Blue State Digital

Blue State Digital

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Consulting
Founded	2004
Founders	Jascha Franklin-Hodge Clay Johnson Joe Rospars Ben Self Thomas Gensemer
Headquarters	New York, NY, United States Washington, D.C., United States
Key people	Joe Rospars, founding partner and Chief Executive Officer
Parent	WPP
Website	www.bluestate.co

Blue State Digital is an adtech[1][2][3] that specializes in online fundraising, and campaign consultancy.[4] The company was founded by 4 former staffers of the Howard Dean 2004 presidential campaign.[5][6] The company became notable after providing digital strategy and technology services for the 2008 and 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaigns.

Blue State Digital has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and London, and in December 2010, Blue State Digital was acquired by WPP plc.[7]

History

Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign pioneered new applications of new media to engage voters and raise campaign funds.^[citation needed] In 2004, four former Dean staffers—Jascha Franklin-Hodge (CIO), Clay Johnson, Joe Rospars (CEO), and Ben Self—founded Blue State Digital[8] to provide campaign technology (voter database, fundraising technology, and campaign recruitment)[9] and strategic services. In July 2014, Jascha Franklin-Hodge (CTO) left to become the CIO for the City of Boston.[10]

In 2005, Thomas Gensemer from America Coming Together (a Democratic-allied advocacy organization) became the managing partner. Their earliest clients included Ted Kennedy's Senate campaign,[11] the Communications Workers of America,[12] the Democratic National Committee (chaired by Howard Dean), Harry Reid,[13] and AT&T.[14]

In 2007, the company was recruited in the early phases of the Barack Obama'2008 US Presidential campaign[15][7] to provide technology services, and for Rospar to create and lead the internal new media strategy team. These technology services included web hosting, an online fundraising product called BSD tools,[16] and a custom social networking platform. Over the course of the campaign, more than $500 million was raised, millions of volunteers were mobilised, and an online database of 13 million supporters was created,[17] This was reported in the media as being, in large part, due to their platform, and services.[18]

After their work in the successful Obama Campaign, the company opened offices in New York, Los Angeles, and London.^[citation needed] Their portfolio of clients now included American Red Cross,[11] United Way, Carnegie Hall,[19] and Vogue Magazine.[20] By 2010, the company had offices in London. Washington, and Boston,[21] and on December 30, 2010, they announced that they were to be wholly acquired by the multinational public relations company WPP Digital.[22]

The European expansion of US Voter information companies (such a Nation builder, Change.org, and Blue State Digital) depended on the International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles. This agreement allowed the companies to avoid the complexity of Europe’s patchwork of privacy protections,[23] and allow them to provide detailed voter information (from social media habits to voting records) to the U.K.'s Labour Party, French President Francois Hollande, and Swedish Social Democratic Party.[24] In October 2015, this agreement was declared invalid by the European Court of Justice in October 2015.[25] The result was "Uncertainty over whether the talks can succeed has U.S. political tech firms scrambling to find ways to keep doing business in Europe."[26]

By 2019, the company had expanded into nonprofit fundraising, with United Kingdom clients United Nations Refugee Agency[27] as well as Tommy's (charity) which raises funds for the St Thomas' Hospital in London .[28]

In 2019, Blue State Digital was rebranded as Blue State, and BSD Tools was sold to Every Action.[29] In September 2020, Brooklyn office started the process of forming a union with CODE-CWA in September 2020, at a time when less than 5% of WPP employees (its parent company) are unionized, with the majority of them in Europe.[30][31][32]

Notable alumni

• Tom Cochran – White House director of new media technologies
• Jascha Franklin-Hodge – founding partner, former chief information officer for city of Boston
• Leigh Heyman – former White House director of new media technologies
• Clay Johnson – founding partner
• Macon Phillips – first White House digital director
• Ben Self – founding partner, chairman Kentucky Democratic Party

