WASHINGTON, D.C.-After the 2012 election cycle, POLITICO decided to move beyond its D.C.-centric publishing model and expand nationally. Now with seven state-specific newsletters and three state-specific websites, it’s knee deep in the audience targeting game and working with directly with the Clinton and Trump campaigns, as well as numerous PAC’s and Super PAC’s.
“Historically, POLITICO’s real bread and butter has been newsletter sponsorships,” Randon White, the company’s Head of Programmatic, said in an interview earlier this month at the Beet.TV summit on politics and advertising. “But now with the type of scale that we’re achieving, effective banner targeting is the most efficient means that we’ve found for these campaigns.”
POLITICO’s geographic expansion led to the onloading of its data management platform with Lotame and a partnership with Acxiom’s data connectivity unit, LiveRamp. The result, according to White, goes beyond the programmatic space.
“The way that we’re approaching it is a lot of the ways that a campaign would. Thinking how do we build lists, how do we get those direct-response campaigns and how do we move down the funnel to when we’re doing persuasion and geo TV later on in the year,” said White.
The POLITICO portfolio now includes extensive digital and print offerings. On the legacy side, it distributes more than 35,000 copies of its newspaper five days a week when Congress is in session and publishes POLITICO Magazine six times a year.
During this election cycle, the national expansion that began a few years ago is paying off.
“It’s a lot of PACs and super PACs but also the highest level presidential campaigns,” said White. “We’re doing a lot of work with the Trump and Clinton campaigns. It’s a testament to our regional scale.”
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