Onsale Launches $10 Million Advertising Campaign

Auction site and retailer Onsale Inc. launched a $10 million advertising and brand-building campaign that features radio and print ads.

The campaign is aimed at business buyers and consumers who use the Internet to purchase PCs and computer products.

Onsale recently expanded its services to offer a range of new computer products with Onsale atCost, complementing its original service of offering excess goods through Onsale atAuction.

Onsale atCost lets customers purchase new computer products at wholesale prices plus a “transaction fee,” rather than the common retail markup. The company said. Onsale atAuction lets customers bid at auction on a range of excess and closeout computer products, consumer electronics, sporting goods and vacation packages.

“We created a campaign that reflects our business proposition,” said Jerry Kaplan, Onsale’s president and CEO. “This humorous campaign parodies the high- pressure ‘special offer’ cliches of retail advertising to communicate that our customers get everyday low prices, based on our wholesale invoice costs.”

The radio campaign debuted in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC. The print campaign focuses on major business publications such as Business Week, Time and Newsweek, and selected trade publications.