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The digital advertising landscape, particularly during election seasons, has long been a battleground where publishers grapple with significant revenue leakage to programmatic intermediaries. However, a new initiative spearheaded by supply-side platform OpenX, in partnership with data provider Givsly, is poised to alter this dynamic by introducing a sophisticated sell-side curation and targeting solution specifically designed for political campaigns. This innovative approach shifts the focus from traditional party affiliation data to a more nuanced understanding of voter values, aiming to unlock billions in previously inaccessible digital ad dollars for premium publishers.
The new tool, launched earlier this week, empowers political advertisers to reach voters based on their deeply held values, rather than relying solely on demographic or partisan classifications. This is a significant departure from conventional targeting methods, which often prove blunt and may miss key voter segments. By leveraging data signals derived from over 500 non-profit organizations, Givsly has created audiences centered around shared values such as environmental sustainability, women’s empowerment, and other social causes. OpenX then integrates these value-based audience segments into its extensive identity graph, enabling advertisers to precisely target these groups across a network of premium Connected TV (CTV) and digital publishers that permit political advertising.
Launch partners for this groundbreaking initiative include prominent media entities such as Newsweek, alongside CTV platforms like Plex, Xumo, and Scripps. This collaboration signifies a concerted effort to bring greater control, transparency, and efficacy to political ad spending within the digital ecosystem.
The Escalating Stakes of Political Ad Spending
The timing of this launch is particularly salient, coinciding with what is projected to be another record-breaking election cycle in terms of political advertising expenditure. Industry analytics firm AdImpact projects a staggering $10.8 billion in political ad spend for the current year. This figure represents a substantial 20% increase compared to the 2022 midterm elections and falls just shy of the $11.1 billion spent during the 2024 presidential race, underscoring the immense financial stakes involved.
This surge in spending amplifies the need for publishers to exert tighter control over pricing, ensure brand safety, and guarantee the integrity of their advertising inventory. Curated deals, such as the one offered by OpenX and Givsly, address these concerns directly. For political advertisers, these curated solutions offer a means to avoid undesirable ad placements, mitigate the risk of appearing alongside controversial content, and crucially, tap into previously underserved or overlooked voter segments, including crucial swing voters.
Introducing Predictability to Political Programmatic
The chaotic nature of the programmatic political advertising marketplace, often characterized by a "spray and pray" approach, has historically left publishers vulnerable to price volatility and limited control. Danielle Varvaro, Chief Revenue Officer at Newsweek, highlighted the transformative potential of curated deal structures. "Curated deal structures introduce predictability into what’s historically been a chaotic ‘spray and pray’ programmatic political advertising marketplace," Varvaro stated. "It also helps reduce duplication in the supply path and supports more stable pricing."
This enhanced predictability allows publishers to move beyond the pursuit of short-term revenue spikes during peak election periods. Instead, they can focus on achieving "sustainable yield" and cultivating long-term partnerships. Sell-side curation empowers publishers with greater agency over their participation in the political ad market, enabling them to capitalize on incremental spend while rigorously upholding their governance, compliance, and brand integrity standards.
The Mechanics of Values-Based Targeting
The operational framework of this new solution is built on a sophisticated data integration process. Givsly meticulously constructs audiences by analyzing data signals from an expansive network of over 500 non-profit organizations, identifying individuals who demonstrate support for specific causes and values. OpenX then employs its proprietary identity graph to meticulously match these Givsly-defined audiences against its vast network of publisher clients. The resulting audience segments are then consolidated into "deal IDs," which can be readily activated through both direct and programmatic buying channels.
Amanda Forrester, SVP of Marketing and Communications at OpenX, elaborated on the data enrichment layers available. "Givsly’s data is one enrichment layer," Forrester explained. "Buyers can also target specific geos and ZIP codes and zero in on particular voting districts." She further noted that while combining values-based data with third-party audiences from other vendors could potentially limit supply, the integration of Givsly’s unique data set provides a critical advantage.
