Ebay: EBAY KAUFRAUM

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: EBAY
Agency: ACHTUNG!
Category: Best Integrated Campaign Led by Promotion and Activation
Junior Account Manager: Angela Simi (Achtung! )
Consumer PR Manager: Sabrina Winter (Ebay )
Senior Account Director: Nicola Surholt (Achtung! )
Senior Account Manager: Antje Rudolph (Achtung! )
Shop Designer: Bijan Kiani (East End Communications )
Account Manager: Florian Hiller (East End Communications )
Head Of Consumer PR: Leonie Bechtoldt (Ebay )
Managing Director: Oliver Golz (East End Communications )
Account Manager: Sabrina Panknin (Achtung! )
Head Of Corporate PR: Maike Fuest (Ebay )

Execution
The eBay store was located in Berlin’s hot spot “Mitte” where a lot of trendy shops and brands are located. It was opened for ten days, starting before the official opening on the 6th of December with a big press conference. The pop-up-store offered visiting shoppers a fully mobile purchasing experience in-store. In addition, innovative shopping scenarios gave the perfect surrounding for a series of events to connect with a wide range of stakeholders and demonstrate to and discuss with a wide audience how eBay is enabling the future of commerce customized for each (media) target group. Tech, fashion, lifestyle and corporate bloggers were invited for a very exclusive look around in the eBay Kaufraum together with eBay spokespersons. Apart from a general press conference, corporate media were invited to a more in-depth discussion.

Relevancy
As the world's leading e-commerce company, eBay Inc.'s global portfolio of businesses enables hundreds of millions of people to trade and pay online. eBay drives the future of commerce and makes shopping simpler and easier for consumers – anytime, anywhere. The company is focused on being a partner – not a competitor – to retailers of all sizes.Since not everyone in retail has realized this development, the challenge was to enhance a perception change for decision-makers and multipliers in Germany in order to intensify this relationship – without spending much in paid media but through a smart PR idea.

Client Brief Or Objective
The two target audiences were retailers who already co-operate with eBay but wanted to expand their activities, as well as retailers that had not been working together with eBay yet. The goals were to position eBay and PayPal as thought leaders and underline their unique position as companies that redefine shopping and payment, engage with a wide range of key stakeholders and inspire them about how eBay is enabling the future of shopping (KPI: number of stakeholders visiting the store), and create a perception change (KPI: quantity, quality and favorability of coverage).

Strategy
In the middle of the year‘s peak shopping season, eBay and PayPal demonstrate great use cases of the latest shopping and payment technology and take a look into the future of shopping. For a short period an eBay shop, the eBay Kaufraum, provides a space to showcase both the present and the future of shopping: for the general public during normal business hours and for dedicated target audiences through a series of events. The shop and the events present eBay as a benchmark for mobile commerce and new shopping technologies, and as a partner who offers latest smart commerce technologies to millions of sellers – and the media transports these messages.

Campaign Description
Everyone knows eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace. But eBay is much more. Together with its subsidiaries GSI and PayPal, eBay provides retailers with the perfect opportunity for engaging their customers anytime and anywhere: When retailers partner up with eBay, they can give their customers the full cutting-edge, multichannel shopping experience – today.The challenge:Most retail decision-makers and multipliers in Germany were unaware of this. How to change this without spending millions in paid media?The strategy:Create an impressive real-life proof for eBay’s retail solutions that has the power to be spread by the media.The execution:During Christmas season we opened up "eBay Kaufraum", the first ever eBay shop on continental Europe - for ten days only, located in Berlin. It served as a platform to demonstrate the huge potential of eBay’s innovative retail solutions in action. Thousands of shoppers in Berlin were attracted by the store where they could view merchandise close up, purchase and pay via QR code with their smartphones, and have their bought items delivered to their homes. Plus, the shop hosted dedicated events with business journalists, opinion leaders and bloggers. Here, they discussed the future of shopping, and we presented upcoming eBay solutions designed to make both retailers’ and customers’ lives even more comfortable and fun.The outcome:Beside a great number of direct contacts, the eBay shop initiated more than 550 stories in newspapers, retail trade media, on the radio and major TV stations – and massive conversation on social media.

Effectiveness
The outcome were massive responses on social media and more than 550 stories in newspapers, retail trade media, on the radio and TV (with 191 mentions on December 5th). The feedback of media and direct contacts at the eight events (about 800 stakeholders) prove that eBay was successful in demonstrating its vision of enabling the future of commerce and shows its relevance in retail partnerships.92% of all Kaufraum articles reported on eBay’s impact on the future of mobile commerce and how its role in educating customers about mobile shopping helped to achieve this. The key drivers of the positive coverage (96%) were the company’s role in mobile commerce developments and its market leader position. Moreover, 85 % of Kaufraum coverage mentioned eBay and PayPal, and in this way strengthened the position of eBay Inc by highlighting the advantages and links between mobile payment systems and shopping.