• by Wayne Friedman , October 31, 2008

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama may have made history in raising big bucks for his campaign's fund-raising--but what's more incredible has been his extremely efficient media buying.

Case in point was last week's roadblock of infomercials: According to one TV media executive, Obama's effective price--the cost per thousand viewers (CPM)--came out to a very cheap $1.66. The Obama 30-minute infomercial ran across four broadcast and three cable networks on Thursday night, grabbing a total of 33.5 million viewers.

Such figures are incredibly inexpensive when compared against a typical prime-time network household CPM, which runs in the $12 to $14 range. It is even better against other CPM demographics--such as adults 18-49, where the price tag in prime time is now nearing a $30 CPM for 18-49 viewers, across all four major broadcast networks.

This executive equated the 30-minute infomercial with 60 30-second commercial messages, or $55,000 for a 30-second commercial unit, running across seven networks.

Comparing this number against what the networks typically get for their prime-time series shows glaringly big results. One typical prime-time network spot on any of the big three networks averages around $110,000.

The reaction to this particular media buy? The TV media executive says simply: "Wow."