Obama's Veep Text Reached Record 2.9M

Barack Obama's cell phone text to supporters naming Joe Biden as his running mate reached 2.9 million people, according to Nielsen—enough for a $290,000 bill at normal text rates. The statistics company ranks the message the nation's "single largest mobile marketing event" to date.

But the value of the message goes "far beyond" the number of recipients, said a Nielsen statement. "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." (More Nielsen stories.)