Proctor & Gamble eBay Deal? - Day 1, 4:15 PM

[Garrett]

Proctor and Gamble Teaming up with eBay? There are whispers of a potential deal between Proctor & Gamble and online bidding giant eBay. Apparently, Proctor & Gamble is looking at an eBay deal that would allow them to use the eBay database and in return eBay would use Proctor & Gamble’s marketing capabilities for their sales department. If this deal goes through, it could be pretty big news.

Gary Wasn't Impressed. I spoke to a Proctor & Gamble representative named Gary who works for a company division called Tremors. Tremors actively engages teenagers to get involved in product development. Currently, 100,000 - 200,000 “mover and shaker” teens participate in Tremors. I find Tremors to be an interesting concept as it gives Proctor and Gamble insight into what drives the teen market right now. Very cool stuff.

When asked what parts of the Keynotes speech he found interesting, Gary replied, “Nothing.” He said he and his friend just sat and made fun of the speech the entire time.

Lunch with Peoplesoft and Proctor & Gamble. During the luncheon, I sat next to Christie and Patrick, two representatives from Peoplesoft. Of course, I couldn’t resist picking their brains.

”What did you find to be interesting about the Keynotes speech?” I asked.

Patrick, who deals with email marketing within Peoplesoft, replied that he learned to pay more attention to macro-level changes. Changes in digital TiVo deliveries, for example, could possibly effect him. He’s also going to pay more attention to ways that messages are delivered digitally in general.

Meanwhile, Christie said she is impressed with the wide variety of platforms currently available for marketing. She says the new offline digital platforms show just how much communication has changed within our society and these are things she’s going to be looking into further.

So folks, there you have it. Some very fascinating stuff for marketers to consider!

I just asked if there's an after party and Kevin Noonan of AIM replied, "That's a really good question!" J

I'll try to find out and get back to you later today with more live reports – so stay tuned!

[Mel]

From e-Bays privacy policy:

Privacy Central... Our core privacy principles
Our core privacy principles remain the same throughout eBay worldwide:

We will not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes and will only disclose your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy and/or with your explicit consent.
Third parties are not permitted to sell the information we provide to them, to market directly to you, or to disclose it in any other way without your explicit consent.
We share your personal information with Internal Service Providers for our operations only to facilitate or outsource an eBay service or operation when absolutely necessary and under confidential restrictions.

Sounds like something is going to have to give if they are let let P&G have access to their database. 8-(

Ralph Nader where are you when we need you?