ebay confirms: No Holiday TV ads or videos. Gee, thanks ebay!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

https://adage.com/article/podcast-marketers-brief/how-ebay-positioning-itself-holiday-season/2380556

we are told at about minute 9 of the approximately 18 minute interview with ebay's head of Fashion....no TV ads or videos this Holiday Season...

I can't say I'm surprised. 

[chapeau-noir]

I found that podcast interesting in quite a few aspects.  I think their direction to more social media is a good idea as it's going to reach deeper into more demographics (and their attempts at TV ads weren't all that great, anyway).  As someone who specialises in pre-owned fashion I was definitely interested to hear about their emphasis on it (and acknowledging the huge impact it's having) and the 3D capability.

[yuzuha]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I found that podcast interesting in quite a few aspects.  I think their direction to more social media is a good idea as it's going to reach deeper into more demographics (and their attempts at TV ads weren't all that great, anyway).  As someone who specialises in pre-owned fashion I was definitely interested to hear about their emphasis on it (and acknowledging the huge impact it's having) and the 3D capability.

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Agreed-- social media is a much, much larger audience these days than TV broadcasting. Even my parents (who are in their 70s/80s) don't watch TV anymore-- they stream everything. BUT my dad has a Facebook (he's a member of several local music groups) and my mom is constantly on Twitter, so they'd be far more likely to run across stuff there than they would on TV.

[katzrul15]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

Not surprised at all.  Disappointed as the Amazon ads are everywhere, including their GIANT holiday book mailed to every Prime member on the planet.  I thought this year's was pretty cool.

Had figured if they had not started ads well before now, they were not doing any.

[slippinjimmy]

Disappointed as the Amazon ads are everywhere

Are any of them highlighting merchandise from third-party sellers?

I see tons of Amazon ads but they are almost exclusively for Prime, Video, Audible, PillPack, Alexa, Ring etc. and of course the Cloud. All the rest are semi-propaganda shorts to give you the warm and fuzzies about being a fulfillment worker or driver.

[annadryl]

Ugh, yeah I wanna slap that "Amazon inspired me to become a nurse" guy. They're angels, we get it!!!

[katzrul15]

We use FBA - I am thrilled when they promote Prime...............

[chapeau-noir]

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@katzrul15 wrote:

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

Not surprised at all.  Disappointed as the Amazon ads are everywhere, including their GIANT holiday book mailed to every Prime member on the planet.  I thought this year's was pretty cool.

Had figured if they had not started ads well before now, they were not doing any.

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An actual hard copy paper book?  🙁

[flyingmvp]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

I see tons of Amazon ads but they are almost exclusively for Prime, Video, Audible, PillPack, Alexa, Ring etc. and of course the Cloud. All the rest are semi-propaganda shorts to give you the warm and fuzzies about being a fulfillment worker or driver.

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That's not an excuse for Ebay not to have their own version of TV commercials for the holidays,

Ebay keeps pumping the concept that "Ebay is NOT Amazon", so why not show it?

The Etsy commercials are nice, kudos to them as well. 

Maybe with all the Hugh increase in profits due to the PLA's Ebay figured they are already making too much money as it is.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

A couple things to note. I've been asking ebay to share their marketing plans with US...their "partners". But no, ebay can't do that. However, they can share their plans with AdAge? Just saying it would have been nice if ebay had told US about these plans, so we wouldn't have to find out from AdAge. 

I agree that running ads on Network TV is not what it used to be. But videos can be created and shown on social media as well as TV. (ebay has done this in the past). What was clear from her answer is that ebay is not really running any "brand" campaign....a campaign aimed at telling shoppers about ebay's amazing selection, and reminding people that yes, good old ebay is still around. I've said before, after last year, with many people unable to have a big family Christmas, this year many want to have a big traditional Christmas....imagine an ebay/Hallmark sort of campaign, stressing all the neat vintage stuff one can buy here for an old fashioned Christmas (along with the newer stuff).....to me, this year is exactly the year to pull out all the stops and really remind people that ebay has tons of small businesses with tons of neat stuff....

Instead, they are totally focused on their Verticals: Sneakers, Luxury watches, Luxury handbags, "collectibles" (read: high end Trading cards), Refurbished....which is fine by me, IF they also pushed the other stuff on the site...but this is a very limited sort of campaign, at a time when ebay could be doing so much more.

But I'll stop my rant. At least we now know for certain the scope of their campaign, and I'll just hope we all see some sort of lift from this  campaign. 

[aeparts1]

I listen to a radio show online, as no local station carries it. The show is carried on Radio America online. They have been playing eBay ads, usually one every half hour, sometimes more. Stating that eBay is the place to go for your Thanksgiving shopping & for the Christmas season.

This summer eBay was running ads on the same network pushing reconditioned items for sale on eBay.

[biggymoe]

I did hear an eBay commercial on the radio yesterday.  Didn't pay close attention, but think they were plugging Black Friday and the amazing selection of items on eBay.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@biggymoe @aeparts1 

Thanks! They did say they were using social media and I think she said something like their traditional channels. so I guess that includes radio. Very glad to hear they are doing that, and that it might not all be tied just to the Verticals.

[postingid7659]

I've stopped using social media and a lot of others have also because it ceased being a fair playing field and people are tired of being kicked off for 30 days at a stretch over some loser they never met whining about being offended by a comment on a public post.   Good plan, eBay!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@postingid7659  Actually, I think ebay would be foolish not to use Social Media. Millions of people use it. And if someone gets upset with one site there are lots of other sites out there....and I know ebay has a presence on a number of sites, not just one or two. I would guess the number of people who don't use any social media is actually much smaller than the number who DO use some form of social media. There are probably very few businesses of any size that don't use social media at all, and I know many of the small B&M businesses in my area would probably be hurting if they didn't use it...restaurants post their specials, antique malls highlight new vendors or new inventory, etc.