It’s almost impossible not to respect the tenacity of Martha Stewart. She started as a caterer, made her way up to mogul, went to jail for insider trading, and came out with her name and brand untarnished. This week, Martha toured the 3D Printing TechZone at CES with the TechCrunch crew, shopping for a 3D printer for prototyping her line of home goods. In the brief half hour tour of the place, she made three deals with MakerBot, declaring 3D printers “a good thing.”
If you don’t have time for the whole video, I’ll break it down for you. She begins at the Parrot booth, right next door to the 3DP TechZone, to see some of their new personal drone technology. Straightaway she demonstrates how utterly strange billions of dollars can make a person. Literally the only person who has ever said, “I would like my life to be run by drones,” Martha goes on to describe how she uses an AR Drone 2.0 to photograph her properties (plural) and to “monitor the kids.” Before leaving, Stewart declares an intent to purchase a handful of their products, including a remote controlled robot for her grandkids and a device that monitors plants in your greenhouse.
The magnate then headed over to FormLabs to see the Form1 3D printer. There, she seemed impressed, overall, but decided that she needed a much larger print volume to print the plates, flatware and decorative items she planned to prototype in her office. For that reason, TechCrunch guides her over to the MakerBot booth, where she’s introduced to Bre Pettis and their three new machines. Without a beat, Bre tells Martha that there should be a Martha Stewart line of 3D models offered via MakerBot online (possibly in the MakerBot Digital Store?). She agrees absently, as she is too distracted by the large MakerBot Replicator Z18 3D Printer sitting beside him.
As Bre tells her that the Z18’s is 18” x 12” x 12”, the magnate’s eyes light up, declaring, “Dinner plates are usually 10 to 12 inches in diameter!” She’s a little disappointed with the price tag of $64,099, until she realizes that she’s added an extra zero and declares that $6,499 is really cheap. The TechCrunch host reiterates a couple of times that Martha Stewart will be buying the Z18 throughout the segment, which would be deal #2 for Stewart. Then, just when you thought she was done, Bre leads her over to a wall of prints from the MakerBot Digital Shop. When she sees a series of eggs perfect for Easter, Stewart offers MakerBot an exclusive Easter spread in Living Magazine. Three deals made between the two personalities before Martha has a chance to head over to commandeer the 3Doodler booth, where she is underwhelmed because her company already sells a glue gun.
If you notice, 3D Systems is strangely absent from this tour. After all, you’d expect Martha to hock ChefJets and CeraJets. Rachel hypothesized that a possible marketing deal was in the works, possibly between Martha Stewart’s company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and MakerBot. The deals struck between the two throughout the shoot are strangely quick and convenient, but if a deal was made, Martha and Bre are great actors. Bre seems genuinely excited at the prospect of MakerBot in Living and Martha is so aloof that it wouldn’t surprise me if she forgot who MakerBot was after leaving the booth. With both will.i.am and Martha Stewart joining the fray, we can say that 3D printing is way past niche technology, heading right into that mainstream — and all of the marketing exploitation that comes with it.
Source: TechCrunch
