Obama "Endorsement" Worth as Much as $50 Million

Taken during Barack Obama's first Instagram photoshoot, the night of the Iowa caucus.

Image: Instagram

While the nation’s eyes were fixed on the Iowa caucus, one of last year’s superstar new apps scored one of the most valuable endorsements around—and they didn’t pay a cent. During the 24 hours since President Barack Obama signed up for his first-ever mobile-only social-media service, Instagram, the commander in chief accumulated 20,000 followers and almost 2,000 likes.

The estimated value of such an endorsement? Doug Shabelman, president of Burns Entertainment, told Portfolio.com it's somewhere between $25 million and $50 million a year, putting Obama on par with the highest-paid endorser of all time, Tiger Woods, who signed a five-year deal with Nike for $20 million a year.

“He [Obama] and Michelle still represent the youth movement,” said Shabelman, who deals in celebrity endorsements. “And it’s always a good endorsement to have the most powerful person in the world endorse your product.”

Back in 2009, Shabelman told the New York Times that Obama’s so-called “endorsement” of BlackBerry would be worth the same amount of money. He explained to Portfolio.com that even with all the negative press surrounding Obama in the intervening years, he believes an endorsement by a sitting president is still worth the same amount of money.

But not without a bit of work. Shabelman says Instagram is still going to have to work it by finding ways to show Obama actually using the app in order to fully leverage the tacit endorsement. With 20,000 followers in one day, that publicity seems to be generating without much effort at all.