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EBay Seller 'Quik Drop' Goes to the Tube
March 20, 2006

NEW YORK -- Quik Drop International, the store chain that sells items on eBay for people who don’t want to use the online auctioneer themselves, has signed a deal with StarGames to produce a syndicated TV show, Countdown to Draft Day.

The show will air from April 15-29 on cable and local TV as a one-hour special examining the NFL’s draft of college players, teams and potential trades, according to Corey Weiss, vp-integrated marketing at Palisades Media Group.

A budget for the deal was not disclosed.

In the show, Quik Drop will get 30-second spots in the ad breaks, opening and closing sponsorship messages, a “Quik Drop Quarterback Report” segment, an appearance by a Quik Drop ad spokesperson and a section in which proceeds from an item for sale via Quik Drop will go to charity, according to Weiss.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based media buyer put the deal together on MediaMatchmaker.com, an Internet dating service for producers and clients searching for brand tie-in opportunities.

The deal is the first to come to fruition since the site’s owner, Media Matchmaker of Culver City, Calif., launched in late 2005, according to Media Matchmaker CEO Betsy Green.

The deal demonstrates that there is some interest in the commodification of the branded-entertainment and product-placement business, which until now has relied almost entirely on the powers of large media buyers and let’s-do-lunch-style Hollywood deal-making.

“We rely on our connections,” said Jerry Solomon, executive producer at StarGames in Lynnfield, Mass. “But it’s hard to know all the new opportunities out there. This makes it rather easy, quite frankly,” he said, in reference to the deal-search site

Weiss said the service seemed useful for smaller clients who don’t have longtime links to Beverly Hills. “For a brand like Quik Drop, which doesn’t have a seven or eight figure budget for integrated opportunities, it helps find suitable effective solutions,” said Weiss.

Sony Pictures Television, 20th Century Fox Television, Starcom Mediavest Group, Magna Global, A&E Television Networks and Bobby Goldstein Productions all previously signed up to use Media Matchmaker (Brandweek.com, Jan. 17, 2006).

Green said there were currently about 250 opportunities being offered on MediaMatchmaker.com from about 40 producers. Around 12 agency buyers (and therefore their potential clients) have signed up for the right to search those offers.

--Jim Edwards