• The Associated Press, Monday, August 25, 2008 10:45 AM

Sen. Barack Obama's pledge to supporters that they would be the "first to know" his running mate via text message turned out to be a savvy but unworkable communications strategy. The Democratic presidential candidate got scooped by several large media outlets on his own announcement.

But from a marketing standpoint all was not lost. Obama promised supporters who provided cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses that they would get the veep news directly. As a result of the effort, he amassed a huge database of phone numbers and e-mail contacts for the fall campaign.

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