Evidence of meeting #101 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A video is available from Parliament.
10:10 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
We did some work directly for the DUP, as well, but yes.
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
When you received the 625,000 pounds from Vote Leave to do work for BeLeave, was there any consultation with Vote Leave officials about how that should be spent?
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
So, there would be no correspondence in and around the time of that 625,000 pounds transfer with you and Vote Leave officials.
10:15 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
I don't believe so, but there may be communication between me and one of their comptrollers about the wiring instructions.
10:15 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Was there any correspondence, email, Slack, or otherwise, between you, or Mr. Silvester, and Vote Leave officials about how that ad spend should be directed? I would like you to provide that to this committee.
10:15 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Since AIQ had access to programs for Vote Leave, BeLeave, and Veterans for Britain, did you optimize that ad spending in any way to ensure that there weren't overlapping messages to the same targets?
10:15 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
No. The targeting information was provided to us directly from each campaign.
10:15 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
How does a 22-year-old kid at BeLeave, who up to that point had spent in the tens of thousands of pounds, if that...and now gets an intake of 625,000 pounds. He then has the know-how to direct 625,000 pounds of ad spend, and tells you specifically how to do it. Is that your evidence?
10:15 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
Not how to do it. He said who they were trying to show these ads to.
10:15 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Mr. Massingham, you were part of the Slack channel. What did Mr. Grimes tell you to do?
10:15 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
Take the display and Facebook Creative, and target it to the discuss leave and BeLeave audiences with their message, which was separate from the Vote Leave message.
10:15 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
Darren and BeLeave wanted to target a more youthful audience with a positive vision of what a future might look like outside of the EU.
10:15 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Were you aware that if the 625,000 pounds were spent by Vote Leave as Vote Leave, it would have violated election finance law?
10:15 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
Yes, that would have put them over their cap.
10:15 a.m.
Liberal
10:15 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
That was the cap that all the campaigns were—