Brief
Promote eBay as a place for people to buy their Christmas gifts.
Insight
Most people associate eBay with second hand stuff. At the same time, most people expect their presents from Santa to be box fresh. It's a problem. One we had to overcome by delivering a whole new message to an audience of existing eBay users and novices. And we had to do it at a time when the audience would be most receptive to a Christmas shopping message.
Solutions
Because the message was very different, about buying new items on eBay for Christmas, We had two audiences to reach: the 30% of people who already use eBay online; and the rest - who didn't, (but should). Plus this campaign was very much a brand and direct marketing cross-over. We had to raise awareness of Brand New from eBay, but also meet tough targets to drive traffic and sales.
So the strategy was multi-dimensional. Leverage eBay's existing partners and the great reach there among current eBay users; contextually spot-on direct buys, with managed overlap against current eBay users; and high-reach mass media to follow up the high-impact 'trailblazers' with multiple consolidation and conversion opportunities.
And with special offers changing daily on multiple custom, rich media and standard format creatives, the logistical challenges were significant - not to mention optimising for traffic and conversion throughout the campaign across all the different product categories and creative executions in circulation.
Results
We can't share detailed numbers on performance, but like a Christmas number one: we were everywhere. Our Retailer Share of Voice on the UK's five biggest portals went through the roof. Our user Reach was huge. And Brand New from eBay is now firmly on the map. For eBay, that meant one thing. It was Christmas.
