The connection between eBay and DEPT has spanned 17 years however has developed at velocity during the last 18 months. The complete-service digital company beforehand dealt with eBay’s CRM, owned-channel and paid-social exercise, earlier than taking up all campaigns in on-line and offline channels this yr as lead strategic and artistic company, kicking off with eBay as the primary headline sponsor of Love Island season 9 – a marketing campaign that noticed searches for eBay’s key product class soar by over 1,400%.
The partnership with the ITV present started in 2022, when eBay grew to become Love Island’s first ‘pre-loved vogue associate’. The web market’s strategic goals had been to boost model consciousness, drive development of its vogue class, and promote consideration of eBay as the house of vogue.
Alex Allcott, model director of eBay UK, says that rising dwelling prices and a urgent local weather disaster imply eBay’s proposition is extra related than ever earlier than. “Individuals are searching for choices that aren’t solely inexpensive but additionally environmentally pleasant.”
To this finish, one in every of eBay’s core targets for its vogue providing is to encourage shoppers to swap fast-fashion for pre-loved. “And what higher strategy to disrupt the norm than partnering with the most popular present on tv, Love Island, to spark a motion in the direction of a extra acutely aware method of purchasing?” she factors out.
Joanna Trippett, managing director at DEPT, provides: “Love Island has enormous attain amongst eBay’s audience. Beforehand the present has partnered with fast-fashion manufacturers, so it was an actual assertion – and admittedly, a leap of religion for each events – for eBay to take over.”
DEPT’s temporary for executing the sponsorship was to make pre-loved vogue extra mainstream. Key to this was altering perceptions that pre-loved vogue seemed a sure method and was too area of interest or ‘used’.
“Round vogue means the cycle immediately is sort of fast so, along with the classic classics, it might embody gadgets akin to the newest hard-to-get luxurious drops or high-street finds,” says Bel Moretti, inventive director at DEPT. “We wanted to make use of the Love Island platform to shift that understanding.”
Taking an avant-garde strategy
DEPT was well-placed to carry the sponsorship alive as a result of it had initially managed eBay’s social exercise, and Love Island is a social-led TV present that thrives on driving on-line dialog. Allcott says its marketing campaign perception was rooted in viewers’ behaviour when watching the present. “Love Island followers eat the present by way of a dual-screen expertise, switching straight to social platforms throughout advert breaks and in between exhibits to debrief and watch creator content material across the TV collection. We found that there have been as many, if no more, folks watching content material on TikTok concerning the present as watching the stay present itself.”
The company handpicked a number of fashionable creators who discovered fame speaking about Love Island on social platforms. DEPT branded these creators ‘Stylanders’, comprising quite a lot of folks with a various attraction, and styling them in eBay gadgets. It launched the idea in January 2023, throughout season 9 of Love Island, and its success noticed the thought proceed in season 10.
“Working with the best creators enabled us to showcase pre-loved vogue in an genuine method that was rigorously styled and seemed nice, but resonated with the viewers at house,” says Moretti.
We found that there have been as many, if no more, folks watching content material on TikTok concerning the present as watching the stay present itself.
Alex Allcott, eBay
The massive attraction of Stylanders means they’re now featured in eBay’s TV campaigns and out-of-home exercise. Trippett says, “You will have somebody who has discovered fame on TikTok featured in an eBay TV advert, which is fairly particular, and our heritage of managing eBay’s social has allowed us to know this evolution in a method one other associate might not have been capable of.”
DEPT co-ordinated carefully with Amy Bannerman, eBay’s stylist, who labored with every of the Stylanders individually. The marketing campaign additionally dropped in a number of references to earlier collection of Love Island, capitalising on the worth its viewers locations on inside data and a way of belonging.
“As a result of we’ve bought an extended operating relationship with the present, we had the flexibility to sprinkle ‘Easter eggs’ from earlier seasons that we all know our viewers reply rather well to. Issues like bringing again vogue items from iconic present moments in season 9 into season 10 on new solid,” says Moretti. “It actually strengthened the round vogue idea and will get the conversational buzz going surfing.”
She offers the instance of an merchandise worn by Tasha in season eight, then worn by Coco Sarel – who shared social commentary on Tasha’s type for 12 months – the next season. “It was a extremely great method for eBay to indicate up but additionally to faucet into the issues folks care about, whereas showcasing an unlimited quantity of styling round pre-loved vogue.”
The marketing campaign inspired audiences to purchase on the eBay and Love Island apps by means of consumer-to-consumer promotions and ‘store the present’ advertisements. The company additionally realized the significance of making on-line belongings round every product earlier than it’s worn by a contestant. “Doing because of this, when the merchandise is launched on eBay for resale, we have now all of the belongings we have to complement it. It was a army operation,” Trippett says.
She provides that eBay product isn’t branded, it’s one-of-a-kind, and DEPT wanted to discover a automobile to indicate the islanders’ styling from the eBay Wardrobe within the villa. The group conceived ‘Match Examine’, that includes the islanders’ self-shot content material, which was despatched to the company and used organically. “We teased out the perfect, only content material and the neighborhood went wild for it as they love an inside look,” says Trippett.
Staying tuned-in to the viewers’s reactions to Love Island was additionally key to making sure the marketing campaign delivered precisely what folks wished. One discovering revealed that, whereas folks beloved the Stylanders, they had been additionally desirous to see an ex-islander return, so the company solid Jordan to be a part of the Stylander crew. “We let folks know we had been listening and responding,” says Moretti.
Working with one lead company has benefitted the marketing campaign, says Trippett. “We do the whole lot from TV to merchandising, emails to push notifications – it’s all below one roof and which means there’s a degree of consistency all through your complete marketing campaign. The model tips for each side had been so tight and so synced, it actually made it really feel like a 360-degree marketing campaign in a method that hadn’t been completed earlier than.”
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Being bang-on-trend
DEPT’s work with eBay through the season 9 sponsorship of Love Island generated over 1,400% extra searches for ‘pre-loved vogue’ on {the marketplace}, in comparison with collection eight, in addition to a 24% enhance in new round companies becoming a member of the net market to date in 2023.
New analysis additionally discovered that one pre-loved merchandise has been offered on the platform each second during the last yr, with pre-loved vogue listings being up by nearly 20% YoY because the Love Island partnership launched – demonstrating the affect the partnership continues to have on client purchasing behaviours.
We teased out the perfect, only content material and the neighborhood went wild for it as they love an inside look.
Joanna Trippett, DEPT
“The response from the general public to the partnership has been extremely encouraging,” says Allcott. “We’re seeing shifts in purchasing habits by way of faucets and clicks, with folks coming to eBay to ‘recreate the look’ after seeing their favorite Islander’s embrace pre-loved on their screens.”
Trippett provides that elevating the profile of the pre-loved vogue class as an entire, in addition to eBay’s involvement in it, was key. “They’re the important thing outcomes we wish to cling our hat on – selling round vogue is so highly effective for the planet.”
The marketing campaign’s success has secured eBay as Love Island’s predominant sponsor for season 10 – and DEPT is poised to go once more. “We all the time wish to maintain enhancing, and now we have now our templates we’ll look to leverage automation extra – for instance, within the manufacturing of our belongings,” says Trippett. “We’re additionally exploring how we will use AI to do the merchandising sooner, as beforehand that has all been completed manually.”
Moretti provides that making certain the sponsorship is as culturally related as attainable can be key, which could imply utilizing extra social platforms as eBay seems to be to talk to a broader vary of expertise and other people. “We’re frequently taking a look at how we will inject extra life into the partnership. Watch this house.”