When you think about influencing policy, what comes to mind? You likely picture meetings on Capitol Hill, testimony at hearings, or direct conversations with legislators.
But here is what years of working with advocacy organizations have proven: by the time you’re sitting across from a legislator, their position has likely already been shaped. Real influence happens earlier. It happens in conversations with trusted staffers, within professional networks, and through the experts, media, and advocates they turn to when forming opinions.
Modern policy advocacy faces a fundamental challenge. The people who shape decisions—legislative staffers, state agency officials, and the policy experts whose opinions carry weight—are increasingly difficult to reach through traditional channels. To close this gap, Quorum has expanded its digital capabilities across three core areas:
- Policy Influencer Advertising: Managed, full-service ad campaigns using Quorum’s first-party data.
- Grassroots Video Advertising: Constituent stories transformed into targeted ads.
- Policy Influencer Datafile: A verified dataset of 1.5 million influencers for agency use.
Policy Influencer Advertising: Full-Service Ad Campaigns That Reach the Right People
For years, organizations have used Quorum’s Policy Influencer Datafile—powered by KnowWho’s verified first-party data— to identify these 1.5 million verified contacts. However, identifying them is only half the battle. You also need to reach them at scale.
Policy Influencer Advertising uses that verified data to run full-service advertising campaigns for you. Quorum handles everything: audience definition, creative deployment, and performance tracking across desktop, mobile, and connected TV. Campaigns deploy within 24 hours, and you’re not broadcasting into the void. Instead, you are strategically placing your message in front of the specific people who shape policy thinking.
How Organizations Can Use Policy Influencer Advertising
Consider a scenario like the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) advocacy for the Credit Card Competition Act. To move the needle on a bill that affects billions in retail savings, the NRF needs to reach far beyond the legislators who cast the final votes. They would need to reach:
- Staffers briefing senators on financial policy.
- Treasury officials in major retail states like California and Texas.
- State attorneys general handling antitrust cases.
- Media and policy experts whose analysis shapes legislative thinking.
With Policy Influencer Advertising, organizations can build parallel campaigns. For government officials, they could run ads emphasizing antitrust violations and economic relief. These are backed by data visualizations showing the cost of the status quo. For the general public, they could deploy consumer-focused messaging in retail-heavy districts with a specific call to action: “Relief from inflation starts here.” This ensures the right message reaches the right person at the right time.
Grassroots Video Advertising: Amplify Authentic Constituent Voices
Constituent stories have a unique power to break through the noise. When a small business owner explains how a policy affects their livelihood, or a patient shares a healthcare experience, those voices resonate in a way that polished messaging cannot.
Grassroots Video Advertising transforms the advocate videos you’ve already captured into targeted ads that follow lawmakers and policy influencers across their digital lives. We handle the tactical heavy lifting: optimization, audience building, and cross-channel deployment. You provide the authentic voices; we ensure they land in front of the specific legislators and staff who represent those constituents.
Beyond video, this capability lets you execute broader advocacy campaigns and re-engage advocates who’ve gone cold on your email list. Instead of hoping supporters see your social posts, you can reach them with additional touchpoints across desktop, mobile, and connected TV.
Quorum has also established a partnership with Think Big to offer professional video editing for organizations that want a little more polish to their advocate videos.
How This Works in Practice
Take an organization like AARP. With 38 million members, they have no shortage of powerful constituent stories: seniors worried about the 2035 Social Security solvency crisis, retirees watching fixed incomes erode, caregivers managing financial strain.
These stories carry more weight than any polished political ad. But a video testimonial from a Pennsylvania retiree does the most good when it lands in front of that state’s legislators and their staff—particularly those serving on the Senate Finance or House Ways & Means Committees.
For Social Security advocacy, this means constituent voices from battleground districts reach the legislators representing those constituents. The staffers briefing them on entitlement reform see real stories from the people they serve. Policy becomes personal.
For Agencies: Verified Data With Complete Creative Control
If you’re running advocacy campaigns for clients, you know that targeting precision makes or breaks results. Broad demographic targeting wastes your budget, and “close enough” is not good enough for high-stakes policy issues.
Policy Influencer Datafile gives agencies access to KnowWho’s first-party dataset of 1.5 million hand-curated contacts, the same verified data that powers our managed campaigns. This includes legislative staff, agency officials, media, and policy experts.
You get the raw files to use however you want. Integrate them with your proprietary processes and maintain complete creative control while using best-in-class data. Your targeting becomes demonstrably more effective, and your agency builds a reputation for delivering real influence, not just broad reach.
Why Precision Digital Influence Matters Now
Policy influence has fundamentally changed. Decision-makers no longer form opinions solely through formal briefings. They are shaped by digital channels and trusted networks long before official advocacy begins.
The staffer drafting talking points or the policy expert cited in internal memos are the people who move the needle. For the first time, these individuals are reachable at scale.
Quorum is uniquely positioned to deliver this because we connect every stage of the influence journey. No other platform offers this end-to-end. We help you identify the right people in Policy Influencer Datafile, engage them via Policy Influencer Advertising, and amplify local voices through Grassroots Video Advertising. The policy battles that matter are being fought in digital spaces beyond the hearing room. It is time to meet decision-makers where they actually are.
Schedule a demo to explore how these capabilities could work for your organization.