Politico wrote:
Channel 73 on the Dish Network is now The Obama Channel.
Obama's media buying strategy has been marked by a willingness to work the angles and to try to pick up a few votes at the margins. The decision to go to everything from extensive radio buys to odd-hour infomercials reflects the fact that the campaign media buyers spend a lot of time thinking about how much persuasion any given dollar can buy, and given a very cheap format — late night cable channels that need filler, for instance — will settle for a thimblefull of persuasion.
The satellite channel is the latest of these marginal gambits: Three readers from different parts of the country email that Channel 073-00 on the Dish Network is now labeled OBAMA. ("What is up with Sen. Obama having his own channel?" asks a St. Louis reader.) The channel plays his two-minute ad laying out his economic plan on a loop, over and over.
[...]
UPDATE: Thursday, viewers said, the Obama channel started airing a wider variety of Obama content than just his two-minute ad, including other ads and the video that introduced him at the Democratic National Convention.
Obama's media buying strategy has been marked by a willingness to work the angles and to try to pick up a few votes at the margins. The decision to go to everything from extensive radio buys to odd-hour infomercials reflects the fact that the campaign media buyers spend a lot of time thinking about how much persuasion any given dollar can buy, and given a very cheap format — late night cable channels that need filler, for instance — will settle for a thimblefull of persuasion.
The satellite channel is the latest of these marginal gambits: Three readers from different parts of the country email that Channel 073-00 on the Dish Network is now labeled OBAMA. ("What is up with Sen. Obama having his own channel?" asks a St. Louis reader.) The channel plays his two-minute ad laying out his economic plan on a loop, over and over.
[...]
UPDATE: Thursday, viewers said, the Obama channel started airing a wider variety of Obama content than just his two-minute ad, including other ads and the video that introduced him at the Democratic National Convention.
I'm not sure what to make of this. On one hand, it cracks me up that they can pull a stunt like this. On the other hand, I'm not sure how effective a use of dollars it is. Judging from the article though, I guess empty satellite channels don't cost all that much to buy time on so it's got to be a better buy than some of the national "mainstream" ads we've seen this season.
Edited, Oct 2nd 2008 1:45pm by Jophiel
