Masterson is a co-founder of CampaignGrid, a D.C.-based online political advertising firm that pairs voter records to online user profiles, enabling candidates to directly reach the voters they are targeting across multiple sites on the web. How did you come up with the idea for your company?
I have a long background in online advertising, having arguably started the first Internet consulting firm in 1994. In 2007, I was a potential candidate to run for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th District, and I went to Washington and talked to Republicans about what they were doing in terms of online advertising for the 2008 elections. The answers I received showed there was no real commitment to online advertising, so I saw an opportunity. I chose not to run for Congress and instead set up CampaignGrid.
How has Campaign Grid grown?
We started as an online political consulting firm, and in 2008, after having run 28 campaigns, it occurred to me there was no effective way to buy political advertising online. So we changed our business strategy and branded ourselves as an ad network. We’re now on track to have more than 200 candidates — congressional and presidential — buying online ads through us in 2012.
What is unique about your ad network?
Basically, we have matched more than 135 million online users to their publicly available voting records, so we know whether a particular user is a Republican or a Democrat and whether they vote in primary elections. Through our database, a candidate can directly reach the voters they are targeting.
What’s next for CampaignGrid?
We have attracted the attention of commercial advertisers. Also, we are hoping to start working with television set-top boxes. Look out — personalized political advertising is coming soon to your T.V.
— Hayley Peterson
