Nielsen Says 2.9 Million Got Obama’s Text Message

Nielsen Mobile, the mobile monitoring arm of The Nielsen Company (and sister firm to TV ratings service Nielsen Media Research), that said the Barack Obama presidential campaign sent 2.9 million text messages last week announcing Joe Biden as Obama’s running mate.

CNet News postulates, extrapolates a bit and reckons that if Obama’s carrier charges him 10 cents per message, that means the effort cost about $290,000.

So was it worth it? Nielsen’s director of insights, Nic Covey, doesn’t talk dollars. But he’s certain the effort was good for the medium of text messaging and the campaign:

While much has been said of the timing and the scoop by news outlets, Obama’s VP text message still ranks as one of the most important text messages even sent and one of the most successful brand engagements using mobile media

The success of this text-campaign has Madison Avenue thinking even more about how they too can interact with a universe of 116 million text-message users in the US.

The value of the message goes far beyond the 26 words and 2.9 million recipients. Here, Obama branded himself as cutting edge, inflated the already enormous press attention paid to his VP pick and further established a list of supporters’ most coveted form of contact: their cell phone numbers.