References

1. Smits, Malte, ed. (2022). Information for a Better World: Shaping the Global Future. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 13192. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-96957-8. ISBN 978-3-030-96956-1. ISSN 0302-9743. S2CID 247014018.
2. "Inside The Correspondent's $2.5m crowdfunding drive to be the 'antidote to breaking news'". The Drum. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
3. "Employees at Creative Agency Blue State Secure First Collective Bargaining Agreement". Communications Workers of America. 20 September 2021. Archived from the original on 2022-10-01. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
4. Stewart, Emily (8 June 2016). "Google and Facebook will dominate the $1 billion digital ad spend for election 2016". TheStreet. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
5. "Meet Our Leadership | Blue State Digital". Archived from the original on 2014-03-11. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
6. Jascha Franklin-Hodge. "Jascha Franklin-Hodge". LinkedIn. Archived from the original on 2010-10-06. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
7. Rao, Leena (December 30, 2010). "WPP Buys Obama's Campaign Agency Blue State Digital". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
8. "WPP Digital acquires Blue State Digital, LLC". Archived from the original on 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
9. "The technology that powers the 2020 campaigns, explained". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 2022-10-01. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
10. Wood, Colin (2017-12-19). "Boston CIO Jascha Franklin-Hodge moves on". StateScoop. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
11. "Blue State Digital Takes Over the World". TechPresident. 6 November 2020. Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
12. "WPP Adds Blue State Digital to Media Empire". MediaDailyNews. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
13. "Salesforce: trouble for Blue State Digital? Don't bank on it". Jarret House North. 19 April 2007.
14. "Obama's Secret Weapon". Bloomberg Business Week. Archived from the original on 2008-06-28.
15. Rolfe, Mark (17 May 2019). "GetUp's brand of in-your-face activism is winning elections – and making enemies". The Conversation. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
16. "View Features | BSD Tools". Archived from the original on 2012-05-27. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
17. Talbot, David (8 January 2009). "The Geeks Behind Obama's Web Strategy". Boston.com.
18. Learmonth, Michael. "How Obama Won The Internet: Blue State Digital". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
19. "Web fundraiser that aided Obama acquired". Crain's New York. 30 December 2010.
20. Adams, Russell (23 November 2009). "Wall Street Journal: Vogue Sees Web Lessons in Obama's Campaign". Wall Street Journal.
21. Thiel, Simon (30 December 2010). "WPP Buys Obama Campaign Agency Blue State Digital". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
22. "WPP Digital Acquires Blue State Digital, LLC". Archived from the original on 2012-12-28. Retrieved 2017-11-25.
23. Bennett, Colin J. (2016-12-10). "Voter databases, micro-targeting, and data protection law: can political parties campaign in Europe as they do in North America?". International Data Privacy Law. 6 (4): 261–275. doi:10.1093/idpl/ipw021. ISSN 2044-3994. Archived from the original on 2022-09-01. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
24. Scola, Nancy (20 January 2016). "U.S. political tech firms hit European turbulence". Politico. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
25. "What does the end of Safe Harbour mean for you?". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Archived from the original on 2022-10-01. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
26. "U.S. political tech firms hit European turbulence". POLITICO. 20 January 2016. Archived from the original on 2022-10-01. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
27. Watson, Imogen (September 16, 2019). "The UN Refugee Agency appoints Blue State to catalyse digital fundraising efforts". The Drum. Archived from the original on 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
28. Johnson, Mark (2019-06-17). "Tommy's appoints Blue State Digital for fundraising campaign". Prolific London. Archived from the original on 2019-11-08. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
29. Dorbian, Iris (2019-06-24). "EveryAction buys Blue State Digital's BSD tools unit". PE Hub. Archived from the original on 2022-10-01. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
30. "In What Would Be A First For The Ad Industry, WPP-Owned Blue State Said It Was Forming A Union". Portside. 22 September 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
31. Coffee, Patrick. "WPP-owned ad firm Blue State is forming a union in a first for the industry". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2020-10-05. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
32. Miller, Sean (October 21, 2020). "Employees At Democratic Firm Blue State Unionized By CODE-CWA". Campaigns and Elections. Archived from the original on 2018-05-15. Retrieved 2020-12-31.

External links

• Official website
• BSD Tools - Company technology website
• Podcast interview with Thomas Gensemer, Managing Partner at Blue State Digital, 2008