Two of the consulting firms responsible for President Obama’s 2012 reelection victory have renewed their partnership and are marketing their services to down-ballot campaigns and causes.
Together Democratic ad firm GMMB and data firm Civis Analytics offer “the most sophisticated media targeting, planning and placement services anywhere,” according to a release.
The partnership looks to do away with targeting based on demographic labels such as “suburban women,” “18-54 men” or “NASCAR dads.” During the 2012 cycle, the two companies worked with the Obama camp to develop the “Optimizer,” which “merged the campaign’s individual-level persuadability scores with set-top box data from Rentrak to help create the most efficient buys.”
The Optimizer created “$45 million worth of advertising value” for the Obama campaign, according to a release.
“Creating and precisely delivering powerful communications campaigns that change minds, votes and lives is what both firms are all about,” Jim Margolis, GMMB’s senior partner, said in a statement. “Civis is hands-down the best operation in the big data business. Working everyday with their team in the presidential campaign, we saw how their data crunching and analytics meant better targeting, better testing, and better evaluation in the $450 million paid media program. We’re very excited about this partnership.”
Civis’ founder Dan Wagner added: “The entire media landscape has changed. We can now think about media from the individual up as opposed to demographics down. GMMB’s track record of integrating data with media strategy, top-notch creative and innovative placement is unparalleled.”
The partnership has already been contracted by some issue groups and campaigns on the Left, in addition to Democratic Party committees. “We want to help our clients stretch their budgets and better target their audience, and that’s what this partnership achieves” said Wagner.
As part of the unveiling ceremony, the companies offered this “2014 Ad Strategy Snapshot” map, which shows “every US media market with reference to political leanings, voter demographics, upcoming 2014 political races and what it will likely cost to place an ad in each market.”