentivized statistics for reviews
ReviewsRequest request = new ReviewsRequest.Builder("ProductId", limit, offset)
.addIncludeContent(ReviewIncludeType.PRODUCTS)// additional parameters to include products in response
.addIncludeContent(ReviewIncludeType.AUTHORS) // additional parameters to include authors in response
.addCustomDisplayParameter("FilteredStats","Reviews")// added to request for filtered statistics
.addIncentivizedStats(true) // request for incentivized reviews data
.build();
final BVConversationsClient client = new BVConversationsClient.Builder(BVSDK.getInstance()).build();
client.prepareCall(request).loadAsync(new ConversationsDisplayCallback<ReviewResponse>() {
@ Override
public void onSuccess(ReviewResponse response) {
for(Review review : response.getResults()) {
Map<String, Badge> reviewBadges = review.getBadges();
if(reviewBadges.get("incentivizedReview") != null) {
// the review contains "incentivizedReview" badge, check for the properties
Badge badge = reviewBadges.get("incentivizedReview");
//Check for badge properties `
for(Product product : review.getIncludedIn().getProducts()) {
// check for incentivized count of reviewStatistics
int incentivizedCount = product.getReviewStatistics().getIncentivizedReviewCount();
if(incentivizedCount > 0) {
List<DistributionValue> distributionValue = product.getReviewStatistics().getContextDataDistribution().get("IncentivizedReview").getValues();
// check for the context data value properties of the incentivized review using distributionValue object
}
}
}
}
}
@Override public void onFailure(ConversationsException exception) {
// HANDLE ERROR
}
});
Bulk Ratings
Request incentivized statistics for bulk ratings
BulkRatingsRequest request = new BulkRatingsRequest.Builder(productIds, BulkRatingOptions.StatsType.All)
.addIncentivizedStats(true) //request for incentivized reviews data
.build();
final BVConversationsClient client = new BVConversationsClient.Builder(BVSDK.getInstance()).build();
client.prepareCall(request).loadAsync(new ConversationsDisplayCallback<BulkRatingsResponse>() {
@Override
public void onSuccess(BulkRatingsResponse response) {
for (Statistics stats : response.getResults()) {
ProductStatistics productStats = stats.getProductStatistics();
ReviewStatistics reviewStats = productStats.getReviewStatistics();//Review Statistics
ReviewStatistics nativeStats = productStats.getNativeReviewStatistics();//Native Statistics
reviewStats.getIncentivizedReviewCount(); //get incentivized count
nativeStats.getIncentivizedReviewCount(); //get incentivized count
}
}
@Override
public void onFailure(ConversationsException exception) {
// HANDLE ERROR
}
});
Context data values
The ContextDataValues
object and subsequent key/value pairs may offer developers additional information about the incentivized review. The additional metadata associated with the incentivized review can help categorize the type of review. For example, the DimensionLabel
key/value can be used to distinguish between other types of incentives and also be displayed as a label. In order to use ContextDataValues
, please contact support.
Badges
The review.badges
object contains the badge name ('incentivizedReview'), id, the badge type ("Custom"), and the type of content associated with the badge (reviews, question, answers)
Updated 8 months ago