Clinton Donors may give Obama $75M, Ickes Cooperating & Olympic Ad Buys

Reading through the new NY Time's Article detailing Obama's upcoming Ground Game and Fundraising, party unity is certainly on display in a good way.

Cooperation with Harold Ickes

But his aides were also considering buying another huge list with information on tens of millions of Americans. The list is owned by Catalist, a private concern co-founded by a longtime Democratic operative, Harold M. Ickes.

In an interview, Mr. Ickes said Mr. Obama’s campaign aides were particularly interested in new information his company had gathered about cable television viewing habits.

Clinton's Big Money soon to fill in some Gaps

Clinton’s fund-raisers could bring in a total of $75 million in the coming weeks.

And some very intriguing peeks inside game plans and strategy.

Tailor Made Cable Advertising

Obama campaign officials said that was because they were considering a tailored commercial campaign on niche cable channels that could give Mr. Obama special access to groups that his campaign deemed crucial for victory, like the young audience for MTV and the African-American viewership for BET.

"It’s a great opportunity to get people information that may be particularly germane to them," David Axelrod, the campaign’s chief strategist, said of the specialty cable commercials, perfected by Mr. Bush in 2004.

Staff EVERYWHERE

By the end of the month, the Obama campaign will have a director and staff members in all 50 states.

Olympic Sized Ad Buys

Future commercials could run on big national showcases like the Olympics in August.

I particularly like the idea of some Olympics advertising, as covered yesterday.

Though the Obama campaign is keeping mum about whether it will definitely run spots, it has asked NBC Universal about Olympics advertising including $500,000, $2 million and $4 million packages of ads. (NBC presented those along with a $10 million package.)

Olympics advertising could offer the candidate an opportunity to home in on women. Four years ago, viewership of the Olympics on prime time averaged a 15 rating among U.S. households. Among women 18 and over, the average rating was 11.2, while men 18 and older earned a 9.6, according to Nielsen Co. On some nights, the female audience was more than three ratings points higher than the male audience. (Ratings are percentages of all TV households, whether or not their sets are turned on. For example, a 1.0 rating is 1% of the total U.S. households with TVs.)

All in all, the 50 State Strategy and Campaign both look to be firing on all cylinders.