Cashing in on a New Name

How much is a last name worth? Just ask Jason Sadler, who is selling his.

“Whatever company is the highest bidder at the end of December 12 will be my new last name for 2013,” Sadler told Foxnews.com.

Sadler is a social media guru and owns the company “IWearYourShirt.” The past four years, companies have paid him to wear their t-shirts and advertise their brand over various social media outlets. Now, one company will pay him to change his last name.

“I just think that there are a lot of different ways that companies can market themselves or advertise and I’ve had this last name for a while…so I thought, how do I pick a new last name? And this just kind of seemed like the next step for me as someone who has worn t-shirts for a living,” said Sadler.

With over 40,000 Twitter followers, 25,000 Facebook friends, 9 million views on his YouTube channel and 5,000 daily page views on his website, Sadler has taken online marketing to a whole new level.

“I don’t know if I would recommend it [selling your last name] to many other people, in fact anyone at all, but I think it’s an interesting approach to monetizing your network,” Founder of Socialmediaexplorer.com Jason Falls told Foxnews.com.

“He’s cashing in on his social media cache,” professor of marketing at Wharton School, Jonah Berger, told Foxnews.com. “People are paying Jason to increase people’s awareness.”

Sadler has built his business on marketing companies in fun and often-silly ways. But selling his last name is something he is taking very seriously.

“It’s not a joke. I’m literally legally changing my last name in Florida, I’m changing it on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, I’m buying the domain ‘Jason whatever my last name is dot com.,’” said Sadler. “All of my life will pretty much center around that new company and that new last name.”

The first bid on November 1, 2012 went for just $11 dollars, but now bidding is over $33,000. Sadler expects the bidding to increase in the finals days and hours, just like an eBay auction. But if bidding were to stop today, for a grand total of $33,333, Jason’s new name would be Jason Wiggitybanggames.

Regardless of what the final bid will be, Sadler already thinks this has been a success.

“No one’s done this before so it’s hard for me to have a bench mark. I’m happy with I think anything more than 20 bucks is a success,” said Sadler.

From selling the shirt off his back to selling his last name, is there anything he won’t sell to market one of his clients?

“We love working with fun companies, we love just meeting new business that want to get their name out there and that’s something I’m passionate about,” said Sadler. “I love doing what I do and I don’t know what I’m going to sell next but I’ll figure out something.”