eBay Unveils the new Fall/Holiday ad theme (and other goodies).

Every year in the Fall, eBay unveils the big ad campaign for the holiday selling season.  Today eBay aired its first ad of the "Shop Victoriously" campaign, announced earlier in the week.

Before going into the details, I thought it would be fun to hop in the eBay Strategies time machine and review the eBay ad campaigns of the past to put this one in perspective. In reverse chronological order (ending first?):

• 2006 - IT 2.0 - Whatever IT is, find it on eBay.  This campaign focused on the selection of eBay.  In this year they did the whole
• 2005 - IT 1.0 eBay began the IT campaign that they carried on through 2006.  They did teasers in 05 and some ads.
• 2004 - The Power of all of us - Largely viewed as THE worst eBay ad campaign (and I think this one killed Q404.
• 2003 -  Do it ebay - These were humorous ads to popular songs where the singer changed the words to talk about eBay.

At eBay Live 07, eBay's Bill Cobb foreshadowed the new campaign with the introduction of Windorphins which is meant to highlight what's special and different about buying on eBay (in other words - AUCTIONS).  They did some light online and outdoor around Windorphins as seen here:

Then some AU folks pointed me to this ad, that seemed to be a test of this concept, but was "Make Shopping Exciting".

Now eBay has gone all-in on the theme with the new Shop Victoriously campaign.  So far, I've seen two of these:

• Dog Race -  In this ad, it's a mock-greyhound race (sure to rankle some greyhound lovers I know) and instead of dogs chasing a rabbit, and 8 buyers instead of the Greyhounds.  Another PC issue could face in this one is that one of the buyers appears disabled (Buyer1 if you watch when the gate opens and second 16 of the ad, you'll see them in a motorized wheel chair trying to keep up with the other buyers).  Anyway, the buyers chase the clock and this dude wins it and then they cut to him ahppy in his house with his radio.  One thing I noticed after watching this several times is the buyers all have their eBay IDs on their numbers.  One of them is a live user ID: muzakman.  The winner is kappy21, which seems fictitious.
• Football game - This one was on Sunday Night Football tonight.  It's a mock football game and you see some real un-uniformed people on the line with the QB.  When the QB comes off the line, he's holding a vase instead of a football.  He throws it, this lady catches it in the endzone and then we cut to her in her house with it.
  • NOTE: Griff is in this commercial - can you find him?

In his AB post and press releases, Gary Briggs mentions a third called Fox Hunt that I haven't seen.  They all feature the sub-message: "It's better when you win it."

Also in the press release, eBay mentions a serial with Andy Richter that will be at shopvictoriously.ebay.com (not live as of this posting).

A new microsite, Shopvictoriously.ebay.com, will launch with prominent placement on the eBay home page in early October. Shopvictoriously.ebay.com will provide entertaining original content including “The Winner’s Guide to Winning Everything,” starring comedians Andy Richter and Paul F. Tompkins. The webisode series, created by CAA Marketing, a division of Creative Artists Agency, follows Richter and Tompkins as they travel in a Winnebago to ten west coast cities to spread the word about what it means to be a winner. The site will also include engaging Community functionality such as news feeds about big wins on the site and promotions that prompt user-generated video content.

One thing from Gary's post that has sellers buzzing is the introduction of eBay gift cards!  Here's the exact quote:

You've asked for them before and we've heard you. This holiday season we're making it even easier for you to give the gift of "just about anything" with our new eBay Gift Cards. YES!

In the next few weeks, eBay Gift cards will start hitting shelves at stores near you, and will be widely available by November. eBay Gift Cards are "always the right size and always the right color." Plus they make great stocking stuffers! One of my team members will be back in a few weeks to tell you even more, so stay tuned.

Over the years giving gift cards has become all the rage and eBay sellers have sat out the craze, but finally it looks like we'll get them this year.  My question is are these really PayPal gift cards (usable anywhere PP is taken?) or are they truly locked-down to eBay?  How will they be implemented?  Will sellers have to do something special to accept them?  Will sellers be able to/have to promote they take them?  What if you don't take paypal?

Readers - what do you think about the campaign? eBay Gift Cards?!

Comments

[Michael]

My basic question is, what is the purpose of eBay ads?
Take the "it" ads. What did this accomplish? Were buyers not shopping on eBay because they were unaware of the huge selection to be found there? This might have been the case in 2000, but in 4Q06? To some extent the new campaign hits a different chord - it's fun to shop on eBay - but again, I have to ask, is this what most buyers are looking for?
EBay has pretty much reached the market saturation point. Most everyone knows who they are, what they have to offer, and moreover, holds some sort of opinion about them. Very few don't realize that things can be found quite cheaply there. So, I'd make the point that if they don't shop there, it's because they consciously choose not to shop there. Granted, the new campaign tries to change some perceptions - it's fun to bid - (nevermind that many people hate auctions and greatly prefer to buy it now) but is this what is holding buyers back?
My take is this - the main stumbling block for the vast majority of the public - what keeps them away - is the view that the site is unsafe. Buy it on eBay, get ripped off. Buy it on eBay, get something other than what you wanted (and paid for). Buy it on eBay, get a load of headaches. Or, "you get what you pay for", and since you didn't pay much...
This is the 50 ft gorilla in the room that they keep trying to ignore. But until they address it, until they overcome the core buyer reticence about shopping on eBay, until they drop the .01% line and admit the truth, all of the ad campaigns are pretty much doomed to failure and buyers will continue to stay away.