Employing the correct tools to run a succesful Advocacy Campaign
As we move away from the 2016 election and are still relatively far away from midterms, the focus in the political sphere is less on individual candidates and more on advocacy groups. For generalization purposes, the initiatives of specific advocacy groups are irrelevant in determining the success of their campaigns; what truly determines better outcomes are the tools they use to achieve their goals.
We have written extensively on this blog about different tech companies that work with advocacy groups to guarantee successful outcomes, but this post is more general in following trends at the intersection of technology and advocacy. As advocacy campaigns begin to ramp up at the close of the year, here are the three main tools they should keep in mind:
- Legislative Contact Capabilities
- Data-Driven Advertising
- Data Modeling
Beginning with the first tool, many companies now understand that reaching lawmakers is easier in the digital age. Quorum, Hear My Voice, Countable, POPVOX and SparkInfluence are some of the leaders in this arena, to name a few. While all of their platforms differ slightly, companies with these capabilities all do generally the same thing. They gather data on advocates and activists and encourage them to directly contact their Congressperson on upcoming, relevant legislation.
Gone are the days when the best way to contact members of Congress was through letter writing and phone calls. While still effective means of outreach, new tools allow individuals to Tweet at, Facebook message, and email lawmakers. For advocacy groups looking to change the minds of those in power, mass direct outreach from their constituents seems the most effective way to do exactly this.
Coupled with contacting lawmakers directly, being able to reach the particular population that advocacy groups want to reach is another important shift in the digital age. Instead of sending mass online, direct mail, or phone campaigns to everyone without research, advocacy groups now have the ability to determine who they want to target and send them specific messages. Leaders in this field are Adobe, Resonate, TapAd, Aristotle, and Media IQ.
The process of data-driven advertising differs more drastically between companies, as it depends on the data files available and the capabilities of their databases. Generally, however, advocacy groups can benefit from data-driven advertising by collecting information on individuals — through IP, Cookies, Set-Top Box, or other sources — and combining it with other data points already available. For example, if Planned Parenthood wanted to target single women between the ages of 18–30 who voted in the last Presidential Election, they can — and they can do it rather simply.
The final key tool to a successful advocacy campaign in the digital age is data modeling. Companies such as Resonate, HaystaqDNA, Cambridge Analytica, and BlueLabs are the best at modeling data sources to understand more about individuals and constituencies as a whole. In 2016, Resonate was 94% correct about the outcome of the Presidential election, while most pollsters and professionals got it absolutely wrong.
Modeling works like this: firms have a data file on hand with information about voters in the United States. From here, they work with clients and combine their data to predict how these specific individuals will behave in the future. This works in coordination with data-driven advertising, as advocacy groups can use predictions about future voter behavior to target them with outreach on a current campaign.
The digital age is exciting. It’s changing the way people interact with each other, but further is drastically shifting the ways through which voters interact with their lawmakers. With constant innovation in the technology field, advocacy campaigns can effectively reach lawmakers, constituents and future voters with a few select data points. As these capabilities are only beginning to be explored, the true success of such tools are yet to be unknown.
