The Volunteer Coast Guard rescue thousands of Aussies every year, but they do so out at sea, and out of sight. We needed a way to make their work relevant to the millions back on shore. We found that Coast Guard volunteers rescue more than just people lost at sea. While out on the water, the volunteers come across lost items too. That led us to the idea: sell items recovered by or used by Coast Guard volunteers to raise awareness and funds for the Coast Guard.

We partnered with eBay to create Seabay, a unique auction site where people could bid on recovered items and equipment used on rescue missions.

Items for sale on Seabay were collected from Coast Guard flotillas across Victoria, ranging from a single flip-flop recovered by a volunteer to a fully functional 24ft Coast Guard vessel that contributed to hundreds of rescues.

We created a promotional video featuring the items for sale and built a website powered by eBay’s functionality.

Seabay was launched to a nationwide audience, with extensive coverage across TV, press, radio and online news outlets, led by a four minute Live cross on the Today Show, Australia’s leading breakfast TV program.

The launch showcased a range of items for sale on Seabay, encouraging bids to raise funds for the Volunteer Coast Guard.

Viewers, readers and listeners were directed to the Seabay website. On the website, visitors could watch and share the Seabay video, browse the items for sale, and place bids by clicking through to our eBay store.

The average AVCG fundraising event brings in $3500. In the two weeks since launch, Seabay has raised over $66,014 and counting, an increase of over 1886%. Enough to fuel a Coast Guard flotilla for over three years.

We helped an unknown organisation gain widespread awareness, with an earned media reach of 30 million.

This included more than 20 minutes of primetime coverage on mainstream TV and Radio news outlets.

We leveraged eBay’s native advertising platform to reach an additional audience of over 300,000 active online shoppers. Items for sale on our eBay store were viewed 12,000 times in just two weeks.

Worthless items like a broken surfboard ($1324) and a single flip-flop ($81) sold for crazy amounts, triggering a new wave of media coverage.

This is just the start. The best result is that with Seabay, we have established an ongoing fundraising platform for the Coast Guard.