One thing that stood out about a new product announcement from Optimal, DSPolitical’s parent company, is that its Deploy tool — which can onboard data, create audiences, plan digital media buys and measure their effectiveness — is aimed at clients with mid-to-large sized ad budgets.
And it’s self-service.
Yes, the company also announced it hired Katy McKegney and KJ Jones to help provide client services, but clients also have the option of simply choosing their own ad adventure with the new platform.
“We realized that not all clients want to interact with us in the same fashion. If they want to pull the levers themselves in the middle of the night, we’ve got tools for that,” said Mark Jablonowski, Optimal’s president of politics and public affairs.
Now, the company still offers what he calls “white glove” service, and Jablonowski stresses that the service element is still there from the company.
“Even if you’re working through self-service with us, you still have access to our awesome staff,” he noted.
But that old school personal touch isn’t going to help companies like Optimal compete in today’s marketplace. In fact, part of this is coming from the recognition that many public affairs professionals are now used to managing their own ads through, for instance, Meta’s platforms.
“We are competing with some of the large tech players across the country. And so they have platforms that allow you to work at your own schedule,” he added. “And we realized that we needed to be able to provide that same optionality in order to bring our best in class political and public affairs tools to market.”
