Ask Away presents you monthly news about Opinary’s product and team, inspiration for integrating polls into your platform and exciting insights from our users.

One of the best reasons to incorporate our polls is to create exciting communities around specific topics. After all, few things on the internet bring people together like pooling user resources for a common cause.

Some of our publisher friends have mastered this technique: they identify content that resonates with readers on an emotional level and develop engaging formats based on it. We have collected some of the most inspiring examples from recent weeks for you!

Enjoy exploring and be surprised!

Earning the gold medal for poll usage

We’ve been secretly marvelling at Yahoo Canada’s coverage of the Olympics, particularly how they’ve included polls to engage their readers. You find all the polls here.

One example we’d like to highlight is this article on the USA vs. Canada men’s hockey final. It’s an integration that could win gold!

Who should pay for mountain rescue in France?

Last month, we received a very successful poll integration from the UK.

In their article on the possible cost-sharing of British winter and mountain sports enthusiasts, the editors of The Times of London skilfully engaged their readership with a question that gets to the heart of the topic.

We particularly liked how the discussion in the comments section reflected the poll results.

You can view the results here:

Lion cub name search via poll

A pair of lion cub twins are the latest attraction at Turtle Back Zoo in New Jersey. TODAY cleverly tapped into the huge public interest by involving lion fans in the name search via a poll on behalf of the zoo.

The audience was then able to follow the distribution of votes and the eagerly awaited announcement of the names live on the TODAY show or via video. A pretty good roar, we think!

See the whole thing here:

Ask Away presents you monthly news about Opinary’s product and team, inspiration for integrating polls into your platform and exciting insights from our users.

Although 2026 has already been underway for almost two weeks, we would still like to take this opportunity to extend our warmest wishes to you. We hope you enjoyed a relaxing end to last year and a wonderful start to the new one.

Speaking of ‘end of the year’: Have you read our EOY report yet? It contains lots of great insights that our editorial team found while reviewing the best polls of 2025. As a teaser, they summarise the top findings in a video (see the bottom of this mail).

But we’ve got more news for you, including some really inventive poll inspo from Australia and a Cross-Poll Insight, which provides deep insight into British voter behaviour.

Enjoy!

Driver’s licence test in polls

The creativity with which Yahoo Australia has integrated polls into this article has honestly blown our minds. Picking up on the fact that the Australian driving test is very difficult, even for experienced drivers, they challenged their readers to try their hand at some of the most difficult questions.

The fun part? Readers could submit their answers via polls, compare them with those of the other participants, and find out how they performed overall. The readers rewarded this creativity with an average of 25,000 votes per question.

Want to know how they did it and how you would perform?

Insight

What do Brits who don’t tip have in common?

Our polls aren’t just there to encourage users to engage with current affairs. They also provide us and our publisher friends with exciting insights into our readers.

Based on last year’s polls, we analysed how British non-tippers voted. With a surprising result: Almost 40% of them voted for the Reform Party. Would you have guessed that?

End of Year Report-Teaser

In our “Year in Questions 2025” our editorial team has taken a look back at the big questions and debates. As already announced in the intro to this newsletter, they’ve recorded a short video summarising their findings.

Here it is:

Don’t forget to also take a look the written review.

mCanvas, a leading provider of interactive digital advertising and part of the US-Indian company Affinity Global, is entering the German market. As part of the expansion, mCanvas is combining its offering with the survey technology of Opinary, which was acquired by Affinity in 2023 and has a proven track record in Germany. The aim of integrating Opinary’s technology is to enable advertisers to target audiences and personalise campaigns based on zero-party-party data. To this end, mCanvas is relying on Florian Brill as Country Manager on the ground and is expanding its team with employees with Opinary know-how and market expertise.

Advertising formats that create lasting attention 

The expansion provides German advertisers with access to mCanvas’ full portfolio of interactive and immersive advertising solutions. mCanvas already works with clients around the world, including McDonald’s, Walmart and Amazon, developing advertising formats that lastingly engage users through interaction with the ad.

Zero-Party data from Opinary is now a key component of these formats. Acquired by Affinity in 2023, Opinary’s interactive polling technology enables brands to collect information about users’ interests and preferences. Consumers provide this information voluntarily and in full compliance with privacy regulations.

‘Setting new standards for digital advertising’

Florian Brill, Country Manager Germany at mCanvas, says: “Germany is an important market for mCanvas and we are delighted be able to offer our partners here these new advertising solutions. By integrating Opinary’s survey technology, we can offer campaigns that not only stand out visually but are also data-driven and therefore highly relevant to the their target audience. Together, we want to set new standards for digital advertising.”

Pia Frey, co-founder of Opinary and CMO of Affinity, adds: “Opinary has over ten years of experience in getting users to interact with targeted questions and making this data usable. It’s great to now be marrying this technology with mCanvas‘ globally successful product and becoming even stronger together.”

mCanvas team in Germany continues to grow

As mCanvas continues to expand, it has hired new staff in Berlin and Hamburg to join the 200 employees worldwide.

Florian Brill, Vice President Europe at parent company Affinity, has also been appointed Country Manager with responsibility for strategic and operational development since 1 January.

Marius Heisler is the new Senior Director Operations at mCanvas, responsible for all data-driven processes related to the Opinary technology. Most recently he was Director Ad Operations & Content at Opinary.

Lennart Begerow joined mCanvas in February as Director of Business Development in Germany. He joins from AdTech company Teads, where he was most recently Senior Sales Manager.

Tim Brändle has been appointed Associate Director, Client Partnerships and will be responsible for national sales. He joins from Opinary, where he was most recently Senior Agency Partner.

Katharina Schonlau also joins mCanvas from Opinary as Associate Director, Client Strategy, where she is responsible for supporting and developing the client portfolio. At Opinary she held the position of Senior Client Solutions Manager.

The mCanvas team in Germany is set to grow to 14 employees by the end of 2025.

Images:

Portrait Florian Brill, Country Manager mCanvas and VP Europe Affinity (Image rights: Affinity)

Portrait Pia Frey, Co-Founder Opinary and CMO Affinity (Image rights: Affinity)

— Contact 

Presscontact:

Agentur Frau Wenk +++ GmbH

Tel.: +49 (0) 40 32904738-0

E-Mail: affinity@frauwenk.de

About mCanvas

mCanvas develops experiential ad creatives using innovative ways to appeal to target groups. With its rich media experiences, mCanvas offers creative storytelling distributed at the right time through the right channels and relies on zero-party data for the greatest possible relevance. Campaign performance is measured using metrics such as viewability, attention, brand lift, and physical store footfalls. To know more, visit mCanvas.com

About Opinary

Opinary enables digital publishers and advertisers to activate and convert their target groups with targeted polls, driving meaningful engagement at scale, and gain exclusive first-party data. Its offerings are used by over 160 premium publishers, like The Times of London, NBC Universal and Yahoo, and more than 360 global companies, reaching over 120 million users monthly. Opinary was founded in 2016. Since 2023, it is a subsidiary of the US-Indian ad tech company Affinity Global. More information: opinary.com

About Affinity

Affinity is a global ad tech company with over 400 employees across the US, Asia and Europe. As the parent company of mCanvas, Opinary and other successful ad formats and SaaS solutions, the company is driving the digital transformation of the media landscape by providing brands with the tools to engage with consumers in entirely new ways.