I just had to follow up on this one.
Earlier this week I drew some much-needed attention (insert sarcasm) to the Barack Obama presidential campaign’s initial announcement of the VP selection via text message to registered mobile phone users.
As it turns out, the campaign may have set an SMS marketing world record when they blasted that message to supporters over the weekend. According to Nielsen Mobile, Obama’s text, revealing that Joe Biden would be his running mate, went out to approximately 2.9 million supporters.
By many accounts, Nielsen says, the Obama text was the single biggest mobile marketing event ever to have happened in the US. And if it’s a US record, it’s a fair bet it hasn’t been topped anywhere else in the world.
The other question is just how much the SMS missive cost. If Obama paid the standard 10 cents a text, then that adds up to $290,000. Although it was certainly an expensive text message, to say the least, the positive ramifications for the future of mobile marketing are already proving to be well worth the investment.
