Flatters, Twyman and Boon Launch Deltapoll

In the UK, Trajectory CEO Paul Flatters has teamed up with YouGov founding Director Joe Twyman and former ICM Unlimited Director Martin Boon to launch an agency called Deltapoll, which aims to use emotional and mathematical measures to explore the 'true meaning' of public opinion.

Before co-founding Trajectory, Flatters was MD at Opinion Leader, CEO of Future Foundation, and Head of Analysis & Research at BBC News; and he held senior roles at the Consumers' Association and the Henley Centre for Forecasting. Twyman began his research career as an RE with Ipsos, joined YouGov in 2000 as a founding Director, and afterward served as the firm's Head of Political and Social Research for EMEA; while Boon worked for ICM for more than 23 years, leading its polling work from 2009 until his resignation in December.

In an article published on the blog politicalbetting.com, the trio said the company's 'soft launch' has included the testing of new methods designed to overcome perceived flaws in orthodox polling techniques. These have failed to recognise that the act of voting is sometimes linked to innate personal preferences, as well as to emotionally charged acts of rejection or anger. The team will offer new techniques such as MRP (multilevel regression and post-stratification) alongside existing methods like IRT (implicit response testing), to better understand emotional responses and deliver a change in the measurement of public opinion.

Commenting on the launch, Flatters said: 'Each of us brings to the business around twenty years of experience in the world of public opinion, which we hope to propel forward by focusing on the methodological, technical and structural changes that have affected the wider research landscape over the last few years. We will combine the best methodological thinking with inspired innovation, academic input and the highest quality analytical thinking, allied to the best data science techniques'.

Web site: www.deltapoll.co.uk .