• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, August 19, 2016

This week, it became easier for candidates all the way from local precincts to the national arena to zero in on consumers from whom they hope to win votes.

Firms that manage databases on each side of the political aisle announced partnerships with television data providers, enabling campaigns to use viewership behavior to target specific consumer segments on connected TV platforms.

Democratic and Progressive voter data source TargetSmart is teaming with OTT audience measurement and data management platform Tru Optik. At the same time, Data Trust, which manages the voter database for the GOP and right-wing groups, is partnering with cable-viewing data and analytics platform FourthWall Media.

TargetSmart already had addressable TV and digital ad-targeting capabilities, through work with Experian. Its data has been used successfully across multi-channel targeting in several campaign cycles, according the company’s director of digital partnerships, Bill Russell. Now, it can also leverage Tru Optik’s consumption data on connected devices including Roku, Xbox and smart TVs, as well as mobile and digital.

For example, “if a candidate in South Florida understands that a certain voter segment over-indexes in watching ‘Scandal,’ that candidate can now purchase inventory on OTT, mobile, and addressable TV platforms to measurable segments of people in that district who have watched ‘Scandal,’” said Tru Optik CEO Andre Swanston.

Tru Optik offers consumers the ability to use an IP-based system to opt out of data-based marketing on all household devices, including connected TVs.

Data Trust will create a unique viewership information feed, updated daily, by matching its voter segments with FourthWall’s anonymous household viewership data. Political clients can layer on additional information from Data Trust, including demographics and voting history. The bottom line: availability of “large samples of almost any segment imaginable,” boasts Patrick Peters, GM of politics and advocacy for FourthWall.

Sales talk aside, while it’s clear that such partnerships make targeting more feasible for local and state campaigns, only time will tell how many will choose to employ these options.