The Perception Analyzer One Year Later: An Updated Interview with Dialsmith President, David Paull

Nearly a year ago, I found out about a fascinating corporation based in my own backyard of Portland, OR that uses devices to gather real-time public opinion on everything from politics to entertainment. It was when I saw The Perception Analyzer® used on a 2010 debate for Oregon's Governor that I decided to contact the President of the company providing this service, David Paull. Fortunately, he was already on Twitter then and it didn't take long to arrange an interview.

What I found out in the interview satiated my fascination with collective public opinion on the most important issues affecting the world. I learned that the possibilities of his tools could realistically change how we conduct polls on collective thought, particularly political thought.

A year later is a good time to update a lot of things, and I thought it worthwhile to do a follow-up on David's plans with his company, Dialsmith. What you'll read here will probably surprise you in how ubiquitous his public opinion tools have become internationally since 2010. The Perception Analyzer even had a recent significant use on Donald Trump's "The Celebrity Apprentice.":

GB:It's been almost a year since our first interview here on Yahoo! about Dialsmith and the Perception Analyzer®. And I know recently, the device was used on NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice." How did you get involved with the show and how was the Perception Analyzer used?

DP: Hi, Greg. Great talk with you again. Working with "The Celebrity Apprentice" was a lot of fun. It was originally that week's sponsoring company, ACN, that was aware of us and asked the production team to seek us out. The Perception Analyzer was used by giving a dial to every ACN employee in the audience for them to use to vote for their favorite of the two promotional videos produced by the contestants. It was a rather simple use of the tool, but gave them exactly what they were looking for - an instant poll that showed a clear winner with 53% of the vote. In addition to "The Celebrity Apprentice" we recently wrapped working with the TED Conference on real-time audience feedback at TED2011 in Long Beach and in June we'll be working with the Banff Media Conference on judging for a live, "Shark Tank"-style pitch competition.

GB: With Donald Trump possibly running for President, do you think you'll eventually face irony and be using the Perception Analyzer to gauge public opinion on what the American public thinks of him?

DP: Ha, that would be funny. If Mr. Trump decides to make a serious run after the season of his television show wraps we will certainly make our services available. Truth is, we work with most of the largest political and public policy research firms in the country, so odds are whatever firm he uses for his campaign will have our services in their toolkit.

GB: The 2010 midterm elections have come and gone. What uses did the Perception Analyzer play in determining public opinion on Democrats, Republicans, and mostly interestingly, the Tea Party?

DP: During the 2010 midterms we were involved in delivering our usual suite of services: ad testing, message testing, candidate and competitive evaluation, etc. As exciting as the 2010 midterms were I think the 2012 season will blow everyone away. All sides are going to come out blazing and it will be quite a battle. We're already strategizing for how to gear up to meet the coming demand. First up are research studies to help potential candidates decide if they should run and how best to kick-off their campaigns. Then we get into the work of working with established campaigns on testing their ads, communication strategies, and how best to position themselves against follow candidates. Being able to combine our discrete choice, attitudinal scale, trade-off, and moment-to-moment methodologies make focus groups with the Perception Analyzer so powerful.

GB: Are you still involved with America's cable news networks, and do you plan to follow public opinion on the looming budget concerns as well as President Obama's campaign for re-election in 2012?

DP: Yes, we're still very much involved. CNN once again aired instant results from a focus group during this year's State of the Union speech and recently FOX News aired real-time dial results during a special with Frank Luntz. Plans for CNN, MSNBC and FOX News for the 2012 debate cycle are still TBD, but I expect you'll be seeing real-time dial results in a variety of places. We also recently worked with ATV in Austria to air real-time focus group results during a presidential debate. This is a service we will be making more available to international media markets in the months ahead.

GB: Before we did this interview I know you opened a new office in London. Tell readers about your plans to use your public opinion tools overseas.

DP: We opened our office in London in mid-2010. It's been great because now we can more effectively offer services to all of Europe. We're also in negotiations to establish partnerships in Germany and Dubai and have had a successful relationship with a large research provider in India for more than a year. In addition to Europe, Central and South America are strong growth regions for us. The Perception Analyzer is used in more than 40 countries, but often requiring the purchase of a system. Establishing a presence in more markets will allow us to offer services for hire on a project-by-project basis, which is often more cost-effective for our clients.

GB: Get us up to date on some of the other public opinion tools at Dialsmith. What are some of the future plans for the ISX system that uses a scoring system for sporting events?

DP: ISX - Instant Scoring eXperience™ is doing great. We're once again working with Rob Dyrdek and his Street League Skateboarding™ league to provide scoring and statistics for the 2011 tour, kicking-off in Seattle on May 8. There will be four tour stops this year including Kansas City, Phoenix, and the finals Newark in late-August. We are also in talks with many domestic and international action sports properties about moving their scoring to ISX.

GB: With the consolidation of Internet and TV being fast-tracked, do you see The Perception Analyzer or any of your public opinion tools incorporated into household entertainment within the next decade?

DP: That's a good question. I think being able to gauge real-time public opinion from the home is a next logical step. We've been doing some brainstorming in this area and have a few ideas that we may take to the prototype phase. Nothing I can discuss yet, but I'm happy to keep you posted on progress.

GB: Lastly, I noticed on your website that Dialsmith also offers its tools for education and academic research. With education becoming a more concerning issue in America, how do you see Dialsmith's role in perhaps gauging perceptions of education to make it work better?

DP: We currently work with more than 25 colleges and universities in the areas of classroom feedback and academic research. I really like the idea of enhanced student participation, especially for larger lecture halls. I also think a better job can be done of listening to students and education experts to gauge what's working best in education and what's most broken so decisions can be made as to how to best use precious resources.

For more information on Dialsmith go here:

http://perceptionanalyzer.com/

Dialsmith.com internal blog:

http://perceptionanalyzer.com/blog

Read my 2010 interview with David Paull here:

www.associatedcontent.com/article/2950112/the_perception_analyzer_realtime_public.html