Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped
Obama Win

By Michael Scherer

November 7, 2012
Swampland - Time Magazine

https://swampland.time.com/2012/11/0...ped-obama-win/

After a successful campaign to raise money for Obama
included a contest to have dinner with Obama and George
Clooney, Obama's top campaign aides sought out an East Coast
celebrity with similar appeal among the same demographic,
and the next Dinner with Barack contest was born: a chance
to eat at Sarah Jessica Parker's West Village brownstone.

The idea for the Parker contest had come from a data-mining
discovery about some supporters: affection for contests,
small dinners and celebrity. Throughout the campaign, such
data- driven decision making played a huge role in creating
a second term for the 44th President and will be one of the
more closely studied elements of the 2012 cycle. In
politics, the era of big data has arrived.