This values-based targeting allows political campaigns to connect with voters whose core beliefs align with a candidate’s platform, even in the absence of readily available party affiliation data. Moreover, it enables campaigns to discover new potential voters within ZIP codes where they may already possess extensive party affiliation data. This capability is instrumental in activating new voter blocs rather than merely reinforcing existing supporter bases.
Beyond targeting, the solution offers granular reporting capabilities. Advertisers receive localized reach and frequency data at the county, Designated Market Area (DMA), and ZIP code levels. This allows for precise campaign optimization towards specific outcomes, such as driving traffic to campaign websites or voter registration pages, thereby enhancing accountability and measurability.
The Drive for Precision in Political Campaigns
The development of this values-based targeting solution is underpinned by two significant industry shifts that have bolstered publishers’ engagement in programmatic dealmaking. The first is the ascendance of sell-side curation over the past few years. This trend has been paralleled by a growing industry-wide emphasis on audience precision, a move away from a sheer volume-based approach to advertising.
Political advertisers, it appears, are not immune to this evolving paradigm. Varvaro emphasized that political advertisers are as invested in achieving measurable outcomes as any other brand, a sentiment that has become evident in recent negotiations for midterm ad buys. "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. "But this cycle, political advertisers are much more focused on curated access to that supply path, and also transparency and compliance."
For Newsweek, participation in OpenX’s curated political packages represents a strategic move to safeguard its supply chain during periods of intense demand. It also serves to reinforce its positioning as a premium, centrist news publisher, a brand identity that is paramount in the current media climate. However, while Newsweek is amenable to running political ads across its digital properties, it has made a strategic decision to exclude political advertising from its CTV inventory managed through Adprime, a healthcare-focused demand-side platform (DSP) it acquired last June. This specific inventory is not part of its partnership with OpenX, indicating a deliberate segmentation of its advertising offerings.
Re-Engaging Publishers in the Political Arena
Despite the potential benefits, the landscape of political advertising remains fraught with challenges. Ongoing societal polarization and persistent concerns about brand safety have led some media companies to remain hesitant about accepting political advertising. Similarly, political buyers often have specific preferences regarding the publishers they choose to support. OpenX has proactively addressed these hesitations by embedding robust controls within its system, designed to accommodate the concerns of both sides of the supply chain.
Through the OpenX Select curation platform, buyers possess the ability to define custom brand standards and establish explicit "allow lists" of publishers. A key advantage of this sell-side curation is that these lists can be deployed across any DSP without the need for repeated reconfiguration for each individual platform. This streamlines the buying process and ensures greater consistency.
From the publisher’s perspective, the system provides access to advertiser approval lists, ensuring that curated packages do not inadvertently compete with or cannibalize existing direct deals. Publishers also retain the ability to review ad creative to ensure alignment with their editorial values and can dictate the rigor of this review process. This flexibility allows publishers to tailor their participation to their specific brand guidelines and risk tolerance. Some may opt for a stringent vetting of every political ad, while others might prefer to whitelist trusted advertisers and streamline the review process.
OpenX has emphasized that participation in this program is entirely opt-in, and the company reports that more than half of its publisher base has already enabled political advertising. Even for participating publishers, there remains granular control. They can block political ads from appearing on specific site subsections or domains, ensuring that their brand is not inadvertently associated with content that contradicts their editorial stance. Political campaigns, in turn, are restricted to bidding on inventory that has been explicitly approved by the publisher, providing a crucial layer of publisher control.
The overarching goal of these implemented controls is to encourage publishers who have previously withdrawn from political advertising due to concerns about brand alignment, data governance, and privacy compliance to reconsider their position. "If you can deliver a solution that has strong guardrails and protections, and that keeps content aligned with other quality publishers," Forrester remarked, "then people are more comfortable providing access."
The integration of values-based data, coupled with robust publisher controls and precise targeting capabilities, marks a significant evolution in the digital political advertising ecosystem. This initiative not only aims to recapture lost revenue for publishers but also promises to deliver more effective and efficient advertising solutions for political campaigns, fostering a more transparent and accountable environment for digital political discourse. The success of this model could set a new precedent for how political advertising is conducted in the digital age, prioritizing nuanced engagement and measurable impact over broad, untargeted outreach.
