What’s behind the “eBay. Das seid ihr” (“eBay. That’s you.”) campaign? Interview with Maike Fuest

Working in close collaboration with Achtung!, eBay has developed the new “eBay. That’s you.” brand platform and launched the first campaigns for the platform. eBay has thus created a new profile for itself. In an interview with Achtung!’s CEO, Mirko Kaminski, Sr. Director Communications & Brand Marketing, Maike Fuest, explains how “eBay. That’s you.” embodies everything that is unique about eBay, how eBay supports local retailers in Germany’s city centres and why eBay is a byword for diversity.

We are talking about profiles. eBay has just created a new profile for itself and we were part of its development: what is behind the “eBay. That’s you.” campaign?

“eBay. That’s you.” is our new creative brand platform. As you have mentioned, we worked with yourselves to develop this campaign. It is based on our new brand narrative for Germany, also created very recently. This narrative is founded on three pillars. The first is centred on the diversity of buyers and sellers and therefore also on the variety of items offered on eBay, making us so unique as a marketplace. The second focuses on the many opportunities eBay offers, for example, the opportunity to start your own business or to expand an existing business online on eBay. From the buyer’s perspective, there is the opportunity to use eBay to support local and small retailers who see eBay as an additional sales tool. Or the opportunity to contribute towards sustainability by buying used or refurbished goods on eBay. The third pillar is based on the human connection. We are a marketplace for people. We connect people and provide them with the opportunity to trade. We have merged these three pillars into the “eBay. That’s you.” brand platform. In doing so, we have taken a step back and brought the many different people, the many buyers and sellers without whom the eBay marketplace would not exist, very clearly to the forefront of our brand positioning. After all, without them eBay could not exist.

Indeed, that is the crucial point. For anyone who is not aware of this, eBay does not have its own warehouses or logistics buildings and does not sell a single product itself. eBay is a marketplace and not a retailer.

Precisely. We are purely a marketplace. The products on offer consist of items that millions of different sellers, from private sellers to small, local retailers to big brands, offer on our site. That is what sets us apart from many of our competitors. We promise never to compete with the sellers on our platform since we do not sell any products ourselves. Our relationship is based entirely on partnership.

Do you have any examples of private individuals or small retailers without whom there would be no activity on eBay? After all, you don’t sell anything yourself. eBay is not a retailer.

Very different kinds of people buy and sell on eBay. These include passionate collectors of comics, coins, action figures and so much more, all pursuing their love of collecting on eBay. Also included are avid sneakerheads and car lovers, home décor and tech enthusiasts, to name just a few. So many local shops in all kinds of industries use eBay as an additional tool to sell online. Then you have online retailers, who sell not only through their own websites but also on eBay. To make the mix complete, larger retailers and brands also offer their products on our site. It is precisely this eclectic mix that makes eBay unique.

eBay even brings the retail trade of entire cities online ...

You are referring to the “eBay Your City” initiative, which is very close to our hearts. The initiative has just celebrated its first birthday. With “eBay Your City”, we offer any city or municipality that is interested the infrastructure to have its own local, online marketplace. We make this infrastructure available. The goods offered by all the shops in a city participating in the initiative can be found on a local online marketplace, and also on the global eBay marketplace. This allows us to offer retailers in the participating cities the opportunity to expand their own business online and to have a presence among those who wish to buy online but, at the same time, support local retailers. We launched this project just over one year ago. We had 10 cities participating at the outset. We have already reached 30, including Aurich, Bamberg, Fürth, Mönchengladbach, Lübeck, Potsdam, Stade and Würzburg. The capital city Berlin has just been added to the list and other cities will soon follow.

I will speak to the city council and shops on my native island of Fehmarn to get them on board.

Please do! (Laughs.)

I already know, but maybe you would like to outline it for our readers: how are you launching “eBay. That’s you.” in terms of communication?

We follow an “always-on” strategy based on “eBay. That’s you.” in our horizontal branding. We focus on different areas in each individual campaign but use the “eBay. That’s you.” platform as the basis for everything. We have also started to align our vertical campaigns for specific key eBay product areas, such as vehicle parts or refurbished goods, with “eBay. That’s you.” We are also working to ensure that “eBay. That’s you.” can be seen and experienced on our own channels, ebay.de for example, and on our social media platforms. We show people who tell their own, very personal eBay story. “eBay. That’s you.” is the foundation, the platform on which everything is built.

Has it worked? Has it enhanced eBay’s profile? What has the response been, and the results?

Needless to say, we are closely monitoring what we are achieving through this new brand platform. I can already say that we are very happy with the initial campaign results. However, I must also stress that horizontal branding is always geared towards the long term. We see “eBay. That’s you.” as a long-term initiative. It is exactly what has been lacking in the past: a platform on which all of our long-term branding activities are based. We will only see the full effects when we really base everything we do on this platform on an ongoing basis. The internal feedback is also incredibly positive. “eBay. That’s you.” is viewed as a very suitable platform for eBay since it very much places the diversity and people who make eBay unique as a marketplace to the fore.

What was the last thing you bought or sold on eBay then?

Two of my recent purchases were two cookbooks by Claudio Del Principe. I buy from all possible areas on eBay and am very happy to buy individual gifts also.