When Barack Obama announced who he selected as his running mate in the 2008 presidential elections over the weekend, he made history for the second time.

 

This time, it was because his campaign announced his choice by sending millions of text messages to the American public, which was the largest mobile marketing campaign of all time. Initially, of course, he made history as the first black candidate to win the Democratic nomination.

 

Estimates vary on how many SMS messages Obama’s campaign sent, but Nielsen Mobile (News - Alert), a service of the The Nielsen Company, estimates that 2.9 million U.S. mobile subscribers received a text message.

 

“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 ever sent and one of the most successful brand engagements using mobile media,” said Nic Convey, director of insights at Nielsen Mobile.

 

Obama’s choice for vice presidential candidate – Sen. Joseph Biden from Pennsylvania – was announced in a text that, according to news reports, said, “Barack has chose Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 p.m. ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word.” The rally was held Saturday afternoon and televised on several stations.

 

Nielsen Mobile monitors shortcode marketing (the use of text-message shortcodes, such as 62262 “O-B (News - Alert)-A-M-A”) through the world’s largest telecommunications bill-panel, an opt-in panel that reports on the billing activity for more than 40,000 subscriber lines in the United States. It’s just one of the many ways Nielsen reports on wireless and mobile media consumers.

 

The VP message was sent late Friday night to early Saturday morning and is, by many accounts, the single largest mobile marketing event in the U.S. to date.

 

From a mobile perspective, it makes sense that the campaign chose to use text messages. Today, 116 million U.S. mobile subscribers (52 percent) actively use text messaging, making it a new mass medium for marketing efforts.

 

“The value of the message goes far beyond the 26 words and 2.9 million recipients,” Convey said. “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.”

 

Convey says the success of this text message has “Madison Avenue thinking,” even more about how they too can interact with a universe of 116 million text-message users in the country.

 

Nielsen Mobile is an independent provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets. Nielsen Mobile focuses exclusively on tracking the behavior, attitudes and experiences of mobile consumers; their reports also provide up to seven years of data on Internet, video, gaming, audio and advertising trends for mobile phone users.

Eve Sullivan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Eve's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Eve Sullivan