Platform task type
Media map and collage
Surface the subconscious associations and emotional responses that text-based tasks cannot reach.
(collage builder task with participant-selected images)
Overview
The media map and collage tools give participants a visual language to express what they know but cannot always articulate. By placing brands on a map or assembling images into a collage, participants reveal implicit associations, emotional connections, and perceptual relationships that rational responses often mask.
Media map
Set mapping axes, preload brand or product images, or let participants upload their own content to create a dynamic, interactive mapping task. An aggregated analysis dashboard provides an instant visual overview of brand or product positioning across the full group.
Collage tool
Participants build collages and moodboards using their own images, preloaded media, or incling's integrated copyright-free image bank, with written descriptions to explain their choices. The result is a rich source of projective data that supports visual and semiotic analysis.
Features
Everything in the media map and collage tools
All features are included at no additional cost. No limits on images, participants, or submissions.
Flexible canvas
Share a blank canvas or upload a template for participants to work from.
Images and text
Participants can add both images and text to maps and collages.
Curated or open image sets
Specify images for participants to use, or allow them to source their own.
Public, private, or unbiased
Control visibility of responses between participants.
Integrated image bank
Access to a copyright-free image bank for participants to draw from.
Image count
Set the minimum and maximum number of images required.
Minimum word count
Require written descriptions alongside each map or collage.
Aggregated dashboard
See positioning and associations across the full group in a single view.
Use cases
Ideal for
Media map and collage tasks work best when you need to understand emotional territory, brand associations, or subconscious perceptions that direct questions tend to flatten or rationalise away.
Brand and competitive positioning
Set axes representing key category dimensions and ask participants to map a competitive set against them. The aggregated dashboard reveals how your brand is positioned relative to competitors and where genuine white space exists in the market.
Emotional brand associations
Ask participants to use the collage tool to show how a brand, product, or experience makes them feel. Images surface implicit associations that written responses tend to rationalise away, giving researchers access to the emotional subtext behind stated preferences.
Segmentation and persona development
Run the same mapping or collage task across different audience groups and compare outputs. Differences in how segments visually represent a brand or category often reveal more nuanced insight than demographics or claimed attitudes alone.
Early-stage creative and NPD ideation
Use the collage as a stimulus and generative tool in the early stages of brand or product development. Ask participants to build a visual world for a new direction, sharing colours, textures, images, and references that capture the feeling they want it to evoke.
Exploring complex or sensitive topics
When experiences are too deeply personal to address directly, the collage provides an alternative means of expression. Asking participants to show rather than tell allows them to approach topics such as chronic illness, grief, or identity at a distance, often generating deeper insight as a result.
Communications and creative development
Use media maps or collages to define the visual and emotional territory for a campaign before development begins. The outputs give creative teams a consumer-grounded reference point that briefing documents rarely achieve.
Ready to see incling in action?
Book a demo and see how media map and collage tasks, and the full platform, can work for your next project.