Political Advertising
Win the precincts that decide.
Six pieces of a winning media program.
From persuasion video to GOTV mail, we run the full stack — or slot in as a specialist team next to your existing GC or media buyer. Either way, the audience is the voter file, not a cookie pool.
Persuasion video
30s and 60s cuts that actually shift opinion — built around real polling, focus-group tested when budget allows, and shipped fast enough to respond to news.
- CTV / OTT delivery
- YouTube TrueView
- Cross-platform versioning
Voter-file targeting
L2, TargetSmart, NGP VAN integrations. Match records to addressable CTV, programmatic display, and direct mail — with verified IDs and turnout scores driving the buy.
- Match rates 78–92%
- Universe modeling
- Suppression of opponents
Digital & programmatic
Display, native, audio, and gaming inventory — bought through compliant DSPs with brand-safety and political-clearance handled before the bid.
- The Trade Desk · DV360
- StackAdapt · Centro
- Pre-flight clearance
Direct mail
Persuasion and GOTV mail printed, tagged, and dropped on a schedule that hits inboxes — and mailboxes — at the right moments in the cycle.
- Variable-data printing
- USPS IMb tracking
- Spanish & bilingual production
Streaming & CTV
Hulu, Disney+, Roku, FreeWheel, Samsung — addressable inventory matched to your voter file with frequency caps that respect the viewer.
- Households, not cookies
- Frequency capping
- Verified placements
Compliance & reporting
FEC, FCC, and state-level rules baked into every buy. Disclaimers, lowest-unit-rate handling, and disclosure-ready reporting — without the late-night fire drills.
- Disclaimer review
- LUR tracking
- Pre-filed reporting
Five surfaces, one universe.
The same voter file drives every channel. No more buying TV for one audience and digital for another and hoping they overlap — they’re the same households, all the way through.
CTV / OTT
Hulu, Disney+, Roku, Samsung, Pluto. Addressable household delivery.
YouTube
TrueView, bumpers, and shorts — geo, demo, and custom-audience layered.
Programmatic
Display, native, audio across major DSPs with political clearance.
Direct Mail
Variable-data printing tied to voter ID and turnout score.
Audio & Radio
Spotify, Pandora, iHeart, terrestrial — Spanish-language inventory included.
Voter file in. Persuadables out.
We start with your voter file (or build you one), score every household for persuadability and turnout, then push the modeled universe directly into every ad surface — TV, digital, mail, audio.
No third-party cookies. No vague “lookalikes.” Real registered voters, with real propensity scores, hit at the right frequency through the right channel.
- Universe modelingPersuasion · turnout · suppression scored per household
- Multi-vendorL2 · TargetSmart · NGP VAN · Catalist supported
- Cross-channel matchOne voter, every screen — TV, digital, mail, audio
- Real-time optimizationDaily refreshes from canvass, polling, and modeled IDs
From strategy to ballot box.
A repeatable flow that survives a fast-moving cycle. We work the same way whether it’s a 14-month senate run or a 9-week ballot push — just the speed dial changes.
Map the path
Polling, district analysis, opponent research, and a written theory of the case — before a single dollar is spent.
Model the voters
Persuasion, turnout, suppression universes scored from voter file, polling, and modeled IDs.
Make the spots
Persuasion, contrast, and GOTV cuts. Tested where budget allows, shipped on a war-room timeline.
Run the program
CTV, YouTube, programmatic, mail, audio — flighted around earned-media moments and ballot deadlines.
Tune until E-Day
Daily readouts. Weekly tracking. The plan you started with is not the plan you’ll finish with — and that’s the point.
Compliance is step zero, not an afterthought.
Political advertising lives or dies by the disclaimers, the disclosures, and the paper trail. We treat every buy as if a regulator is reading over our shoulder — because, eventually, one is.
FEC compliance
Stand-by-your-ad disclaimers, in-kind tracking, coordinated vs. independent expenditure rigor.
FCC & LUR
Lowest-unit-rate windows, equal-time handling, broadcast clearance documentation.
State & local rules
50-state matrix for state-level disclaimer, blackout, and registration requirements.
