Campaign 2016: These are the big tech companies powering the election

Cambridge Analytica

The data firm employed by Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and now Donald Trump has over five thousand individualised data points on over 220 million consumers. The company uses predictive analytics to model voter--and consumer--behavior. After the campaign, Cambridge Analytica will sell their tools to enterprise clients in healthcare, financial services, advertising, and marketing.

Image: CNN

NationBuilder

NationBuilder helps campaigns raise money by converting curious consumers into active donors. The company blends various data sets, ranging from voter CSV files to social media profiles, to help campaigns "build and manage personal relationships at large scale," according to founder and CEO Jim Gilliam.

Image: NationBuilder

The Groundwork

Operated by Obama for America's chief integration and innovation officer, Michael Slaby, and funded by Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt, The Groundwork is a compact team of data analysts that worked for the Clinton campaign during the primaries.

Image: The Groundwork

NGP VAN

From local elections to national campaigns, NGP VAN is a get-out-the-vote tool used by nearly every major Democratic candidate. The company's core competency is making big data actionable. Candidates use the tool to help contact voters through canvassing, phone calls, email, direct mail, and social media.

Image: NGP VAN

ActBlue

Remember Bernie Sander's famous "27 dollar" campaign donation claim? ActBlue helped the Sanders campaign crowdsource small donations at massive scale. After Sander's upset victory over Clinton in New Hampshire, grassroots donors swamped ActBlue's donation hub.

Image: ActBlue

L2 Political

L2 Political is a data portal that sells demographic information on nearly every voter in the United States. Voter information including home address, occupation, and salary range is overlaid on granular maps. Campaigns use L2 data to target voters with personalized marketing messages.

Image: L2 Political

TargetedVictory

Co-founded by former Romney campaign data guru Zac Moffatt, TargetedVictory creates a product that makes multi-screen ad-buying simple. The political technologist explained in a recent interview, "programmatic targeting is vastly improving the ability of political campaigns to more efficiently reach their target voters."

Image: TargetedVictory

uCampaign

uCampaign is a mobile app developer that focuses on user and voter engagement. On the surface, the tool looks like a campaign-skinned social media app, with gamified check-ins, a leaderboard, and achievements. Behind the scenes, though, is a sophisticated data collection platform.

Image: uCampaign

Tele-Town Hall

Successful campaigns rely on creating a personal connection between voters and candidates. In-person town hall meetings are time-tested methods of letting voters speak with candidates about important issues in a small venue. Tele-Town Hall virtualizes the in-person experience by making large-scale, interactive phone meetings affordable to cash-strapped campaigns.

Image: Tele-Town Hall

CFB Strategies

Through the course of an election cycle, campaigns rely on a vast array of data and social media tools. During the primaries, CFB Strategies worked behind the scenes for the Cruz campaign to integrate disparate data services.

Image: CFB Strategies

Hustle

Bernie Sanders' insurgent 2016 Democratic primary campaign was powered in large part by small donations. Hustle is the mobile app that helped convert a groundswell of grassroots support in to an army of financial supporters. The app integrates with data platform NGP VAN and text messages to help campaign workers to establish a personal connection with voters.

i360

i360 has a voter and consumer database of over 190 million American voters, and 250 million American consumers. The company works with campaign and corporate clients to create sophisticated predictive models of user behavior.

Callfire

No campaign would be complete without robocalls! Callfire is an automated phone call and text message broadcast engine. The company's political and non-profit solution allows campaign clients to message a contact list, create and distribute polls, and send news alerts and campaign updates by call or SMS.

Social Media Companies

Campaigns rely on social media to help disseminate messages, and mine networks for valuable insights about voter behavior.

• Facebook - A large source personal data about key topics.
• Instagram - Used by campaigns to humanize candidates.
• Twitter - The conversational pulse of the campaign, used daily by candidates, journalists, and engaged individuals.
• Periscope - Used by media agencies to broadcast breaking news from major campaign events.
• Google - Provides trends and data analysis to the public, and media organizations.
• Microsoft - Provides Surface screens, and server technology for the RNC and DNC.
• Skype - Provides communication technology for the RNC and DNC.

Image: Terry Collins