How the panelists gather the data they give us
These interactions are recorded both when the mail is initially received and then follow up interactions are recorded on any subsequent occasion that an interaction takes place over a four week period, or until the item in question has been thrown away. Each interaction is logged as an opportunity to see. If a panelist discards or throws away an item then it is recorded as a single impact as a consumer has to look at it to decide to discard it – after this point it is considered ‘dead’. If it is passed on to somebody else, any other actions are then attributed to that other household member. At the heart of our thinking throughout the creation of JICMAIL, the panel and the methodology, is “how can we make mail research just like other media”. But when we started with our first pilot we quickly identified one key challenge that is unique to mail - the presence of a household co-ordinator. Our pilot study consistently told us that in each household there is more likely to be a single household co-ordinator who looks after the mail as it enters the home. Their role is typically to sift and sort the mail into relevant categories and then either deal with it or share it with the right people in the household. The co-ordinator is responsible for logging not only their actions with the mail they receive but also any mail that has been handed to another person in the household. In our current panel 71% of the households within the panel are represented by a single household co-ordinator and 28% are where more than one person takes responsibility for sorting and distributing the mail amongst people within the household. Unique to mail – the role of the household co-ordinator
How panelists tell us what they do with their mail
From our first pilot study and other insight we realised that mail cannot be measured by simple behavioural proxies that other channels use such as “read” or “looked at”. We had to find a more relevant set of language, that reflected the language consumers use when they explain how they deal with their mail. Consumers talk about opening, sharing, using, and passing on mail. They talk about putting it on display to remind them or others to deal with it. So we needed to create a lexicon and a methodology that could capture and report on exposure for a piece of mail which has been put on the fridge – enabling a consumer to see this every single time they open the fridge door! The approach we took uses all of the interactions with mail as a proxy for mail exposure – recording the physical actions our panelists take with their mail each day.
Who sorts the mail?
Physical actions with mail
JICMAIL panelists can record any of the following types of interaction that they have had with each individual piece of mail delivered to them:
• Opened it
• Threw it away/recycled
71%
• Read/looked/glanced at it
SINGLE HOUSEHOLD CO-ORDINATOR
• Took it out of the house (e.g.to work)
• Put it on display (e.g. on a fridge, noticeboard)
• Used/did something with the information
• Filed it for reference or records
• Passed it on/left out for the person it’s for
28%
• Put it in the usual place
• Put it aside to look at later
JOINT RESPONSIBILITY
14
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