Targeted Online Fundraising & Advertising in Nevada Senate Race A Case Study by The Prosper Group and CampaignGrid “Our partnership with Campaign Grid helped the Angle campaign set US Senate fundraising records and build one of the largest online donor files in existence.” Kurt Luidhardt, The Prosper Group Sharron was able to build one of the best small-donor lists in the nation, consisting of more than 265,000 contributors across the country,” Angle spokesman Jarrod Agen told Roll Call on Dec. 13, 2010. “Small-dollar donors traditionally remain loyal even after a campaign.” Conservative organizations. In 2010, The Toomey, and Dan Coats in addition to Prosper Group raised $28 million dollars newly elected House Members Michael online for it clients, delivered 130 million Grimm, Allen West, Quico Canseco, Bill online ad impressions, helped generate Flores, Frank Guinta, Charlie Bass, Larry over 7 million volunteer calls, and worked Bucshon and numerous other The Prosper Group specializes in online to elect 16 new members to the US Congressional and state candidates. strategy and telephone voter contact for Congress. Recent clients include Governor Republican political candidates and Rick Scott, US Senators Scott Brown, Pat partners like The Prosper Group to target causes, including NJ Gov. Chris Christie, voters based on party registration, voting NC Sen. Richard Burr and IL Rep. Peter CampaignGrid has developed a frequency, and behavior no matter where Roskam. CampaignGrid raised $3 revolutionary Internet targeting platform they surf online. Since its founding in million online in the final 30 days and ad network that makes it easy for 2007, CampaignGrid has worked with of NV Senate race for Angle. candidates like Sharron Angle and over 140 candidates, elected officials and Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate 2 HISTORY For nearly 8 years, Sharron Angle served in the Nevada State Assembly, where she fought for smaller government and lower taxes for Nevadans. Most recently, she was the focus of the national political spotlight during the 2010 midterm elections as the Republican Tea Party Candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. Prior to challenging Harry Reid and her work in the Nevada State Assembly, Sharron worked tirelessly as an educator, first working as a substitute teacher in public schools, then teaching art courses at Western Nevada Community College, and co-founding a small Christian school. On June 8, 2010, Sharron Angle won a shocking upset against businesswoman Sue Lowden, THE SOLUTION capturing the Republican nomination for the U.S. In order to achieve these objectives, Senate. CampaignGrid worked with the Prosper Group to Despite low name-ID and little fundraising create a custom online advertising and strength, Sharron Angle surprised the fundraising program. establishment by posting the single most CampaignGrid’s technology enabled the Angle successful fundraising quarter of any candidate in campaign to find and communicate with potential the 2010 cycle. Between July 1 and September voters and likely donors interested in issues such 30, 2010 alone, the Angle Campaign raised a as jobs, Social Security, education, the Second staggering $14 million. In the final 30 days of the Amendment, unemployment, and Immigration. race, The Prosper Group, utilizing CampaignGrid’s technology directly raised $3 Through an exclusive license with the Republican million for Angle. National Committee (RNC), CampaignGrid was able to combine the national Republican voter file data with online advertising, providing CHALLENGE sophisticated voter targeting. Ads were targeted After winning the Republican primary, Sharron to custom audiences of registered voters. Angle had to overcome both a large fundraising • Neighborhoods/Congressional Districts disadvantage and low state-wide name-ID. • Likely voters The Angle campaign partnered with • Donor history CampaignGrid and the Prosper Group to • Employees of specific organizations formulate an online strategy to help overcome • Demographic groups these obstacles. Together, The Prosper Group and CampaignGrid sought to: • Geographic area • Online behaviors and interests • Find and connect with potential voters and donors online, building lists of contacts. Once these audiences were identified, Grid • Brand Sharron Angle and define her position on served hyper-targeted messages (more granular key voting issues with targeted online ads. than zip code) across the web, just like direct • Employ a targeted online fundraising strategy to mail. Such targeting was key in reducing help fund the campaign. advertising waste, while increasing ad • Define incumbent Senator Harry Reid. effectiveness and click-thru rates. CampaignGrid, LLC The