Lancing Lance Armstrong

Judge rules USPS lawsuit against Lance Armstrong may proceed to trial

http://www.linns.com/news/postal-up...g-trial.html

Am I the only one wondering how the post office could possibly derive U$D 100,000,000 of 'benefit' in 'publicity' by spending U$D 42,000,000 'sponsoring' Lance Armstrong?

Yes, I really *do* understand the word 'branding', but I cannot believe either a) that they spent that much money, or b) that they got a 2-3x payback on their 'investment'.

But that's just me, right?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

It doesn't seem that far-fetched to me. USPS may be able to prove that sales revenue was $100 million higher in the period from the start of the Armstrong campaign to its end, during which it paid him $42 million, corrected for all other factors such as seasonality and inflation. It's conceivable that they attracted 100 new major corporate mailers who each spent $1 million, for example, during the course of the campaign or because of it. Remember that $100 million is only 0.15% of USPS 2016 total revenue of $68 billion.

Chris

I doubt that the basis of their U$D 100,000,000 'benefit' calculation was anything as concrete as increased sales.

I suspect it was more along the lines of an 'earned media' calculation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_media

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Come on, ikey, had you ever heard of the Post Office before it sponsored Lance?

I would expect that in the trial the value will be actually quantified more. It is no different than putting a value on pain and suffering beyond real costs. I would expect if they spent $42 Million it was just not feel good.

I believe the branding did provide more international awareness but not sure how all that translates to the bottom line. But, it is not different than Fedex having a stadium with their name or the many other examples of branding of arenas.

The one area that USPS has been trying to do is promote themselves as a competitive package delivery company. I bet most people still view UPS and FedEx as their top delivery as the promote flat rate boxes, etc.

So you're gonna tell me that you already knew that they'd changed their name to "Postal Service"?

I didn't, so Lance has boosted brand recognition in South London and, doubtless, amongst the eager Tour-watchers on all of those frightening hills in France. Don't see $100 million there, though.

42 million dollars?