Sunday, January 26, 2014

An entrepreneur goes to extremes to monetize social media marketing

Jason Sadler, now legally Jason SurfrApp and formerly Jason Headsetsdotcom, calls himself "the world's first human advertising network." The New York Times did a Q&A with him yesterday.

The 31-year-old web designer charges corporations and organizations a daily rate to wear their t-shirts in photos and videos he shares on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Jason boasts over 1,500 clients, including big brands such as Nissan and Starbucks. Jason said of the company's revenue:
"The first year, the company earned more than $66,000, and that has grown as IWearYourShirt.com has gotten millions of views."
A side project, as suggested in the first sentence, Jason also sells his last name online. Headsets.com bought it for $45,000 in 2012, and SurfrApp for $50,000 in 2013.

While Jason has more than 40,000 Twitter followers and 12,000 Facebook fans, these numbers are not particularly remarkable. I wonder if other prominent social media personalities will jump on the bandwagon, which will saturate the market causing consumers to feel burned out and weary of this new marketing strategy. I think this would be an interesting class discussion, because Jason seems to have very low costs (since the websites are already developed), and seems to be making a good living.

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