Prosper Group www.campaigngrid.com www.prospergroupcorp.com Phone: (215) 283-1005 Phone: (317) 886-4438 Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate 3 SEARCH AND EMAIL LiveLikeHarryReid.com This website highlighted Harry Reid’s exorbitant The cornerstone of this customized advertising lifestyle, painting Reid as out-of-touch with program was an aggressive Search and Email average Nevadans. Users could play a game as a component, which included the Internet’s top means of soliciting donations and email signups. search engines (Google/Yahoo/Bing) as well as Gmail. Through search and email advertising, the Angle campaign was able to target potential voters as they search for relevant keywords almost anywhere on the Internet. Additionally, CampaignGrid’s Real-Time Reporting allowed The Prosper Group and Angle’s team to gather actual data on what issues and topics constituents were both searching for and interested in over time. Top Keywords Included: - Angle - Jobs - Harry Reid - Early Voting - Sharron Angle - Work - Sharon Angle - Education PetraeusApology.com Perhaps the most widely reported in the media, - Tax Tea Parties - Reid Angle Debate PetraeusApology.com urged voters sign a petition, demanding Reid apologize to General Once a user clicked on an ad, they were David Petraeus for saying our soldiers lost the immediately directed to a donation page, signup war, and for looking on approvingly as form, or a relevant issue page describing Sharron MoveOn.Org called him “General Betray Us.” Angle’s position. Search proved a powerful tool, gaining the most donor conversions of any ad- type. Harry Reid Soundboard This site highlighted some of Harry Reid’s most outlandish statements. Users clicked a statement DISPLAY to hear the audio of Reid’s own voice, or could even submit their own. This helped to build To target tea party activists and conservative Sharron Angle’s email list. donors online, The Prosper Group and CampaignGrid built a custom audience profile, site list and advertising network for Sharron Angle. In all, nearly 13 million ads were served soliciting donations, signups, and other types of activism by targeting top conservative news, social media, second amendment, military, and women’s sites with banner ads. CampaignGrid also drove traffic to several “mini- sites” created by the Prosper Group, aimed at defining Harry Reid, soliciting donations for the campaign, and calling supporters to action. CampaignGrid, LLC The Prosper Group www.campaigngrid.com www.prospergroupcorp.com Phone: (215) 283-1005 Phone: (317) 886-4438 Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate 4 NRA Petition VIDEO GRID The Prosper Group and CampaignGrid utilized a it's proprietary audience targeting tools to find this The campaign was able to target registered voters conservative audience in it’s audience segments with T.V. ads online online. Using offline data, across hundreds of websites like YouTube and Grid created an audience Breitbart using instream video. In terms of click- segment of 14 million thru rates and conversions, these ads were people that were targeted. among the most successful of the campaign. Grid used a custom ad network of conservative sites to help define Sharron Angle as a stalwart proponent of Second Amendment rights. By driving traffic to a petition, urging the NRA to endorse Angle over Reid, Angle was also able to raise money and grow fundraising lists by drawing attention to Reid’s record on gun rights. This one campaign alone resulted in over 1,000 donor conversions. The Prosper Group and CampaignGrid advertised Angle’s TV AD, “Wipeout,” gathering thousands of additional views and over 10 hours of airtime online at a fraction of the cost of running a TV Ad. CampaignGrid provided The Prosper Group and Angle campaign with a detailed summary of all online video, including a measure of impressions, views, clicks, and interactions. Several in-banner video units were also created utilizing Angle’s web-video and TV content. These units, which were displayed across a custom network of conservative sites, had an above average engagement rate and added days of Working with the Prosper Group, CampaignGrid additional TV ad exposure. also targeted banner ads by geographic area and In addition, The Prosper Group and relevant contextual keywords. For instance, this CampaignGrid advertised Angle’s TV Ads and immigration ad prompted voters to learn more web video content through a promoted video about Reid’s record, and was targeted to internet campaign, pushing the content to thousands of content that mentioned immigration related websites and in YouTube search results. For keywords. instance, one ad promoted a Social Security message, yielding over 734,000 impressions and 2,700 clicks.