MarketingBeyond

Michael Phelps Signed Banana on eBay Worldwide

Michael Phelps, his agent and eBay sellers have been working hard to market the champion. Estimated lifetime value of Phelps' marketing and promotional contracts are now estimated at $100M, give or take a few million.

To my knowledge, Michael has yet to sign a banana for sale on eBay, but I fully expect to see one soon under "miscellaneous."  As of August 18th at 9:05 US Pacific time,  2,292 Michael Phelps items have sold on eBay worldwide (highest to lowest prices):
 
Autograph on an Olympic Ticket - $1,575
Autographed 2004 Rookie Cards - $1,500
Autographed 2004 Fans of the Game Card - $799
(Autographed items in the early adopter stage appear hot, although the one eBayer who tried selling an autographed Phelps' painting for $20K didn't make it.)

But...if you act right now....they're over 1,900 items on eBay WorldWide for your shopping pleasure:

Sports Memorabilia, Cards & Fan Shop (don't miss the tote bag) - 1,235

Books and Magazines (mostly magazine back issues) - 161

Entertainment Memorabilia (photos and such) - 177
(The women's recycled handmade magazine Eco looks interesting)

Clothing, Shoes and Accessories (Don't miss the unisex items) - 162

If you have some spare cash in your pocket, you'll want to review the "Amazing Pace" autographed book--$10,000 Buy It Now or "Make Best Offfer!!!" The seller describes it as the only one of its kind on eBay. So you should probably check it out.

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for the banana.

Marketing & Measurement: Did Michael Phelps Really Win?

Michael Phelps' recent Olympics' gold metal win by .01 of a second once again reveals how technology impacts human behavior. A more celestial question is: "Did Michael really win?" Because his finger or hand touched the pool's end one-hundredth of a second sooner than his competitors', should he take the gold?

20-30 years ago, we wouldn't have had the technology to determine who "won." We would probably have considered the result a draw, resulting in a shared win.

But digital cameras and measurement devices have changed all that. The two swimmers, for all practical purposes, touched the wall of the pool simultaneously. But measurement technology says "not so."

Marketers and most human beings (not an oxymoron) like to measure things. If you're responsible for a Google ad campaign, for example, you monitor and measure "impressions" and "click-through rates."

Before advertisers buy print, broadcast, billboards or online advertising, they want to know the CPM (cost per thousand) to make sure they're wisely spending their promotion budgets.

Companies engage market research companies to measure "customer satisfaction" employing surveys. Wall Street types create indexes, such as the S&P 500 and NYSE, to measure stock performance across multiple company categories. Marketers are obsessed with measurement.

In our personal lives, we constantly desire to measure events, people and objects. "My home has 500 more square feet than yours" (status measurement)." "My kid's little league team beat yours last year by 3 games (rivalry measurement)." "My digital camera's resolution is 10 megapixels" (possession measurement)."

Technology's ability to quantify things hasn't changed basic human behavior. I'm sure General Custer took a head count of the number of Indians he killed the previous day. What's changed? Instead of cutting another notch in your belt for every duck you shot, you rely on technology to measure, quantify and estimate life's changing events. Computers haven't mitigated our desire to measure everything; they've only extended our capacity to measure.

So kudos to Michael for winning another gold metal. You won fair-and-square--but only by .01 seconds. When your grand children view your stats years ahead, they'll probably ask you why the measurement difference was so poorly calculated. "Say, Grand Dad," why didn't they say you really won by .000000023 seconds? We can do that on our pocket calculators."

 

The Marketing of the Olympics: Technology Converging With Human Minds

MB readers know I blog a lot about the effects of technology on people. And the opening night of the Olympics in Beijing is an extraordinary example of technology and human minds converging into an harmonious display of beauty and splendor. The performance of the Chinese in the stadium is the most stupendous example yet witnessed of "MarketingBeyond." Billions of advertising dollars and and decades of PR could never compete with the spectacle we witnessed last night.

Forget the months of rehearsal, the cast of thousands and whoever paid the light bill. It was the ability of the Chinese performers to mentally sync with computer, communications, display and other technologies, unrealized by billions of television viewers, that brought down the house.

While I watched the show, I kept thinking: "This can't be happening. There must be computer servers, routers and other technology gear controlling the show to achieve such perfection." The huge LCD panel on the stadium's floor, the color display surrounding the entire top of the stadium, suspension systems, wireless earphones, hydraulics lifting Sara Brightman, et al, into the stratosphere and timed fireworks displays were indeed performing behind the scenes.

But it was the performers' abilities to sync with themselves and technology that will place this television show into the annals of history. As the commentators mentioned frequently, Chinese culture and tradition focus on bringing the mind in sync with the Universe. Combine this with the explosion of high technology flowing from China and it all starts to make sense. Allow the mind to focus, let Universal forces do their wonders and miracles do happen before your eyes.

In one three hour television show, the Chinese people demonstrated to the world how technology and human beings can become ONE.