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The perennial challenge of publishers losing billions in digital ad revenue to programmatic middlemen during election seasons may soon face a new dynamic, as a burgeoning trend of sell-side curation offers a compelling alternative. This innovative approach aims to recalibrate the calculus of political advertising, empowering publishers with greater control and enabling advertisers to reach voters with unprecedented precision. On Monday, supply-side platform OpenX, in partnership with data provider Givsly, unveiled a novel curation and targeting solution meticulously designed for the unique demands of political campaigns.
Unlike traditional methods that rely heavily on party affiliation data, this new tool empowers political advertisers to connect with voters based on their core values. This sophisticated approach transcends conventional demographic segmentation, allowing campaigns to engage audiences across premium Connected TV (CTV) and digital publisher environments that explicitly permit political advertising. The initial rollout boasts impressive launch partners, including esteemed media outlets like Newsweek and prominent CTV platforms such as Plex, Xumo, and Scripps, signaling a significant industry shift towards more direct and curated advertising transactions.
A Surge in Political Ad Spend Fuels Demand for Precision
This strategic push toward more direct and curated buying strategies arrives at a pivotal moment, coinciding with what is projected to be another record-breaking election cycle in terms of political ad expenditure. Industry analysts at AdImpact forecast a staggering $10.8 billion in political ad spend for the current year. This figure represents a substantial 20% surge compared to the 2022 midterm elections and nearly matches the $11.1 billion allocated during the 2024 presidential race, underscoring the immense financial stakes involved in influencing public opinion through advertising.
The sheer volume of this financial investment naturally amplifies publishers’ desire for tighter control over pricing, brand safety, and overall inventory management. Curated deals offer a dual benefit: they not only help political advertisers sidestep undesirable ad placements but also provide a crucial avenue to tap into previously unreached segments of potential swing voters. This precision targeting is becoming increasingly vital in a fragmented media landscape where capturing voter attention requires more than just broad-stroke campaigns.
Introducing Predictability into Political Programmatic Advertising
Danielle Varvaro, Chief Revenue Officer at Newsweek, highlighted the transformative impact of these curated deal structures. She noted that they introduce a much-needed element of predictability into what has historically been a chaotic and often transactional "spray and pray" programmatic political advertising marketplace. "This approach helps reduce duplication within the supply path and supports more stable pricing," Varvaro explained.
This newfound stability allows publishers to shift their focus from chasing short-term revenue spikes during peak election seasons to cultivating "sustainable yield" throughout the year. Varvaro elaborated that sell-side curation grants publishers enhanced agency in how they engage with the political ad market. "This allows us to access incremental spend while rigorously maintaining our governance, compliance, and brand integrity," she stated. The ability to maintain editorial independence and brand reputation while capitalizing on political advertising revenue is a delicate balancing act that this new model aims to facilitate.
The Mechanics of Values-Based Targeting
The operational framework of this innovative solution is rooted in sophisticated data integration. Givsly leverages data signals derived from over 500 nonprofit organizations to construct distinct audience segments based on shared values. These values can range from broad societal concerns like women’s empowerment and environmental sustainability to more specific issue-based alignments. OpenX then utilizes its proprietary identity graph to match these Givsly-derived value signals, effectively identifying and aggregating these targeted audiences across its network of publisher clients. These precisely defined audience segments are then packaged into unique Deal IDs, which can be seamlessly activated through both direct and programmatic buying channels.
Amanda Forrester, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at OpenX, described the Givsly data as a powerful enrichment layer. She further explained that buyers can layer additional targeting parameters, such as specific geographic regions and ZIP codes, and even pinpoint particular voting districts. However, Forrester cautioned that combining the values-based data with third-party audiences from other vendors could potentially constrain the available supply, emphasizing the importance of a balanced approach to targeting.
