eBay Launches National Advertising Campaign

eBay, a person-to-person online trading community, is launching its first national print and broadcast advertising campaign to increase awareness and get people to try the site.

Created by the Acme Idea Company of Norwalk, CT, advertising will hit the national radio waves beginning the week of Oct. 19, with a national print campaign kicking off in November. Spending was not disclosed.

The Acme Idea Company, a new creative consulting firm (so new it has no site of its own yet) , collaborated with eBay to create a campaign that heightens awareness of the service and showcases the site’s broad-based consumer relevance, eBay said.

“The primary goal for this advertising campaign is to reach consumers who aren’t already familiar with eBay, and show how easy it is to find the items they’ve always been searching for,” said Brian Swette, eBay senior vice president of marketing. “We want to give people across the country the opportunity to discover the thrill of buying and selling from individuals in an online auction format.”

The national radio campaign will air on more than 10,000 stations across the country for five weeks. The November print campaign includes Parade, People, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated. Ogilvy & Mather conducted the media buy in conjunction with the Acme Idea Company.

In addition, eBay said it has placed a dozen different ads in more than 70 distinct collecting publications, reaching people who have an active passion for coins, stamps, dolls, and photography, for example.

Currently, eBay users list items in more than 1,000 categories, including: collectibles; antiques; books, movies, and music; coins and stamps; computers; dolls and figures; jewelry and gemstones; photo and electronics; pottery and glass; sports memorabilia; and toys. eBay claims more than one million registered users.