Platform policies
Meta & Google political ad library, X / Reddit / YouTube clearance, vendor verification.
Disclosure-ready reporting
Itemized vendor reports formatted for FEC Form 3, state filings, and PAC disclosures.
Brand & safety
Pre-bid brand-safety, political-blocklist enforcement, fraud filtering across DSPs.
Recent cycle work.
A representative slice of who we’ve worked with — names anonymized where the campaign requires, real numbers throughout. We can share full case studies under NDA on a discovery call.
Congressional · Battleground district
9-week persuasion + GOTV program across CTV, YouTube, and addressable mail in a +R3 seat that flipped on E-Day.
State Senate · Suburban swing
Persuasion video + Spanish-language radio drove a 6-point movement among modeled persuadables in the final 21 days.
Statewide ballot initiative
Coalition-funded “yes” campaign — full-stack media, earned-media coordination, and a faith-community direct-mail layer.
Three ways to run a cycle.
From a focused launch flight to a full cycle program. Pick the door that matches where you are — we’ll help you decide on a confidential 30-minute call.
Launch Flight
A 4–6 week focused media flight — persuasion, GOTV, or rapid-response. Built fast, run hard, reported clean.
- Strategy & universe build
- Up to 3 creative variants
- Multi-channel placement
- Weekly performance readouts
- Compliance & disclaimer review
Cycle Program
Full-cycle media management — persuasion through GOTV. Universe modeling, creative production, and live war-room reporting.
- Senior strategist + buyer
- Voter-file integrations
- CTV, digital, mail, audio
- Daily & weekly dashboards
- FEC / FCC compliance support
- E-Day war room
Embedded Squad
For PACs, c4s, and large committees running multiple races — a senior pod embedded with your team for 12+ months.
- Multi-race coordination
- Coalition reporting
- Cross-state compliance matrix
- Quarterly board readouts
- Exclusive sector hold
The questions candidates actually ask.
The boring-but-important stuff. If yours isn’t here, drop a note — we answer every campaign inquiry confidentially within one business day.
Are you partisan?
We work with Democratic and Republican campaigns, plus independents, PACs, c4s, and ballot initiatives. We don’t do white-supremacist or anti-democratic work, but otherwise we’re issue-and-candidate agnostic. We’ll tell you on the first call if there’s a conflict with an existing client.
Will you sign exclusivity within a race?
Yes. Standard practice. Once we sign with a campaign, we hold the seat — no other candidate, opposing PAC, or coordinated entity in the same contest. Conflict checks happen before a contract goes out.
Do you handle FEC and state-level filings?
We don’t replace your compliance counsel — but we deliver disclosure-ready vendor reports formatted for FEC Form 3, state filings, and PAC schedules. Most campaigns pair us with their existing treasurer / counsel.
How fast can you launch?
For an existing campaign with a voter file in hand: 5–10 business days from signed contract. For a cold start (incorporation, voter file, creative production): 3–4 weeks. Rapid response can be hours.
What’s your minimum media budget?
$50k flight minimum to get meaningful CTV + digital reach in a competitive district. Below that we’ll be honest — direct mail or hyper-local digital is usually a better use of dollars and we’ll tell you so.
Do you do opposition research or earned media?
Not in-house. We focus on paid media. We work alongside your GC, pollster, and comms team — and we have trusted partners we can refer for opp research, polling, and press if you don’t have those already.
Disclosure
Creative Shift accepts political advertising business consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. All federal candidate communications carry required “Stand By Your Ad” disclaimers. PAC and independent expenditure communications are run with appropriate firewalls from candidate-coordinated work. We do not coordinate with campaigns when running IE programs. Past performance and figures cited above are illustrative; cycle results vary by district, candidate, and conditions on the ground. Specific case-study details available under NDA on request.
The runway shortens every week.
Bring your race, your budget, and your honest read of the district. We’ll come back inside one business day with a one-page plan you can hand to your campaign manager.
Send a quick brief.
Tell us what you’re working on. We’ll read it within a business day and reply with honest next steps.