Thus, Nigel shifted gears and began targeting elections in less developed countries, starting in 1993 with his new company: Strategic Communications Laboratories, or SCL.
We know next to nothing about these early campaigns other than the fact that they happened, but we do know that by the late 2000s SCL was struggling financially.
In one particular instance SCL tried to get newspapers to publish articles about a secret intelligence report supporting the government that was actually made up.
The methods SCL reportedly used were less than exemplary: they hosted seminars and bought TV ads in the names of unrelated nonprofits and even USAID, which of course wasn't involved.
From the little information that's available we know that in the year 2000 SCL was engaged in a campaign to improve the image of Indonesia's new democratic government after 31 years of dictatorship.
Robert was very interested in the Ripon platform and he eventually agreed to invest $5 million in SCL's latest venture: a subsidiary called Cambridge Analytica that was created specifically to operate in the US.