DSPolitical and Fenton left no stone unturned in our midterm voter turnout campaign for Los Angeles County. Our goal was to develop a program that reflected the diversity of Los Angeles County, build trust in the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Office, and spread voting information in multiple languages across the county. With DSPolitical’s advanced voter targeting tools, Together, DSPolitical and Fenton ran a robust media campaign with tailored creative and curated inventory, meeting these hard-to-reach groups on their own terms.
Critical to this mission was reaching voters in the languages in which they prefer to consume media. During the campaign, we delivered paid messaging in 16 languages, focusing over two-thirds of the media spend on placements with non-English or dynamic language targeting.
And our approach paid off. We ran an online randomized controlled test to gauge program impact, and we saw substantial gains across several demographics, particularly with Black and Asian voters. Testing showed our program increased self-reported likelihood to vote by 5.5 percentage points among Asian residents, 6.8 percentage points among Black residents, and 6.1 percentage points among medium turnout voters, all with 90%+ confidence.
As a result of our efforts and those in the community, we witnessed history being made during the 2022 election. The state Assembly and Senate will look more like California than ever before, making the upcoming Legislature the most diverse group elected.
From DSPolitical’s work with Fenton, we were able to gather some powerful takeaways:
- When we match our ad with a voter’s preferred language, they are more likely to engage with that content – whether that’s completing a video or taking an action. The scale may be limited, but you’ll benefit from meeting voters where they are.
- When running multilingual creative, not all platforms are equal. You may run the same video on CTV, Meta, YouTube, and programmatic video – but their language targeting varies widely. Our buyers are experts in these distinctions, and you should ensure your ads strategists and creative teams understand the nuances of these channels early in planning.
- When running audio ads with DSPolitical, nearly all of the inventory you’ll access will be non-skippable (and you can’t fast-forward through the ad!), so stick with 30-second creative assets. 15-second cutdowns limit your airtime without any cost benefit.
DSPolitical pioneers the best integration of data and technology to persuade audiences, and that work powered the targeting in this program. DSPolitical’s audience technology and Fenton’s bespoke creative provided voting information to underserved communities in America’s most populous county – seamlessly, measurably, and at scale.