assignment
Showing that interactive marketing no longer plays second fiddle in the creative process, eBay asked us to work with their offline agency to concept and develop the "It" campaign. "It" was designed to show consumers that whatever they wish for - old or new, hot or not, rare or spare - they could find "It" on eBay.
insight
eBay has a renowned reputation as the site for bidding on hard-to-find treasures. They wanted to show the world that, in addition to their vast assortment of used items and collectibles, they could also be the place to find brand new items.
idea
To get the audience talking, we launched a mysterious teaser campaign that would make users wonder, what is "It"? We followed that up with a two-phase, branded campaign that let users know they could find "It" on eBay.
The first phase of "It" launched with a teaser campaign that included unbranded TV spots, online banners and a clever website (www.whatisit.com). The second phase of the integrated "It" campaign included branded online, television and print ads to increase the audience's awareness of eBay as a great site for used items and collectibles, and for brand new items.
interaction
The intriguing ad units in the teaser campaign featured a series of testimonials like: "It matches every outfit I own" and "It kick starts my day." The site featured a series of original and high-quality productions that continue to tell the "It" story about its travels on the world media circuit from Mexico to Tokyo. The site also featured an "It" configurator so users could customize their own "It" by texture and size.
We developed a series of API-enabled Flash ads that illustrated the wide variety of products available on eBay. Expanding and 100k polite ad units and units included rollover functionality to show users quantity and pricing information for specific items currently available on eBay.
We also created a set of video ad units to capture a broadband audience - in one ad a father was playing catch with his son standing atop page content. Instead of a ball, they tossed an "It" from the unit to the content. These units resolved to a variety of products and allowed users to get quantity and pricing information for current and available eBay items right in the unit.
impact
eBay's first integrated branding campaign effort was a success. Initially everyone was curious to find out what "It" was. Now, they flock to buy "It" on eBay. The campaign has received creative acclaim in the industry and trade publications, and has proven popular with bloggers. Coverage of the campaign appeared in Adland, CNET, AdCritic, AdFreak.com, ClickZ, MediaPost, MSNBC and Word Hurdle.
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