The JICMAIL panel
JICMAIL’s gold-standard data insights are built on a nationally representative panel of 1100 UK households and a robust, transparent methodology. Learn how the data is collected, how the sample is structured and why it provides a trusted foundation for planning and measurement.
Overview of the panel
The panel is recruited and managed by Kantar, one of the largest research agencies in the world, who conduct audience measurement research across many media categories and countries.
JICMAIL together with Kantar, has developed a diary-based mobile app that is used by panellists to capture mail activity in the household.
Over each quarter, JICMAIL is tracking the mail activity of 1,100 UK households.
Panellists record the mail they receive for a week and subsequent mail actions taken by them, or anyone in their household, for three more weeks. They then begin this process again with mail they receive the following week. Our panel is split into four groups, each starting on a different week meaning that we are tracking mail activity for every week of the year.
Recruitment of JICMAIL panellists has been targeted to a set of specific demographic variables, with a weighting exercise taking place to account for shortfalls in any key target groups.
For more information on our methodology, please follow this link.
Here are some frequently asked questions
From panel recruitment to panellist compliancy, here’s everything you might want to know about the JICMAIL panel.
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What population figures are we grossing our panel up to?
The weights are sourced from the 2021 National Census, except social grade which is from TGI (note targets were for 16+).
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How many people are on the JICMAIL panel?
There are 1100 UK households on the JICMAIL panel but many households have more than one person living in that home.
We estimate an effective sample size of 26,400 by making the following calculation:
We measure the mail activity of everyone in the household (approx. 2.5 people per household).
Therefore: approx. 1100 households x approx. 2 people per household x 12 months = approx. 26,400 responses a year.
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What is our panel profile weighted to?
All reported results are based on a sample of households (and household members) which is representative of the UK population.
The demographic profile of the households and household members is compared to the UK population (measured by National Census data) for gender, age, household size, social grade and region and weights are applied to correct any differences between the sample and the population.
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Is the panel big enough to be accurate and should it be bigger?
The 26,400 effective sample is large enough to infer nationally representative mail behaviours by industry sector and audience / demographic type.
It is also large enough to measure mail behaviour for larger campaigns with sufficient volumes. Nearly 400,000 mail journeys have been recorded (as at Q1 2026).
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How are the panel recruited? Who can join the panel? Do they perform research for any other media?
Kantar recruits thousands of research panellists every year who are used for media research and consumer insight projects across channels and sectors in the UK and globally. These panellists can be invited to take part in JICMAIL’s panel, and are further supplemented by recruitment via external panel providers.
JICMAIL panellists are recruited by Kantar based on specific criteria related to their household characteristics to ensure representation on a national UK population basis. Panel health is monitored carefully by Kantar and approximately 20% of the panel is refreshed on an annual basis.
Panellists are carefully screened by Kantar and trained to ensure they represent normal household behaviours within their demographic and socio- demographic categories.
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How are the panellists remunerated?
Panellists receive points that they trade in for vouchers, and they are also entered into a monthly prize draw. They do not receive more points for recording more mail activity however.
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Is there a propensity for the panellists to record actions because they are on a research panel? Can we trust the data is accurate?
The JICMAIL methodology was piloted for two years prior to launch to ensure it accurately reflects actual behaviour with mail in the home as closely as possible. The panel are regularly communicated with and it is made clear they are to record their activity with mail to reflect their normal behaviour.
In addition, a series of checks and balances are put in place to check panel “health”. If a panellist starts recording abnormally high or low mail volumes or interactions Kantar investigates directly with the panellist to make sure that their actions are an accurate reflection of reality. On some occasions, panellists and their data have been excluded.
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Does the fact that panellists only record mail for one week out of four adversely affect the data? Surely the data would be better if consistently recorded like BARB record TV viewing?
No – the aim of the panel data isn’t to provide an absolute figure on mail circulation but rather to provide a view on how people interact with mail. Absolute circulation figures are published by Nielsen Ad Intel.
JICMAIL tracks all weeks of the month by dividing the panel of 1100 into four evenly sized groups and asking them to capture all mail that they receive for a week, and everything they do with that mail for a month.
We found in our pilot study that asking someone to record all four weeks resulted in too much panel burden and reduced data accuracy.
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What rules do we use to clean our panel?
A panellist is considered active if they are eligible for the survey and regularly entering items and actions taken within their household (or returning questionnaires in the case of our offline panellists). All panellists are given the “Active” status until they are identified as inactive, ask to be removed. If they are identified by one of these processes they are set to “Dropped” whereby stopping their participation.
Our panellists receive prompts to ensure they remain engaged in their tasks and up-to-date with their data entry. These prompts are designed to remind panellists without unduly affecting the data recorded by them.
Our panel is cleaned regularly. Any panellist meeting the criteria below is considered for removal from the panel:
- Panellists who have not logged in for four weeks – excluding panellists who registered holidays or gave helpdesk an explanation for inactivity.
- Panellists who have not entered any items/actions for five weeks – excluding panellists who registered holidays or gave helpdesk an explanation for inactivity.
