I also know I'm not in their market although we're in touch with folks who are.
A lot of NextStage's time is spent paying attention to people paying attention to ads, commercials, billboards, popups, ... We don't do this by having them sit on one side of a two way mirror with electrodes strapped to their heads, fingers, spine, toenails, nosehairs, etc., we use a slightly different method.
What we do have is a fairly rich network of investigators (many have been my students through the years). These folks have backgrounds in social sciences (usually anthropology, linguistics, sociology and psychology) and are highly trained to be inconspicuous. If you're talking to one of them and say, "Why are you so curious?" or something similar, they've failed. These investigators have had interesting experiences in their lives. They include cancer survivors, gang bikers, politicians, actors on the NY stage, college students, civil servants, teachers, business people, scientists, homeless, competitive athletes, professional wrestlers, ... Our investigators are trained such that, when they're talking with someone about why an ad works or doesn't (the questions are never that obvious) and the person responds with "I don't know, it's just ..." they know they've struck pay dirt.
From their experiences and notes NextStage has developed different tools which our clients use to determine how well their marketing is going to work with a specific demographic.
(more to follow)
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