Through the eyes of a JIC…

James Whitmore, managing director at Postar, on the sometimes wearing, occasionally amusing and always time consuming audience research debate…

I prefer cubits to metres. The length of ones forearm seems so personal and practical. It is always with you, easy to see and ready for use. In contrast, a metre is some unknowable abstract. Something about the shortest distance from the equator to the North Pole via Paris divided by a big number with many zeros.

Of course we measure in metres rather than cubits, as the size of the earth is an inarguable concept. We don’t have to determine whose forearm will be the standard. Regardless of how much spinach is eaten or how many growth hormones taken, the earth’s size will not change.

Yet I cannot help thinking that whilst we might measure in metres, we tend to judge the world based on our own point of view – perhaps not with our forearms but certainly from our personal perspective.

One of the challenges that face a joint industry committee is how to deliver cold objectivity when all around hold views that are specific to themselves and sometimes quite firmly held. We are tasked with creating “gold standard” audience research that is inarguable, constant and true. Yet everyone who commissions, funds and uses the data will bring their own perception to bear.

It is the nature of the audience currencies that they must find a balance of agreement between the agencies and media owners who contribute considerable and ever-increasing sums in the pursuit of better knowledge and who care greatly about the value of their contribution. Everyone must agree what to do, how to do it and what has been done. Each aspect is scrutinised and debated, at length and lengthily.

A multi-dimensional debate ensues. The many participants will see the world from his or her perspective. Some will fear that the measure might be skewed to favour others. They will be reassured that the mirror is not distorted, that a metre is always a metre. Others will be emboldened to suggest that the measure be re-calibrated to their own, superior statistic. Yet all are created equal in the eyes of a JIC. Others still might demur altogether, wishing to wait until the calibration is complete before determining if they wish it to be made. Oh for a gun.

This is sometimes wearing, occasionally amusing and always time consuming.

The only response can be an unerring quest for accuracy that is straight and true and does not waver at the sight of one interest or another. The effect for Postar is that each advertising frame is positioned to the nearest metre, its orientation determined to the closest degree. The frames are placed on the most precise scale maps, both indoors and out. The audience is tracked, second by second, using GPS and GPRS sensors. Ten measures a second are given to sense the mode of motion. Lasers determine the fixation of the eye to the nearest sixty milliseconds. Thus one learns who passes what and when. One deduces the likelihood to see something based on the relative orientation of viewer and object.

This may lack the human charm of body parts bolstered by improbable diets but it is undeniable that the JICs’ rigid adherence to common measures produces data that is as fair and as accurate as can be.

James Whitmore will be on the panel at the Future of Media Research seminar next Friday. A few tickets are still available, book your place at events.mediatelgroup.co.uk