When the folks at Toronto-based Delvinia Data Collection were looking for a way to promote their Asking Canadians and Qu’en pensez-vous panels of 85,000 consumers to the market research community, they knew they’d have to go beyond the ordinary.

‘We didn’t want a newsletter,’ says president Adam Froman. ‘We wanted to create an anti-newsletter.’

Guesswhattheysaid.com features real questions answered by niche segments of the panel. Using a nifty slider interface, visitors can guess the results of the poll and then see the real answers, as well as the guesses of other users. Past questions range from the musical tastes of female Canadian hockey fans to the views of male cat owners on the Eliot Spitzer debacle. People can also submit questions, subscribe to the monthly question and share it using tools like del.icio.us and Facebook.

‘It was an opportunity to engage researchers in what they do,’ says Froman, whose clients include Strategic Council, Research International and Random House. ‘We wanted to get the point across that we have a deeply profiled panel, plus [Delvinia Interactive], which means a better experience for the panelists.’

Based on the positive response among market researchers, Froman is planning to broaden the audience to include clients of Delvinia’s interactive arm, the marketing community and even panel members. As the site develops, Froman hopes to expand the community aspect with a Web 2.0-style comment feature.