Decision by Community

Marc Ecko (yes, that Marc Ecko) might just be my favorite Conversational Marketing person of the day.

He either gets this space or he has someone on his team who does. Either way, the purchaser of the Barry Bonds Home Run ball which broke Hank Aaron's record has decided to let the wisdom of crowds speak in terms of deciding on the ball's fate.

The choices are simple: Bestow, Brand or Banish. In addition to voting and signing up for periodic updates, there is also several embedded-HTML banners and buttons to display on blogs and websites, much like I have just done.

Although Barry Bonds thinks Ecko is an idiot, I think he's rather smart. I'll let you  figure out why, but if you're stumped, start with the $752,467 and work your way from there, factoring in his Today Show appearance and so on...

Marc talks about democratizing the ball, but really what he's doing is democratizing the conversation (including taking all the hot air away from the sports and news media). He talks about the "collective consciousness" (I think I call it the connected consciousness) and the alignment between his brand and what he stands for with this pop culture moment.

Pretty Pretty Smart.

PS Marc - if you're reading this - and I suspect you might - do you want to come on Across the Sound and chat about it?