Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

eBay Advertising & PR

I wrote a post last month about a number of promotions eBay was running for the marketplace heading into the holiday buying season. A lot of the deals are outlined at http://pages.ebay.com/deals/. The post was met with mixed responses. Some folks questioned why it seemed that eBay was simply focusing on coupons this year.

Radio Advertising
Then, this morning as I’m driving to work, Santa Claus starts talking to me through my radio telling me about all the great deals at eBay… Sure sounds like an advertisement to me. It turns out there are two other radio spots that have been running in lead up to the holidays. You can listen to them HERE and HERE.

PR Updates
So I went back and looked at emails that I get on a weekly basis from our consumer PR team and there’s a heck of a lot of PR and promotion going on out there. (If you’re interested in me sharing more of what those individual TV, radio and magazine/e-zine spots are, I’m happy to provide here but it will make for a long blog post). I will provide just a couple of examples though…

For one, Griff has made a number of TV appearances recently talking about deals on eBay. This morning he was on CNBC talking about trends in online consumers and in addition to being likened to Santa Claus at the beginning of the interview, he was also quick to point out that “eBay sellers have come to the rescue [of buyers], by offering the best possible pricing online.” You can view the interview HERE.

eBay $1 Holiday Doorbusters
• Forbes.com featured a story on the trend of online retailers offering deals and promotions before Black Friday, and reporter Elizabeth Woyke noted that deals can “always found on eBay” and included information about the “Holiday Doorbusters sweepstakes.” Furthermore, she reported that from November 24 to December 8, several lucky shoppers have the opportunity to purchase iPod nanos and Nikon Coolpix cameras for $1.

• Daily Candy, an influential, daily e-mail newsletter and website featured a sponsored link in their weekly Deals email. The post highlights the $1 Holiday Doorbusters initiative and includes a link to the Doorbusters Web site: www.ebay.com/doorbusters. Add-ons include additional eBay banner ads and placements on their website.

• WHP CBS 21 (Harrisburg, PA) featured a segment on eBay’s $1 Holiday Doorbusters. The reporter noted that eBay is “hitting the ground running” by offering 100 items for one dollar on its Web site starting now through December 8. Several of the items include GPS devices, digital cameras and a brand-new car or plasma TV.

• KOLO-TV CH 8 (ABC-Reno) announced on its 5 p.m. program that eBay unveiled its $1 Holiday Doorbusters promotion. The segment noted that items including toys, electronics, sporting goods and jewelry, will be posted randomly on the site each day of the promotion, as well as one luxury item per day.

• The following online outlets have also featured featured information on the Doorbusters promotion: The Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Wichita Business Journal, AuctionBytes (includes a link to www.ebay.com/deals), Centre Daily Times (includes a link to Doorbusters landing page), San Jose Business Journal, Tech Journal South, Atlanta Business Journal, The Motley Fool, FayObserver.com, ABC15.com (Phoenix, Arizona)

• The following Coupon Web sites have featured information on the Doorbusters promotion: Fat Wallet, GottaDeal.com, DealLighted.com, DealsSmart.

• The following blogs have featured information on the Doorbusters promotion: Bargain Finder Pro, Bargain Hunter, 9 Malls Blog (includes a link to Doorbusters landing page), Buffalo News.

Like I said, there are a large number of examples like this illustrating exactly how eBay is promoting the marketplace both in the press and through advertising. Again, this blog is not intended to be a platform for me to regurgitate kool-aid (ouch… not a good visual) but if folks are interested in me breaking down factually (and without spin) where and how the marketplace is promoted online, in print and through radio/TV, I’m more than happy to.

For those American readers out there, I wish you a very safe and a very happy Thanksgiving with both family and friends. I’m very excited to celebrate Quincy’s first Thanksgiving (and to enjoy three NFL games on turkey-day… despite the seemingly poor match-ups). I also look forward to coming back on Monday refreshed (and turkey-filled) and ready to hit the ground running again with Ink.

Cheers,
RBH

Tagged: advertising, black friday, coupons, doorbusters, ebay, ebay deals, eBay Ink, ecommerce, Griff Griffith, online shopping, thanksgiving

(8) Comments

8 Responses on this post. Click to add yours.

HenriettaOn November 26, 2008 at 7:21 pm Said:

Best wishes for a peaceful family holiday to you and yours

AlexanderOn November 27, 2008 at 3:11 am Said:

I know every company prepares to the Christmass holidays. But EBay do it with big effort, that’s why i love ebay.

AmberOn November 27, 2008 at 9:26 am Said:

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family Richard.

