Gary Briggs

In a nutshell, my job is to invest in marketing that drives buyers to the site, and to make sure people think of eBay first whenever they go to shop for “it.” I know this is especially important to our selling Community, who count on us to bring buyers to the site. That's why, going forward, I plan to provide updates on some of the key marketing initiatives we have in the works at eBay.

Heading into the important holiday selling season, we have a several exciting marketing initiatives launching.

eBay Express Debuts on TV
First, I know many of you have been anticipating our eBay Express marketing campaign since Bill Cobb announced the official opening of the site at eBay Live! in June. I'm pleased to be the one to share the good news – our first eBay Express television commercials began lighting up the airwaves last week. The debut of these new commercials was during the first regular season NFL game between Miami and Pittsburgh on NBC.

I think you'll agree the commercials are innovative and fun – just like our marketplace. We produced 22 versions of the commercial using the same basic theme. Together, they communicate the new and fixed-price nature of Express and build on the success of last year's “it” campaign. Visit whatisit.com to view snippets of the 22 versions, which will be running heavily for the next few weeks.

To complement the TV commercials, we have a wide variety of marketing activities planned that promote eBay Express to potential buyers, online and off. Rich media advertisements began last week, and dedicated eBay Express printed catalogs will reach the homes of over 2.7 million buyers early next week. Also, look for direct emails to buyers, an e-catalog, and a buyer promotion called Win-Win with eBay Express, launching next week.

Fall Fashion Drive on eBay.com
Got a passion for fashion? During the fall season which includes Back-to-School, our marketing messages are geared to communicate both our depth and breadth in the important Apparel and Accessories category. To enhance that effort, we recently launched a promotion called Win it, Wear it that combines an interactive trivia game and an Instant Win offering. It runs through September 18 th. Check it out at: http://ebay.promotionexpert.com/eBayApparel/index.jsp.

And if you are a regular viewer of NBC's Today show, you may have seen eBay's style director Constance White reviewing this season's hot new fashion trends. These trends were also featured in several fashion-themed catalogs that were mailed out to millions of eBay buyers this season.

Half.com Marketing
I've never been more excited about our Half.com business. As you may know, eBay's spent the last 12 months investing in our Half.com infrastructure so that this platform remains stable over time and can grow to meet the needs of an expanding customer base.

With these necessary improvements now in place, we maximized our marketing dollars to attract textbook buyers during the most recent Back-to-School marketing season. We did a ton of marketing aimed at college students, in particular: we invested aggressively in advertising in college newspapers, we increased our paid search internet ads, and we increased our investment in the Half.com affiliate program. We also partnered with our friends at Skype by including Half.com gift certificates as part of their Back To School promotion. This is being promoted on Facebook, a popular social networking site for students. Check it out at www.skype.com/skypeU.

The results of this integrated campaign have been impressive. We saw 103% year-over-year GMV growth for textbooks on Half.com in August. That means 11.4 textbooks sold per minute vs. 6.7 last year. We're keeping the heat on, too, by featuring Half.com in the footer of relevant eBay search results. Our Half.com business is in a strong position as we look forward to fall.

eBay Motors Marketing
In case you missed it, eBay Motors recently announced the sale of the 2 millionth vehicle on the site. We have seen several major news outlets cover this exciting story. (Check out http://pages.motors.ebay.com/2millionsold) This is a milestone we can all be proud of.

We're continuing to invest in eBay Motors, the web's most visited automotive site. In addition to investing in paid search and other forms of internet marketing, we launched a national print campaign in support of eBay Motors earlier this summer. The campaign leverages the highly successful ‘it' campaign by replacing pictures of real cars with car-sized “it” sculptures. The ads appear in magazines like Time, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly. In addition, we mailed out an eBay Motors print catalog in early June that highlighted the site's vast selection of automotive, boat, and motorcycle parts and accessories.

Innovations - Today's Big Deal promotion
Finally, in addition to investing in conventional marketing activities, my team works on new ways to eBay capture the imagination, attention, and – most importantly – shopping dollars of online buyers. This calls for innovation. As our sellers know well, the internet is still rapidly evolving, and I think it's important that we at eBay continue to think like pioneers and test new ideas.

Yesterday we announced one such experiment. Today's Big Deals showcases great items at a great price – every day. (You can read Louis's announcement for details.) We're giving this concept a try for a few weeks, because we think a program like this could generate new buyer excitement and give shoppers a fun, compelling reason to visit eBay every day.

I want you to know, too, that we've heard a few concerns from our Community about this promotion, and we're looking into the specifics and working on ways to fix any issues with our implementation of this test. We sincerely appreciate hearing from you about your concerns, because it helps make us better. That's the nature of evolution – some experiments work great, some need refining, and some are sent back to the drawing board.

We'll keep you posted on the future of Today's Big Deals, and we really appreciate your support.

That's it for now. As Bill mentioned in his last Town Hall, I'll be part of the panel at his next event on September 29 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time. I'll be talking more about our marketing plans and answering your questions. I hope you'll join us then.

Gary Briggs
eBay Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer

* This post was originally created at 10:43AM PST/PT. It was reposted to make a correction to the title.