Data is the Catalyst
RNC Tech Summit 2009 Given by Scott Tranter, CEO Vlytics
Hi, my name is Scott Tranter. I am founder and CEO of Vlytics – a web-based political data company. I am also a republican congressional aide, occasional campaign staffer and lifelong numbers junkie. Check out my linkedin profile for more… NEW SLIDE Data is the one thing campaigns of all sizes have in common – data files tell us who can vote and can’t vote – but data can be the catalyst for so much more…. I have been crunching data since I first booted VisiCalc on my Apple IIe 13 years ago and I have been professionally involved in Political data for the last two years – during my time I have come up with four main axioms regarding Data; data should be stupidsimple, fully integrated, actionable and increasingly intelligent- I wanted to take the next few minutes and talk about these points it might help the RNC going forward… NEW SLIDE Starting with the notion that data should be stupid simple – any data solution should be simple enough that someone with basic computer familiarity can pull complicated queries without having to type out long strings of text. Data should be accessible and relevant; programs like VoterVault are quite functional but lack deep analytics, easy-to-use targeting tools, and integration with multiple formats. A tool like voter vault is suited for campaigns that have a large apparatus to run it – a simple streamlined tool is needed for vast majority of campaigns that don’t have large staffs or technical departments. NEW SLIDE Data and the application serving it should be fully integrated. The system must accommodate all current communication mediums as well as tailor to handling data crunching/visualization. The system should also be malleable to future communication formats and data crunching tools. 10 years ago few would have dreamt that reverselookup on a user-defined map was possible – Google maps comes along and now it’s a must-have tool to see where voters are concentrated. A fully integrated platform must handle “new data” – i.e. incoming data from users interacting with web applications – just cause we don’t have a name or an address doesn’t mean we cant take advantage of that persons participation.
RNC Tech Summit 2009 Scott Tranter, CEO Vlytics.com
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Who would have thought that a campaign would have to coordinate so many types of communication; online ad campaigns, a TTH program, GOTV program, a TV buy, and a standard mail program? Full data integration is not a luxury it is a necessity. NEW SLIDE When interacting with voters you should always be taking as much as you give. I don’t mean money – rather I mean information. If you drop off a piece of lit you should be asking what they think about it. If someone attends a rally you should be seeing if they will text they’re opinion. If you email someone you should be tracking there click thrus. Basic common sense there right? Right but without the infrastructure to take-in, categorize, index, and score you will be drowning in meaningless 1s and 0’s your wasting your time – make sure what you take in you can take advantage of. NEW SLIDE So you got a stupid simple platform, trained field staff, buy-in from the person running for city council to president - all working off the same system, using coordinated, data driven communications customized to there own campaign? Your building up data by the terabyte – now what? ANALYZE it! Using commercial level industry standard Business Intelligence tools you can dig deep into that data to figure out what makes voters vote and what doesn’t. We can accurately forecast how much communication it will take to get 50% +1 and then we can cost that out – basically it will tell you exactly how much it will take to win. NEW SLIDE Data management is expensive – it’s a multibillion dollar industry, just ask IBM, Business Object, Cognos etc. But its worth every penny – the point of data management is to bring your resources to maximum efficiency- so if you spend the time and the money data management is ultimately cost saving. To extend that principle to political campaigns – if I tell you that 2 pieces of mail, 1 door knock is just as effective as 300 TV points in a certain zip code and that costs you 1/3 as much – didn’t I just save you money and put it back into your pocket so you can go out and buy the TV in an area where I tell you it will take 30 costly contacts to get your name ID up and message across – in other words utilizing analyzed data is like raising money without actually fundraising…. NEW SLIDE Bottom line is – if you follow the four points I made – make your data infrastructure fully integrated, stupid simple, create actionable data, and make that data increasingly intelligent you will get buy-in from every campaign around the country; if you create buy-in your database grows smarter with every voter contact – in other words the more people using the system the better the voter file gets and the smarter the
RNC Tech Summit 2009 Scott Tranter, CEO Vlytics.com
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analysis gets – thus creating an increasingly intelligent voter file that all candidates from top to bottom can benefit from now and into the future. This presentation isn’t about Vlytics but like any entrepreneur I got to make a pitch right? Anyways if you like what you hear than I can tell you that all of those points are embodied in the Vlytics platform and in its business plan • • • • Vlytics is stupid simple because of its patent pending drag/drop query interface Vlytics is fully Integrated because of its custom database built specifically for voter files and numerous data inputs Vlytics is Actionable because it is designed around what is used and how to get the stuff people need the fastest Vlytics is increasingly Intelligent because of its custom BI tool with Patent Pending Scoring Algorithm
NEW SLIDE
RNC Tech Summit 2009 Scott Tranter, CEO Vlytics.com
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