WASHINGTON, DC – Last Night, DSPolitical Senior Vice President of Advertising Technology Erik Brydges was recognized as “Technology Leader of the Year” by Campaigns & Elections magazine as part of its annual CampaignTech Awards at the publication’s CampaignTech East conference in the nation’s capital.
“We are incredibly proud of Erik Brydges,” said, DSPolitical managing partner and chief technology officer Mark Jablonowski. “Hundreds of Democratic campaigns and progressive causes have benefited from his forward-thinking innovation. This recognition is well-deserved.”
The firm also received awards for “Best Application of Data Analytics” for its product, Antidote: The Fake News Buster, which helps clients reach persuadable voters misled by fake news, and for “Most Effective Online Targeting – Statewide Campaign” for its work with Hamilton Campaign Network helping to elect New York’s first African American Attorney General Letitia James.
“Whether it’s helping candidates like Letitia James find the exact right voters they need to win in a complicated electoral landscape or making sure Democrats aren’t irreparably harmed by fake news, innovation is at the heart of everything we do at DSPolitical,” said DSPolitical partner Christopher Massicotte. “We are honored to have this important, hard work recognized.”
DSPolitical’s leadership has received the CampaignTech Award for “Technology Leader of the Year” in two of the three years it has existed. In addition to Brydges this year, managing partner Mark Jablonowski received the inaugural honor in 2017.
About the Awards
Technology Leader of the Year – Erik Brydges
Erik Brydges is DSPolitical’s Senior Vice President of Advertising Technology. He joined the company in 2014 as a fellow and now leads the Technology and Innovations Department where he manages all of DSPolitical’s voter file data, onboarder, and media buying integrations.
Erik is also responsible for building DSPolitical’s reporting system, which gives clients the ability to log into personalized dashboards or receive daily scheduled email reports. The data is piped in from all of the firm’s media buying platforms, connected to its Salesforce data, and automatically updates every 24 hours so clients are always aware of developments in their campaigns.
Prior to joining DSPolitical, Erik worked with the International Meat Trade Association (IMTA) and at Chime Sports Marketing, both of London, where he served as the account lead for the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA), the official sailing venue for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, during the run-up to the 2012 Games.
Erik holds a double major with honors in International Relations and Global Affairs and Political Science from Eckerd College where he also sailed varsity all four years. Unsurprisingly, his interests include sailing.
Best Application of Data Analytics – Antidote: The Fake News Buster
As fake news proliferates online, we learn more about how the coordinated and deliberate injection of misinformation into our political discourse damages our democracy. Advances in machine learning and data processing have given us the capability to fight back against deceptive storylines and damaging smears.
DSPolitical developed a platform, Antidote: The Fake News Buster, to help clients nip misinformation in the bud and attack fake news at the source countering misinformation that affects campaigns and spreads lies to the American public.
Antidote, powered by DSPolitical’s industry-leading programmatic advertising technology stack, is impactful because it can identify persuadable voters who are exposed to fake news and reach them wherever they go online after leaving websites that traffic in fake news.
Previously, candidates responding to fake news risked drawing attention to baseless attacks that not all voters had seen, thus poisoning the well of public opinion unintentionally. Now Democrats and progressives have a way to fight back discreetly without increasing awareness of fake news stories that could be deeply damaging to their campaigns. Candidates can now address these bogus stories with the very people being impacted by them.
Most Effective Online Targeting Statewide – Letitia James for New York Attorney General
To fend off high-profile opposition, Letitia James needed a cost-efficient way to reach critical segments of the primary electorate during the late summer to retain her lead and make history as the first African American woman to ever win a statewide office in New York.
DSPolitical partnered with Hamilton Campaign Network to target African Americans statewide while also focusing on white women in NYC and Long Island. To maximize reach and impact, DSPolitical developed a primarily programmatic digital plan including social platforms, programmatic native advertising, and select direct buys from YouTube and Pandora to provide additional reach.
By targeting high-impact audience segments everywhere they went online, DSPolitical helped drive historic turnout levels. This creative focused strategy helped Letitia James become the first African American woman elected Attorney General in New York history.
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