i360 + Team Meijer: The benefit of investing in data early

Private sector level analytics on a campaign

As the Peter Meijer for Congress campaign was building out their plan to win a crowded Republican primary in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, they knew having the best voter data and analytics would be crucial to gaining a competitive edge.

Team Meijer wanted to run a data-driven campaign that utilized real-time analytics to inform their decisions as the campaign progressed, just as many on the campaign team had done while working in the private sector.

Unlike most states, Michigan does not allow voters to register by party or request a partisan ballot in the August primaries, so the campaign knew they would need a predictive model to identify those that were likely to cast a ballot in the Republican primary.

Using i360’s closed-loop data system for immediate targeting.

Starting in January, i360 and Team Meijer crafted a voter contact plan designed around an aggressive ground game, targeted mail, and an evolving strategy driven by the real-time analysis of data coming back from the field teams using i360 Call, Walk, and Text. The foundation for the voter contact plan was the i360 Deep Dive that laid out vote goals by county and precinct, turnout projections, targeting segments, and top issue groups. Because Michigan does not have party registration or primary ballot indicators, utilizing i360’s Affinity Model & Deep Dive Universes to target likely Republican primary voters was critical.

Another key part of Team Meijer’s strategy focused on getting their message to supporters of President Trump who might not be traditional Republican primary voters. Using i360’s Trump Approval model in conjunction with other inputs, the campaign was able to easily identify that segment of voters and include them in their voter contact universes, whereas they would have gone untouched had the campaign used a data provider that didn’t have such a model.

Thanks to i360’s closed-loop system, these universes were available for immediate targeting through i360 Call, Walk, and Text in addition to being available for use for television ad optimization through Rabbit Ears.

As COVID-19 created an unprecedented interest in voting by absentee ballot, Team Meijer was able to prioritize contacting the voters that were requesting and receiving ballots, as well as identify trends in requests through an Absentee & Early Vote dashboard within the i360 Portal. Because i360 Walk & Call automatically update to reflect voters who have returned ballots, the campaign mitigated losing any time contacting those individuals.