Exceptionally competitive, the potential to be incredibly costly, and key races in keeping their states blue– two incumbent Democrats found themselves in remarkably similar and particularly challenging situations during the 2022 election. DSPolitical, alongside Putnam Partners, worked to re-elect both candidates: Rep. Elissa Slotkin of MI-07 and Rep. Andy Kim of NJ-03.
Rep. Slotkin and Rep. Kim’s seats were highly competitive, making it vital that their digital ad campaigns broke through the noise of a crowded field of advertisers and captured the attention of persuadable voters. This meant bringing Putnam’s highly effective creative to the right voters on the most impactful digital channel in the house: connected television.
Our award-winning targeting strategy always begins with identifying who to reach and ensures ads target voters with maximum efficiency. With both Rep. Slotkin and Rep. Kim’s campaigns, this step was crucial, as both districts overlapped with one of the most expensive broadcast markets in the country (MI-07 with Detroit’s media market and NJ-03 with New York City).
Despite this, DSPolitical’s targeted Connected TV strategy improved efficiency by at least 20x, focusing ad dollars inside the districts and not on irrelevant media markets. Beginning by curating a list of the most persuadable voters in each district by media market and identifying their households, we were then able to reach them with CTV ads on a one-to-one basis– and in the most efficient zip codes. This maximized the likelihood that only persuadable, in-district voters saw each candidate’s CTV ads.
With over 90% of households reachable through programmatic CTV ads, programmatic media was an essential messaging touchpoint for these campaigns. By building on this with a robust presence on walled-garden CTV providers, the scope of both Rep. Slotkin and Rep. Kim’s presence on voters’ TV sets substantially increased. Whether a voter watched news clips on YouTube, a show on Hulu, or sports highlights in the ESPN app, their messaging would be there.
The efficiency of targeted Connected TV programs such as these cannot be understated, particularly when compared to traditional broadcast television and its high barrier to entry. With the robust cross-channel, integrated media planning DSPolitical can provide to partners and clients, CTV is a powerfully persuasive means of advertising for any campaign.
For the campaigns of Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Rep. Andy Kim this targeted yet surround-sound Connected TV approach contributed to wins in both districts, successfully keeping both Michigan and New Jersey blue.