Republican Firm Deep Root, FourthWall Partner For Real-Time TV Viewing Data

Deep Root Analytics, a Republican analytics firm, has struck a partnership with FourthWall Media, a Virginia-based TV ad solutions provider. The partnership will provide Deep Root (and Deep Root partners) with FourthWall's TV viewing data to aid in political campaigns leading up to the 2014 midterm elections. FourthWall recently received a patent for their TV ad tech.

Sarah Fagen, co-founder of Deep Root, stated that combining Deep Root's voter segmentation and FourthWall's "second-by-second viewing data" will enable office hopefuls to "dynamically match a voter's interest in issues with their viewing habits." FourthWall provided the same type of data to the Democratic Party during President Obama's re-election campaign, and any Republican candidate that signs up with Deep Root can use FourthWall's data and tech.

Dan Levinson, head of corporate communications at FourthWall, told RTM Daily that the agreement “is about data.” He added, “Neither Deep Root nor FourthWall will be buying media but I would imagine automated buying is certainly possible."

Levinson also noted that, because 2014 is a midterm election year, "the biggest challenge…[will be] voter turnout." He gave an example of a candidate knowing that a certain segment believed border security to be the most pressing campaign issue. "The candidate could run a spot for them about that," he claimed. "This is all about micro-targeting and being able to buy media with great efficiency."

The real-time data can come in handy if the micro-targeting doesn't work as anticipated. "If you run a spot and in the first 10 seconds people bail out of the channel, you would have to rethink the creative," Levinson said. "This is what our second-by-second data can tell you."

However Republican candidates utilize the partnership, it won't be the first time a political campaign has used FourthWall’s data. As previously mentioned, the same type of data was used as part of the Obama 2012 campaign. "This was done last year in Ohio as part of the Obama re-election campaign effort using our data," Levinson remarked. He also commented that FourthWall is agnostic in its approach to partnering with political research firms.

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