A quick-start guide to JICMAIL
Find out how to access JICMAIL data, what’s needed to get set up and the support available to help your organisation start using it with confidence.
What is JICMAIL?
JICMAIL is the Joint Industry Currency for Mail and we provide audience research data that helps advertisers, agencies, media owners and mail specialists plan, measure and improve the performance of mail campaigns.
Operated by Kantar, a panel of 1,100 households use a diary-based app to capture their activity with the mail they receive in the home over a 28 day period. This includes whether it is opened, read, put aside for later, shared with others, kept for reference, or acted upon. We call them ‘physical actions’. Commercial activities are also recorded, such as website visits, purchases, searches, donations and store visits. We call them ‘commercial actions’. The household co-ordinator (the person in the home responsible for collecting and distributing the mail received), ensures the activity of the whole household is recorded.
This methodology produces key planning metrics such as reach, frequency and impressions, as well as lifespan in the home, attention and commercial outcomes. This makes it possible to understand mail not just as a delivery channel, but as a media channel that drives real consumer behaviour.
JICMAIL is part of a wider suite of Joint Industry Currencies (JICs), which cover other advertising channels, e.g:
BARB for TV, RAJAR for Radio, Route for Outdoor and PAMCo for Newspapers and Magazines.
But what’s so interesting about JICMAIL data?
We’re glad you asked. If you or your client uses mail or even if you are simply considering using mail in a campaign, our research data adds an additional layer of insight that you can’t find elsewhere. We uncover the private life of mail within in the home, and reveal how households across the UK interact with the mail they receive.
- Want to know how many and what type of people might see your campaign and how long they’ll spend with the mail you’re sending?
- Want to know what proportion of your brand’s mail prompts a conversation, purchase or even a visit to your website?
- Want to understand how different areas of the country are more or less likely to respond to your mail?
These questions, and more, can be answered using JICMAIL data.
JICMAIL data can be used throughout the campaign planning cycle. For planning, it helps teams understand how different mail formats perform across audiences and categories, making it easier to build stronger strategies. For measurement, it helps advertisers evaluate how mail contributes to broader campaign outcomes, including digital activity and sales-related behaviour.
Users can also benchmark campaign performance using tools such as the Response Rate Tracker, which provides sector and campaign-level benchmarks for response, Return on Investment (ROI), Cost per Acquisition (CPA) and Average Order Value (AOV). JICMAIL data can also support competitor analysis, creative review, geo-planning and cross-media planning.
So how do I view and use the data?
JICMAIL Discovery is our main tool for analysing JICMAIL data. It’s dashboard based, and simple to learn and use. You can view and manipulate the data in a variety of user-friendly charts and tables, and you can also export the data into Excel and PowerPoint if that’s your preference.
Within Discovery you’ll find our core panel data, our Response Rate Tracker, our integration of TGI data, our Geo Planning tool and our Carbon Calculator.
To help you use JICMAIL Discovery and its suite of complementary tools, we have created several short ‘How to…’ videos. Each video provides a quick overview of how to get the most from each dashboard in the tool. Use these to help you navigate through JICMAIL Discovery and get the most from JICMAIL data. The videos are on our website and embedded into each dashboard in Discovery.
We also offer personalised training in-person or online and have an on-demand learning platform called JICMAIL Academy. Via the Academy, you can earn a series of certifications:
- Bronze – foundation level
- Silver/Silver+ – intermediate level
- Gold – expert level
Ok, I’m convinced: how can I access JICMAIL data?
Your organisation needs to sign a short Data Agreement and once this is received by JICMAIL, congratulations – your organisation is now a JICMAIL subscriber! There are no costs attached to becoming a subscriber: access to JICMAIL data, tools and training is free and paid for via a JICMAIL levy.
Everyone at a subscribing organisation can create an account and log into JICMAIL Discovery: our online analysis and dashboard tool. They can also sign-up for training and attend events and webinars.
FAQs
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Why is access to JICMAIL tools and data free?
Access to JICMAIL tools, data and training is free because JICMAIL is paid for by a levy on all advertising postage.
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What is a JIC?
A JIC is a Joint Industry Currency or Committee. JICs offer independent gold-standard measurement of media channels and their respective audiences.
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What paperwork do I need to complete to become a subscriber?
Your organisation needs to sign and return our Data Agreement.
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What’s your analysis tool called?
Discovery is our main tool and within it you can access the Response Rate Tracker, our integration of TGI data, our Geo Planning tool and our Carbon Calculator.
If you are already a subscriber and have a Discovery account you can go straight to JICMAIL Discovery. If you are not yet a subscriber, complete our Data Agreement to gain access to our data, tools and training for free.
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Do you offer training?
