James Webb Space Telescope Images on Astrography: 5x Sales Growth in Space Telescope Category, Plus Some Thoughts on VR
I may not be a fan of Facebook's Metaverse (sorry, Meta’s Metaverse), but I can't help but love the VR technological paradigm, especially when it involves outer space. On a more serious note, the following video is a fascinating conversation between Mark Zuckerberg and renowned astrophysicist and science popularizer, Neil de Grasse Tyson. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and its first images.
James Webb Space Telescope Images: New Era on Astrography
I am delighted that thanks to JWST and its effective (predominantly spontaneous) PR, space is increasingly being discussed in mainstream media. We at Astrography feel this shift too (and it's no surprise, as it's quite evident). We are leveraging real-time marketing, if that's what you can call it in this context.
When I founded Astrography, I was banking on this kind of market correlation. The launch date wasn't random either—I wanted Astrography to coincide with the year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. One of our main bestsellers premiered exactly on July 16, 2019, the same day Apollo 11 launched back in 1969.
Similarly, today, we prepared for the release of the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope well in advance (by expanding our range of posters related to the telescope itself).
Today, our collection associated with this telescope is one of the most popular. The customer base of tens of thousands interested in such products is itself a massive asset for Astrography.
Below, I present a graph illustrating sales growth in the category dedicated solely to images from space telescopes.
You don’t need to be a professional analyst to see the correlated increase in sales in this category. Until now, this category was just one of many—not particularly significant for us. That has now changed.
In the coming months, and possibly years (with the release of new images), we’ll be investing a lot of effort into it.
I can't wait for the upcoming lunar missions like Artemis and SpaceX, not to mention the Mars missions.
That will provide a real surge to our efforts (a tsunami?). We have a bit of time to learn and master this business, but we need to start thinking and planning today.