TargetSmart announced on Tuesday that it has formed a partnership with mobile data marketplace Kochava Collective. The tie-up will allow TargetSmart’s clients to leverage voter registration data with connected-device data.
It’s the first integration of its kind “at-scale,” according to the announcement. “While it’s possible for advertisers to serve digital ads to voters based on a mobile advertising profile or an offline voter profile, seamlessly integrating both is a capability that has not permeated campaigns at-scale,” the company said.
TargetSmart, a Democratic data and software giant, announced the deal as it continues to deal with the fallout of a lawsuit against rival Catalist in an alleged fake investment-merger scheme that caused it to disclose trade secrets.
Now, TargetSmart, whose products include VoterBase and VoterFile 2.0, said that its partnership with Kochava Collective will allow “candidates, advocacy groups and allies to better target their voting audience across online and offline engagements.”
“This partnership, in essence, takes voter outreach that is too often split between offline and online and helps campaigns seamlessly combine the two,” stated Andrew Brown, chief strategy officer at TargetSmart. “Our clients will be able to find the right way to reach the right voters, donors, and volunteers more efficiently and accurately where those people are spending increasing amounts of time—on their mobile devices.”
Kochava Collective, which announced another partnership earlier this month, noted that it helps clients “establish identity, define and activate audiences, and measure and optimize all aspects of their marketing.”
“Brands use the Kochava Collective data to engage directly with consumers to find their audience, build rapport and create a dialogue,” stated Grant Cohen, GM of the Kochava Collective. “Together with TargetSmart we’re bringing these same tools for more effective campaign management, at scale.”
It’s a timely partnership going into 2020. Spending on mobile advertising surpassed desktop for the first time in 2017, according to Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecasts. “For many consumers, checking their mobile devices for social media has become a regular, ingrained habit, while social media ads blend seamlessly into their mobile app newsfeeds."
TargetSmart remains embroiled in a lawsuit with Catalist. In June 2018, TargetSmart sued Catalist for using a Boston-based investment firm called Good Harbor Partners (GHP) to lure it into disclosing “confidential and proprietary information” about its business.
The case progressed until February when a judge granted Catalist’s request for the proceedings to be moved from Massachusetts to DC federal court, where it’s still underway.