{"id":503,"date":"2008-12-28T22:44:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-28T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/?p=503"},"modified":"2008-12-28T22:44:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-28T22:44:00","slug":"how-does-he-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/?p=503","title":{"rendered":"How does he do it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In todays Frazz<\/a> (a comic) the suggestion is made that Santa can afford the toys he gives every year by licensing his image. At first glance, it seems like a pretty good idea. But then, the scientist part of me wants to check it out a bit more in depth. So …<\/p>\n

According to the International Database (IDB)<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0, the current world population is between\u00c2\u00a06 and 7 billion<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0people. Further looking at the age demographics for several countries and making an eyeball guess, we discover that less than a third of that population is “Santa\u00c2\u00a0eligible” (that is under 18 years of age)<\/span>. So Santa has to get gifts for approximately 2 billion kids.<\/p>\n

Now let us be somewhat conservative and assume that Santa’s burdened cost per kid for gifts is $25. That is, the cost of the gifts and delivery totals $25. (After all there are costs associated with keeping a team of reindeer and a supersonic sled in operational shape.)<\/span> So Santa has to make
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0($25\/kid) \u00c2\u00a0X (2 billion kids) = $50 billion
just to cover the gift and delivery costs.<\/p>\n

There are 365 days per year (ignoring leap years)<\/span>, so each day Santa has to make
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0($50 billion) \/ 365 = $136,986,301.37 per day =~ $136,986,301 per day
from his image licensing.<\/p>\n

Let’s be generous and assume that Santa gets his image out there 100,000 times each day on average around the world. Then he has to get
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0($136,986,301) \/ 100,000 = $1,369.86 =~ $1,370
\u00c2\u00a0per licensed image display.<\/p>\n

Now if we go to a site like Phototour<\/a> and fill out the form for licensing as a full page cover photo in an ad for a press run of 100,000, we find out that the fee for a photo of a farm and barn is around $650. I assume that personal images like Santa would be worth more. Likewise, TV appearances would be more expensive. So coming up with an average of $1,370 per image exposure might indeed be possible. (Always assuming that Santa doesn’t become so overexposed that no one will pay for his image anymore.)<\/span><\/p>\n

So there you have it. Santa pays for the Christmas extravaganza by licensing his image for all the advertising every year. Now we know how he does it. {*grin*}<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In todays Frazz (a comic) the suggestion is made that Santa can afford the toys he gives every year by licensing his image. At first glance, it seems like a pretty good idea. But then, the scientist part of me wants to check it out a bit more in depth. So … According to the … Continue reading How does he do it?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[275,505,273],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}