Gary Briggs

But first – I want to give a major plug for eBay Live! If you've never attended our annual gathering, you've got to experience it. If you're an eBay Live! veteran, you really don't want to miss this year's event in Boston. Meet up with eBay leaders and staff, along with thousands of eBay sellers and buyers for three fun, action-packed days from June 14-16. It's the first time we've held eBay Live! in the Northeast, and registration is filling up quickly. But it's not too late - sign up for eBay Live! now!

Did I mention Kool & The Gang are playing at the closing gala?

Now, on with the marketing update.

Community Counts promotion wraps up in Lumberton
You may remember that back in November we kicked off our Community Counts promotion. Considered eBay's first "census," members in the U.S. earned points for their local communities (based per capita on each member's registered ZIP Code) each time they were active buying, selling, using the Community Forums, or taking part in eBay Giving Works, eBay's dedicated program for charity listings. After three weeks of activity, our good members registered in 08048 made Lumberton, New Jersey eBay's most active eBay Community. We're headed to Lumberton this week to honor this community's accomplishment with a town party, and to deliver a $10,000 donation to their chosen charity, the Burlington County Animal Alliance.

Here at eBay, we saw Community Counts as a fun way to celebrate eBay's greatest asset: our Community of buyers and sellers. The promotion struck a chord with media around the country, too. On April 4th, ABC World News Tonight ran a feature on Lumberton and its incredible population of eBay members, from a "mompreneur" to a professional seller. It was a fantastic piece that really captured all that's great and unique about our eBay members. Community Counts has also received coverage in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and other media outlets.

Joining the Galactic Empire with Star Wars and the USPS
If you're a Star Wars fan, (for the record, there are a bunch here in our offices in San Jose – one look at the collectibles in the cubicles around me confirms that!), you already know that Star Wars is turning 30. To celebrate, Star Wars has partnered with the USPS on a "galactic-size" promotion, and eBay gets to be involved, too. Star Wars and eBay branding is being featured in over 12,000 Post Offices around the country. As part of the celebration, fans can win great prizes, including eBay Gift Certificates.

In addition, we've set up a special Star Wars site where fans can vote for their favorite characters, see hot Star Wars items, and check out Star Wars-related eBay Groups. The USPS sweepstakes page links to our site, and thousands of Star Wars enthusiasts have been visiting every day. It's been a great way to attract these collectors to eBay, and...may the Force be with you!

Get your cameras running -- eBay adds video!
User-generated video on the internet has really come of age. Recently, my colleague Jim Ambach announced that we've changed our rules to allow video in eBay listings, too. I hope you had a chance to check out some of the listings with videos that we commissioned from some up-and-coming artists. (I don't know about you, but my favorite video had to be the vintage Lego men.) These videos were intended to inspire our sellers and get you thinking about the creative ways you might want to use this technology in your listings.

I'm really excited about this change, because I'm convinced that video will add a new, fun dimension to the shopping experience on eBay. And in addition to making eBay an even more unique destination for shoppers, they can bring additional traffic to eBay.

Active Lifetstyle, Children's X-Sell, and Think Green campaigns
With winter over and spring in full bloom, we've created our Active Lifestyle campaign to highlight how eBay is a great place to find "get fit" types of items – from exercise bikes to workout apparel to water bottles. Over 15 million members have received a "get fit" promotional email over the past month. We also launched a similar campaign called Children's X-Sell, which encourages people to come to eBay to find new spring and summertime clothes for their children (and to sell their outgrown clothes while they're here). These were sent to over 1.5 million members.

Finally, in April many people recognized Earth Day, an annual campaign to raise awareness about environmental concerns. Interest in environmentally-friendly goods has never been higher, so throughout April we've been running "It's Good to Be Green" campaigns on the homepage. Like our email campaigns, these homepage spots promoted eBay as a place to get almost any "green" item, such as solar panels, bikes, and even the Toyota Prius. We're also featuring green items in our summer catalog that is being mailed to over 3.1 million top buyers. This is just another way we're letting people know they "can get IT on eBay."

Thanks for reading, and see you in Boston!

Sincerely,

Gary Briggs
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
eBay North America

PS: Here's a goofy picture of me at Bill Cobb's most recent Town Hall – Click my picture to read more on the Chatter Blog.