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Matthew Oczkowski

President, HuMn Behavior

● Oversaw data strategy, research, and predictive modelling programs for Donald Trump’s Presidential Campaign ● Advises several Fortune 500 companies on how to better engage with their customers and employees. ● Blends political science, data science, and elements of behavioral psychology to better understand voter and consumer behavior ● Correctly predicted voter turnout and helped chat the path to a Trump victory that most pundits couldn’t see ● Uses powerful visuals and informative data to explain the state of the industry: where we’ve been and where we’re going

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Matt Oczkowski is the President of HuMn Behavior - a data and behavioral science consultancy based in Texas. Throughout his career he has worked at the intersection of where data science meets consumer and voter engagement to analyze, forecast, and advise commercial markets and American elections. In a data-driven presentation, full of powerful visuals and analytics, Matt charts the story of the evolution of data science and its role in better understanding consumers and voters - particularly in the areas of determining what audiences we should be talking to and what we should be saying to those groups to create a more personal experience.

Oczkowski previously spent a decade working directly in the political campaign and public affairs arena where he built data and digital programs for national and statewide races across the country. His depth of experience researching and building programs tailored towards reaching ‘Middle America’ sets him apart from most traditional market researchers and data analysts. In his current practice, he works with several Fortune 500 companies to build intelligence programs that help drive the business.

During his time with the Trump Campaign he most notably ran the team of embedded technical specialists that developed the scientific understanding of the eventual outcome of the election—a scenario that pundits missed. As the lead data strategist for the Trump campaign, he was responsible for crafting a path to victory, generating models to target priority states, and creating a travel plan that maximized electoral success. Running hundreds of thousands of surveys in key battleground states to get the most accurate polling data, his team successfully predicted the trends that played out during the election, leading to an accurate forecast of the electoral outcome in all but two states.

Matt continues to play a senior role in analyzing the political and commercial landscape of the country on behalf of dozens of clients.

Using tactics from the worlds of behavioral science, data science, growth marketing, sentiment graphing, and geographic analysis, Oczkowski successfully connects behavioral dots together to make informed decisions about groups of people.

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Data Strategy for the Trump Campaign

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The Road to 2020. Understanding how the data dysfunction of 2016 will evolve and translate into the 2020 elections.

Imagine being at the helm of a startup responsible for raising hundreds of millions of dollars, hiring thousands of employees, and at the end of one or two years you needed to control 50+1% market share in your given vertical. For most that would seem like a near impossible task, but in the world of presidential campaigning that has become common practice. Modern political campaigns have become one of the new breeding grounds for innovation in America. Over the last two decades, companies from the world of data science, digital marketing, software development, and beyond have all come out of this space.

With this talk, Mr. Oczkowski takes audiences behind the scenes to a campaign that, as he says, was a truly collaborative ecosystem that operated much more like a business than any campaign that he’s been a part of. He explains how he was able to accurately quantify the “Trump effect” and the impact it had on America—seeing the election’s outcome before anyone else. Using examples from the worlds of data science, behavioral marketing, and modern research techniques, Matt explains how understanding the underlying drivers of voters across the country led to a widely unexpected outcome in 2016 and how those principles are translating into the 2020 election cycle.

For any campaign or business to be successful, they need to be constantly innovating, because if you're not innovating you're dying. Able to customize his talk to specific audiences, Oczkowski helps organizations inside and outside of politics understand who they should be talking to and what they should say to them to produce a measurable effect. Whether it’s voting for a particular candidate, purchasing a consumer good, improving the view of a brand, or donating to a personal cause, the sooner agencies begin to understand the human element that underlies all interactions, the more effectively they will be able to communicate with the world.

Engaging Middle America. How data science helps us understand the states between the coasts.

Have you ever reviewed a proposal, executed a campaign, or even received a piece of advertising that made you question the methods behind it? If you’ve ever felt that sense of anxiety about the strategy behind your marketing or communications efforts this talk is for you. Able to customize his talk to specific audiences, Oczkowski helps organizations inside and outside of politics understand who they should be talking to and what they should say to them to produce a measurable effect. Whether it’s voting for a particular candidate, purchasing a consumer good, improving the view of a brand, or donating to a personal cause, the sooner agencies begin to understand the human element that underlies all interactions, the more effectively they will be able to communicate with the world.

Most marketing intelligence programs today are more often than not geared towards consumers that live in the select few ‘major cities’ often found on the east and west coasts. Far too often we have seen agencies replicate the same NYC or LA playbook for clients that operate outside of the dense urban bubbles. If there is one key piece of information that we have learned from our past experiences it is the need to analyze each project from a completely fresh perspective - in other words blow up the playbook and build a new foundation from scratch.

Using tactics and key strategies developed from our political and commercial experience, we have learned just how different the various regions (or tribes) of the country make decisions. Understanding the subtleties of ares like tonality, messaging, media preferences, and creative appeal can make the difference between a successful campaign.

With this talk, Matt takes the audience through some of the building blocks that have made his client’s measurably more successful in their engagement efforts. He will debunk some of the common myths that are often perpetuated by the major traditional marketing agencies and pollsters.