Using MAAX to Capture Political Advertising Revenue

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Using MAAX to Capture Political Advertising
Revenue

• Kyle Reynolds
• Database Preprint Advertising Director
• Houston Chronicle

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POLITICAL DATABASE PROJECT

• OUR GOAL
• CHALLENGES
• THE BUILD PROCESS
• HOW WE USE IT
• RESULTS
• SUPPORTING DIRECT MAIL ROP

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Voter Database Goals

• Develop a comprehensive database of registered
  voters in the Houston area to market our range of
  advertising options to political candidates
  running for office in the November 2008 election
• Link registered voters to our subscriber file to
  identify our subscriber penetration rate by zip
  code, congressional and state office districts
  and local precincts
• Identify voters by political party affiliation
  based on past voting history
• Provide specific voter counts grouped into sub
  and nonsub categories for key races and
  candidates the same day they are requested by our
  national sales team
• Household our voter and demographic database to
  overlay key variables such household income,
  marital status, presence of children, home value
  and personal interest categories

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Voter Database Challenges

• Coordinating collection of voter registration and
  history files from four Houston area counties and
  their respective tax assessor-collector offices
• Working with each countys tax office database
  staff to ensure we receive the correct files in
  the right format with file layouts and code
  definitions
• Combining separate voter registration and history
  files from certain counties and determining which
  voter history files needed to be included in our
  database since some counties had up to 50
  different voter history files
• Understanding which fields of data from each
  county would yield the voter information
  necessary to provide counts to our national sales
  team
• Determining the depth of information we could
  provide from each countys voter registration and
  history files since each county had unique ways
  of recording and reporting their data
• Developing a plan of action and working with our
  DBA and MAAX specialist in building,
  householding, performing quality control checks
  and going live with our database

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Voter Database Process

• Because the voter registration and history files
  were obtained from each county at different
  times, we imported the information into Access
  first to verify the integrity and quality of the
  data
• Queries and spreadsheets were developed to
  determine counts from key variables before the
  files were built into MAAX so we would be able to
  compare numbers and household match rates with
  our existing databases
• Issues and questions were referred to each tax
  assessor-collectors technical staff for
  clarification before moving forward on the build
  process
• Once the files were processed, we reviewed and
  verified all fields, their length, properties,
  file layouts and householding. Any discrepancies
  were discussed and the files were processed a
  second time before building into MaaX
• Testing was performed to determine necessary
  bandings and queries before running crosstab and
  multi-dimensional queries
• Spreadsheets were developed and presented to the
  National sales team for inclusion in their sales
  presentation and marketing materials

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HOUSTON CHRONICLE VOTER DATABASE SCHEMA
EXPERIAN All Non-Marginal Records Link on ADDR_ID
SAM All Non-Marginal Records Link on ADDR_ID
SUB All Non-Marginal Records Link on
ADDR_ID Common SUB Link
SAM_Link
AMST All Unique Addresses Link on ADDR_ID
GALVESTON All Voter Addresses Link on ADDR_ID
MONTGOMERY All Voter Addresses Link on ADDR_ID
MONTGOMERY Voter History file records Link on
Voter ID
Voter_ID
HARRIS All Voter Addresses History Link on
ADDR_ID
FT BEND All Voter Addresses History Link on
ADDR_ID
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REGISTERED VOTER DATABASE BUILD
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HARRIS COUNTYS REGISTERED VOTER FILE

• 5,610 records coded as SUBS and Non-Subs
• 146,965 records in file do not match up with SAM
  file due to missing/inaccurate addresses

REFERENCE HARRIS COUNTY VOTER SAM TABLES
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REGISTERED VOTERS WHO ARE POLITICAL CONTRIBUTORS
WITH HHI 100K

• 40,799 records

REFERENCE HARRIS COUNTY VOTER EXPERIAN TABLES
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REGISTERED VOTERS WHO ARE CHRONICLE SUBS WITH HHI
100K

• 129,437 records

REFERENCE HARRIS COUNTY VOTER, SAM EXPERIAN
TABLES
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REGISTERED VOTERS BY PRECINCT WITH HHI RANGES
REFERENCE HARRIS COUNTY VOTER EXPERIAN TABLES
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MALE AND FEMALE REGISTERED VOTERS BY PRECINCT
REFERENCE HARRIS COUNTY VOTER EXPERIAN TABLES
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Political Sales Strategy

• Historically, heavy direct mail
• ROP opportunity
• Analysis shows 157,782 registered voters in
  candidate district that are Chronicle
  Subscribers.
• National put together a multi run ROP rate for
  specific ad size in specific newspaper section
• Result was client could get the equivalent of
  four direct mail touches for .21 cents, or .05
  cents per hit
• Comparison favored ROP sometimes penetration
  levels favor solo mail

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