Despite this potential limitation, the integration of Givsly’s data provides political campaigns with a significant advantage: the ability to reach voters whose values resonate with their candidate’s platform, even in the absence of direct party affiliation data. This capability is particularly valuable for identifying and engaging new potential voters in ZIP codes where a campaign might already possess extensive party affiliation data. The focus, therefore, shifts from reinforcing existing bases to actively activating new segments of the electorate.
Moreover, advertisers benefit from granular, localized reporting on reach and frequency, with data available at the county, Designated Market Area (DMA), and ZIP code levels. This detailed reporting allows for campaign optimization toward specific outcomes, such as driving traffic to campaign websites or voter registration pages, providing a measurable return on investment for advertising spend.
The Growing Demand for Audience Precision in Political Advertising
This new solution is built upon two significant industry shifts that have empowered publishers to play a more active role in programmatic dealmaking. The first is the ascendant trend of sell-side curation, which has gained considerable traction over the past few years. This trend is closely intertwined with the second key development: an increasing industry-wide emphasis on audience precision over sheer volume.
Varvaro pointed out that political advertisers are not immune to this shift; they are as invested in achieving measurable outcomes as any other brand. This focus on performance has been a prominent theme in negotiations for midterm ad buys throughout the year. "Historically, political buying could be highly transactional, particularly within the programmatic channels during peak seasons, when buyers are competing aggressively for limited supply," Varvaro observed. However, she noted that in the current cycle, political advertisers are exhibiting a much greater preference for "curated access to that supply path, and also transparency and compliance."
For Newsweek, participating in OpenX’s curated political packages represents a strategic move to safeguard its supply chain during periods of heightened demand. It also serves to bolster its established reputation as a premium, centrist news publisher. Varvaro further clarified that while Newsweek is open to running political ads across all its digital properties and verticals, it will not be placing political advertisements on CTV inventory sold through Adprime, the healthcare-focused Demand-Side Platform (DSP) it acquired in June of the previous year. This specific supply is not part of its current partnership with OpenX, indicating a carefully managed and integrated approach to political advertising.
Encouraging Publisher Participation in the Political Arena
Despite the potential benefits, not all media companies are equally enthusiastic about accepting political advertising. Ongoing societal polarization and persistent brand safety concerns continue to present significant hurdles. Political buyers, in turn, have their own distinct preferences regarding the publishers they choose to support. OpenX has proactively addressed these hesitations on both sides of the supply chain by incorporating robust controls into its system.
Through the OpenX Select curation platform, buyers are empowered to establish custom brand standards and curate allow lists of preferred publishers. A key advantage of this sell-side curation is that buyers can activate these meticulously crafted lists across any DSP without the need for repeated reconfiguration for each individual platform.
Concurrently, publishers receive advertiser approval lists, ensuring that the curated packages do not inadvertently cannibalize existing direct deals. Furthermore, publishers retain the ability to review ad creative to confirm alignment with their brand values and can dictate the rigor of the creative review process. Some publishers opt for a thorough vetting of every political advertisement, while others choose to whitelist trusted advertisers and streamline the review process.
OpenX emphasizes that participation in this program is entirely opt-in, and a notable achievement is that over half of its publisher partners have already enabled political advertising. Even with opt-in participation, publishers retain the flexibility to block political ads from appearing on specific site subsections or domains. This granular control ensures that political campaigns can only bid on inventory that has been explicitly approved by the publisher, fostering a more controlled and publisher-centric environment.
The overarching goal of these comprehensive controls is to encourage publishers who may have previously withdrawn from political advertising due to concerns about brand alignment, data governance, and privacy compliance to reconsider their stance. As Forrester eloquently put it, "If you can deliver a solution that has strong guardrails and protections, and that keeps content aligned with other quality publishers, then people are more comfortable providing access." This initiative represents a significant step towards rebuilding trust and fostering a more responsible and effective ecosystem for political advertising in the digital age.
Update 2/25/26: This article was updated to clarify how OpenX matches Givsly’s values-based data to its identity graph.
