Find the people
Work out who matters to the decision: the people, the groups they belong to and the part each one plays.
AUDIENCE TRUTH ENGINEAbout the McCann Audience Truth Engine
Audience truth you can work with.
The Engine turns what McCann knows about an audience into people you can see, question and test ideas on. Every reaction traces back to the evidence behind it.
The Engine is designed to work with AI, so the people can answer new questions and react to new ideas. In this demo, their reactions are prepared in advance from their data.
How it fits together
The people in the room sit on top of everything McCann knows about them.
What you see is the top layer. Underneath are the people, how McCann builds them, and the evidence they come from.
What you use
Five ways into the audience
The people
24 people in each market, with different needs and different say in the decision
Each one has their own priorities, the proof they need, the people they listen to and the part they play in how a decision gets made.
How McCann builds them
Audience knowledge × McCann process × specialist expertise
Audience knowledge
McCann's own research, licensed data, client and first-party data, and new research where it's needed.
McCann process
A set way of working out who matters, sorting the evidence, finding what each person needs and checking it holds up.
Specialist expertise
Strategists, researchers and sector experts decide which questions to ask, how much proof is enough and what the people should say.
The evidence
Where the knowledge comes from
McCann Truth CentralAcxiomGWIYouGovDun & BradstreetClient dataFirst-party dataCommissioned research
Sources vary by project. The Engine can combine McCann’s own research, data from our partners, client data and commissioned research.
The McCann process
Four steps from data to decisions.
The process keeps the evidence organised and the people focused on a real marketing decision.
Build their view
Set down what each person cares about, what worries them, what proof they need and who they listen to.
Check it
Test the assumptions against the evidence, and be clear about what the people can and can't tell you.
Turn it into decisions
Use what the people tell you to choose the message, the proof and the order to say things in.
Inside this demo
Two markets, 24 people in each, facing the same energy decision.
Each person is built from their data: what shapes their view, what proof they need and how they affect the people around them. Switch markets with the flags at the top of any page, and see how differently the same message lands.
China
Senior people across energy, chemicals, finance, government, technology and media. Proof matters most: leading with independent checks wins the room.
Go to the China room →
Saudi Arabia
The same six groups. Local content matters most: building around a Saudi partner wins the room, including gatekeepers who push back on everything else.
Go to the Saudi room →test whether a claim is true before they'll back it.
can say no, and make everyone else ask for more proof.
pass a good idea on to a wide network of people.
change what a message means as they pass it around.
Where the reactions come from
Our team prepared each reaction from that person’s data and the five versions of the message in each market. They show the likely direction of opinion. None of them are quotes or survey answers from real people. The names, faces and dress in both markets were researched and checked against public records, and still need review by people from each market.
How to use what you see
Use the room to spot patterns, disagreements and the next problem to solve.
Good for
- Seeing who leans in, who has doubts and who tunes out.
- Comparing how two markets react to the same message.
- Understanding the proof different groups need.
- Finding where a message gets stuck on its way through a decision.
- Comparing different versions of a message.
- Working out the order to say things in.
Check with real people when
- You need numbers or percentages for a whole population.
- You need to predict what one person will do.
- You’re testing an idea the people’s data doesn’t cover.
- You need to sign off finished creative before launch.
See it for yourself