In case you've yet to see it, yes, eBay will be running print, TV, and online ads this holiday season. Here's the first of them which has been circulating online courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:
UPDATE: The full slate of eBay ads are now available for viewing here.
Scott Wingo of eBay Strategies remarks that he's uneasy over the ad because the "Come to think of it" message roughly translates as "'hey please don't forget us' or even worse, 'You probably have already forgotten us.'"
Henrietta of Red Ink Diary sums up my initial feelings when she writes:
Most eBay sellers are thrilled that eBay has decided to put advertising back into this season’s promotional mix. Last year’s reliance on convoluted coupon and cash back deals did not seem to provide enough incentive for buyers to fight through eBay’s highly manipulated and dysfunctional search.
That's absolutely correct. After all of the changes made in 2008 eBay alienated many of its users, and as somebody who still actively sold on the site I was very upset that they had decided to forego advertising for that Holiday season. My reasoning: if so many users were in fact leaving the site, what better way to attract the next generation of eBay users than through TV?
Any potential new user probably hasn't spent a lot of time online if they've yet to discover eBay, so where are they? My guess, they're still in front of the television.
So I applaud eBay for getting back on the air this year, and while I personally don't care for the ad--it's a bit on the cheesy side, but then again so is much of eBay's public face--I do get the impression that it will work in attracting buyers to the site.
New buyers? Not so sure. The "Come to think of it, eBay" message would seem to speak to the casual shopper of the past. I'd have probably preferred something along the lines of, "Hey, what about eBay?" ("eBay? Oh, I've never used it, is it an option for such and such a product?" "You bet..."), but it's my job to sell on the site, it's theirs to attract my buyers, so here's hoping they tested this out as much as they seem to test everything else these days.
Other links: Preview of Wall Street Journal (subscription required for entire article)
cnet news - Killer ad motto, or desperate plea?
MediaPost Publications: Goodby Campaign Reminds Holiday Shoppers to Think of eBay
Comments
A vintage seller commented on my blog that eBay was able to come up with star power for this campaign.
B list starpower?
Maybe, but wasted on me. Am I unique? I don’t think so. I got the fact they were supposed to be funny but I found them tasteless.
Maybe my demographic is all wrong, but my age group spends a lot more on ’stuff’ than my 30 something daughter does, and that includes trendy stuff for my grandkids. My daughter tells me what to buy and I obey. :-)
Nothing I have seen in this series would stick in my mind long enough to make me get up off the couch and go look. There is nothing compelling about it, unlike the earworm Overstock.com ads.
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