On March 21st, NGP Software, Inc., had a blast when we bid on the first-ever eBay auction for banner ad space. We won, and you can see our ad on PoliticsOnline’s upcoming April newsletters.
We like online firsts at NGP. When I saw that Phil Noble was using CampaignAssistant’s new service to sell ad space on his newsletters (some of which I have subscribed to for years), even though I did not have an advertisement planned, I could not resist.
Truth be told, no other contender had a fair shot, because we had on our staff a secret weapon – a seventeen-year-old who had already run an eBay-based company with as many as twenty employees. For the purposes of this post, we will call him “Dave the Sniper.”
On the day of the auction, we had a complimentary training session for our clients at Hotel Monaco here in DC. A few of us were in the bar relaxing when the auction deadline approached. Dave the Sniper called my cell phone, per our plan, and we waited together for the results. Dave reported a series of last minute price escalations and we got auction fever. Employing a trade secret eBay guru form of bidding jujitsu, Dave nailed the prize at the last second.
Our ad for the space we won, Wanted: Elephant Hunters, is a contest and campaign to be launched Friday, April 1st. Chris Casey, author of his own online first (first official congressional web site, Kennedy 1994), gets the credit (or blame). We tamed the original concept for fear of raising a ruckus or alarming anyone without a sense of humor. So you will not see a cartoon Republican elephant in crosshairs, looking terrified. I think Political Mammal would approve.