eBay’s New National TV Campaign Calls Attention to Mobile Shopping
EBay’s new marketing campaign kicked off this week, with six 30-second TV commercials appearing on some of the most popular cable shows to promote something a little unexpected: Shopping from a mobile phone.
The spots will appear on “Top Gear,” “SportsCenter,” “Tosh.0,” “The Daily Show,” “Top Chef” and “The Rachel Zoe Project.”
The campaign’s tagline is “When it’s on your mind, it’s on eBay.”
We knew that the ad campaign was coming. While eBay hasn’t advertised in awhile, it decided now is the right time, after spending the last year redesigning its site to no longer focus exclusively on auctioning off used goods.
In fact, 62 percent of eBay’s current listed items are being sold for a set price, and 70 percent are new.
The ad campaign, which will also feature QR codes and online ads — including YouTube and Yahoo homepage takeovers — was created by independent San Francisco ad agency Venables Bell & Partners.
It’s not too shocking that eBay is targeting mobile users for this campaign.
This holiday season will likely be the biggest shopping event ever for mobile (only because it’s still so new), with tablets driving a lot of so-called “couch commerce.”
By the end of the year, eBay expects mobile sales to exceed $4 billion. Other e-commerce leaders, such as Amazon, are not as vocal about their mobile revenues, but are equally investing in applications and tools for shoppers to use on the go.
EBay’s apps have been downloaded 50 million times and generate an astonishing amount of traffic — one purchase is made every second. That breaks down to a pair of shoes sold every nine seconds, and 2,000 cars every week.