Environics Analytics Unveils ‘VoterConnect’

Toronto, September 12, 2024 – In a groundbreaking move for Canadian politics, Environics Analytics (EA), the nation’s leading data and analytics firm, today launched ‘VoterConnect,’ a powerful database designed to revolutionize how political campaigns target and communicate with voters. VoterConnect enables political parties to deliver tailored messages to the right voters with precision, from hyper-local neighbourhoods to broader regions, ensuring campaigns are more effective and efficient.

For the first time in Canada, VoterConnect offers a fast, flexible, and cost-effective solution that simplifies how candidates and political parties target and engage voters. Whether a campaign uses traditional media like TV and face-to-face canvassing or web-based social media, VoterConnect’s strength lies in its ability to support targeting at all levels, from postal codes and custom digital audiences to ridings, regions and provinces. The database is fully non-partisan and complies with the highest privacy standards (EA is ISO 31700-1 Privacy-by-Design certified).

VoterConnect leverages fifteen custom-built socio-demographic Canadian voter segments that have already been showcased on CTV during the last three federal elections and several provincial ones, offering campaigns a unique perspective on voter behaviour across the country. The data enables strategists and organizers to analyse historical local voting patterns, integrating data on demographics, wealth, spending habits, and media preferences. Included are data points directly related to issues relevant to Canadians, like affordability, climate change and immigration. Campaigns can also combine VoterConnect data with their own voter ID data and polling results allowing for deeper insights into voter attitudes and issues, as well as leveraging their own lists in campaign activations.

With VoterConnect, campaigns can quickly identify key voter groups and understand where specific messages will resonate the most. The database offers region-specific benchmarks, helping campaigns allocate resources more effectively. Additionally, this wealth of data can be activated across various media channels, from social media to connected and linear TV, as VoterConnect integrates seamlessly with major digital and linear ad-buying systems. Data will be available to strategists and agencies as well as to candidates and the parties themselves – ensuring a consistent data-driven view from strategy to activation to measured outcomes.

Access to the data is easy – any organization can license the entire country or just one riding. All popular file formats are supported including Esri and other GIS-compatible files. Leading data science tools and platforms can connect to VoterConnect via Snowflake, DataBricks, Big Query, etc. regardless of cloud vendor. And if disparate sets of voter data are being blended, EA has clean room services to ensure that it is done safely with privacy fully protected.

“EA’s mission is to make the lives of Canadians better through transformative data and analytics. VoterConnect will do this by helping Canadians receive messages that matter most to them during elections. They will be better informed. This is a Canadian system tailored to this country with its unique multi-party and confidentiality landscapes,” said Jan Kestle, Founder and President of Environics Analytics.

Parties and candidates interested in VoterConnect can access the data directly through Environics Analytics or via their media agencies and campaign advisors.