Firm Honored for Digital Targeting in 2017 Off-Year Victories for Governor, Mayor, and State Legislature — DemocraticAds.com Again Secures “Best Use of a Self-Serve Platform”

CHARLESTON, SC – Last night in Charleston, DSPolitical was honored for its work in a variety of 2017 off-year electoral victories at the 2018 Reed Awards. The nation’s leading voter targeted digital ad network was recognized with six honors including three for its work with Media Fortitude Partners on Phil Murphy’s successful campaign for New Jersey Governor.

In addition to its work on the Murphy campaign, DSPolitical was also honored for online targeting in a mayoral race for its work alongside The Strategy Group for helping to elect Cathy Murillo, the first Latina Mayor of Santa Barbara, and for targeting in a Democratic state legislative race for its work with The New Media Firm on Danica Roem’s history-making campaign for Virginia House of Delegates. For the second year in a row, DSPolitical’s DemocraticAds.com received top honors, this time for partnering with Compass Campaign Strategies to help re-elect Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane.

“In 2017, DSPolitical helped power 73 victories in 32 states. It is an honor to have that hard work recognized by our peers. That said, we take nothing for granted. We will continue to innovate in the year ahead and help Democrats pull out all the stops in the midterms,” said DSPolitical partner Christopher Massicotte. ”

The firm’s chief revenue officer Jennifer Holdsworth echoed those sentiments noting, “for us this was about showing that targeted digital advertising has the power to help secure wins at every level – from the Governor’s mansion to the state legislature and everything in between.”

All told, DSPolitical’s six Reed Awards include:

• Best Use of Online Targeting (Overall) (Phil Murphy for NJ Governor)
• Best Use of Online Targeting for a Statewide Campaign (Phil Murphy for NJ Governor)
• Best Use of Programmatic Advertising (Phil Murphy for NJ Governor)
• Best Use of Self-Serve Platform (DemocraticAds.com for Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane)
• Best Use of Online Targeting for Democratic State Legislative Campaign (Danica Roem for Virginia Delegate)
• Best Use of Online Targeting for Mayoral Candidate (Cathy Murillo for Santa Barbara Mayor)

The Reed Awards are named after Campaigns & Elections magazine founder Stanley Foster Reed and recognize excellence in political campaigning, management, consulting, and design. Awardees represent the best in the industry from across more than one hundred consulting categories including television, radio, direct mail, phones, field, political technology, and online advertising.

About the Winning Work:

Phil Murphy for New Jersey Governor: DSPolitical and Media Fortitude Partners’ work with Phil Murphy was honored for their bold decision to spend a heavy portion of the campaign’s budget online, focusing on voter targeted programmatic digital advertising. The team identified the 400,000 New Jersey voters who would be critical to defeating Chris Christie’s handpicked successor, and engaged those voters early and often, ensuring a convincing victory in November.

Cathy Murillo for Santa Barbara Mayor: Cathy Murillo faced the daunting task of standing out in a large field of candidates in a low-turnout, off-year, municipal election. The Strategy Group and DSPolitical helped her identify just the right audience of voters who could be convinced to support her historic run and could be counted on to vote. By engaging those specific voters with compelling digital ads over the final weeks of the campaign, she made history in Santa Barbara, becoming its first Latina mayor.

Danica Roem for Virginia Delegate: The first transgender American elected to and seated in a state legislature, Danica Roem faced a different challenge in her race against the incumbent who referred to himself as “Virginia’s Chief Homophobe.” DSPolitical and The New Media Firm worked with her to craft an issues-forward campaign based on local concerns, while her opponent relied on personal and bigoted attacks. By crafting an audience of about 16,000 voters who were either moderates or Democrats who may not reliably vote in an off-year election, we engaged just the right people with the perfect messages to help power Roem to victory.

Nancy McFarlane for Raleigh Mayor: Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane was facing the most challenging re-election campaign she’d ever seen, but Compass Campaign Strategies knew that DSPolitical’s DemocraticAds.com was the perfect self-service platform to get voter targeted digital ads in front of the right audience for the first round of voting, and an entirely different audience in the runoff. DemocraticAds.com’s powerful targeting, ease of use, and clear reporting made sure that she was reaching the right voters at the right time with the right messages.

About DSPolitical:

DSPolitical is America’s leading voter targeted digital/online ad network having delivered several billion voter targeted digital ads online and millions more on social media and mobile phones and tablets. Because of the ad targeting technology pioneered and perfected by DSPolitical, scores of candidates can now reach the exact right voters they need to win. A demonstration of its commitment to innovation, DSPolitical works tirelessly to create and unearth new techniques that provide clients with the technological advantage they need to win. The Washington Post reported that DSPolitical’s innovative technology was bringing “Obama-quality digital tools all the way down to” local elections while Techwire hailed DSPolitical as a “pioneer” in the “[targeting of] voters through digital advertising.”

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