With “BUILT,” we aimed to create entertainment that auto enthusiasts would seek out, not ignore, giving eBay authenticity in one of the hardest categories to reach. As the media landscape in the US continues to fragment and ignoring traditional advertising becomes easier, we looked to push the boundaries of advertising into entertainment to capture the attention of our car guy target.

The media mix for 'BUILT' was hugely important in finding hard-to-target car lovers and making the series accessible wherever discovered, via PC or mobile.

Once the idea of a branded entertainment platform was created, the media team crafted a mix of digital, social and print channels to drive to our immersive 'BUILT' experience. We partnered with four popular car publications and their editors who pushed readers and fans to content via print, digital, and individual social channels. YouTube pre-roll helped target car lovers when they were already watching car-centric content.

'BUILT' had a heavy social push that included fan voting for favorite car build, and outreach from eBay’s social media pages. Combined with sponsored emails from eBay and magazine partners, the digital presence of 'BUILT' required us to make its web experience fully capable on both PC/mobile. This resulted in frictionless participation no matter how our target approached the program.

“BUILT” became a hit with car guys because we gave them exactly what the wanted: a ton of interesting content all about car builds, car parts and car experts. And because of that, it was hugely successful in changing perceptions of eBay.

- BUILTfromEBAY.com attracted over half a million unique visitors from 203 different countries.

- Visitors who watched the video content stayed on the site for 16 minutes on average.

- “BUILT” saw an 18% lift in people saying that eBay has a better car parts selection than other sites.

- There was a 28% bump in people saying eBay has something different than other sites.

- “BUILT” resulted in a 6.1% lift in purchase intent when it came to visitors who watched the series.

- The four completed vehicles were auctioned on eBay, raising $122,000 for four charities.

- 87% of visitors to BUILTfromEBAY.com said they were likely to revisit, and 78% said they’d recommend the site to others.