I’m glad you’re hearing and seeing advertisements for eBay. That makes at least one person.

PAROn November 27, 2008 at 12:55 pm Said:

I’m a radio listener and I’ve heard several Ebay ads over the past few days. Hope they do some good.

pnachnaniOn November 28, 2008 at 10:53 am Said:

Best wishes for a peaceful family holiday to you and your loved ones.

DaveyOn December 2, 2008 at 12:27 pm Said:

Richard, any comment on the poor design of the HOLIDAY DOORBUSTERS promotion that is allowing most of the promotional items to go to script writers who are gaming the promotion with automated hacks?

Even better, the sellers who are using the keywords “HOLIDAY DOORBUSTER” to entice the script runners to purchase their worthless items like pictures of a Wii or Corvette?

Redtape on MSNBC seems to be looking at the problem, and as usual, ebay’s response to the problem sounds like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. One minute the spokesperson says there is nothing against automated bidding in promotion rules, while the next says there may be a problem? The end result–a bad buying experience by those who are trying legitimately to play the contest.

I will say that the Microsoft Live Search cashback thing has been a great promotion. Hopefully those that use it will never have to use ebay’s customer service, or they will be gone as buyers afterwards even with the costly investment in gaining the buyer.

Richard Brewer-Hay On December 2, 2008 at 12:32 pm Said:

Davey,
I did see this and have already asked for comment internally. Will report back.
Cheers,
RBH

DaveyOn December 2, 2008 at 12:37 pm Said:

Here’s the Redtape story link I refer to above…

http://tinyurl.com/6s2wcn [link edited for formatting reasons]

This makes national news any more, and ebay may not get the effect out of this promotion that they intended. I must say, though, that it is in line with what I experience as a user relative to ebay “thinking things through” before implementing them.

Richard Brewer-Hay On December 2, 2008 at 11:22 pm Said:

From what I’ve heard internally it needs to be made clear that there are two components to the $1 Holiday Doorbusters Event – the $1 Holiday Doorbusters listings and the $1 Holiday Doorbusters Sweepstakes overlay. This was not differentiated in the blog post referenced above (which improperly quoted rules for the wrong program component). Here is what I received in email today from the program lead…

· For the $1 Holiday Doorbusters itself: it is legal for people to snipe eBay auctions (people do that every day on eBay to win auctions). We have no control over sniping scripts being written. What we do control is enforcing the Terms & Conditions for the $1 Holiday Doorbusters itself which state that we limit one (1) eBay $1 Holiday Doorbusters Event Hidden Listing purchase per person per eBay User ID per household during the Promotion Period. If the person is using a bot/script to win these $1 doorbusters, we will know in the back-end because we are matching up the user id/address/names. Items that were purchased by the same buyer are being relisted for others to enjoy. Everyone is getting a fair chance to participate and win. None of the listings are preloaded into the system prior to them going live, thus making it impossible for “scripts” to access them directly from the eBay API database before they go live. To read the full T&C’s for the $1 Holiday Doorbusters go to: http://ebay.promotionexpert.com/doorbuster/tc.html. Doorbusters are meant to drive traffic to a site and create a buying frenzy. That is what is happening. Our community is so engaged that they are staying up to the wee hours and refreshing non-stop waiting for the next item to be listed.

· For the $1 Holiday Doorbusters Sweepstakes overlay located at http://ebay.promotionexpert.com/doorbuster/entry.html, users who don’t want to spend the time searching for the $1 item or can’t find it are given an opportunity to WIN it in the daily sweepstakes. As with any sweepstakes, there are rules. There is a limit of one (1) entry per person per eBay User ID per day. Subsequent entries received from the same person on the same day will be disqualified. Duplicate entries submitted by the same person or the same email address on the same day is void. The author of the blog above quotes “Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel or suspend part or all of this Promotion at any time without notice, if in the Sponsor’s opinion there is any suspected or actual evidence of electronic or non-electronic tampering with any portion of the Promotion, or if virus, bugs, non-authorized human intervention or other causes corrupt or impair the administration, security, fairness or integrity of the Promotion.” This statement applies to the sweepstakes and has nothing to do with the $1 Holiday Doorbusters listings. To read the full sweepstakes rules go to: http://ebay.promotionexpert.com/doorbuster/rules.html.

It should also be pointed out that we are working closely with Trust and Safety and Customer Support to proactively take down “fake” $1 doorbuster listings that are surfacing on the site. eBay Marketing is also working with Strobe Promotions to strictly enforce the T&C’s and Rules for both components of the program.

Cheers,
RBH