The Campaign New Zealand Bought
Trade Me New
Issue 30 | March 2014
Agency
Whybin\TBWA Auckland
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Toby Talbot Creative Directors Lisa Fedyszyn Jonathan McMahon Creatives Lisa Fedyszyn Jonathan McMahon Ryan Price Cece Chu Jordan Dale Clemens Zlami
Production Team
Designers David Minty Producer Johannes Gertz Print Producers Michelle Hong Ali Vernon Production Companies Match Photographers The Sweet Shop Post Production Mandy; Dave McLaren, Andy Timms & Mat Ellin Music Harmonic Studio Peter Hobbs Sound Liquid Studios; Craig Matuschka Media Ikon Ros Ross
Other Credits
Group Account Director Jodi Willocks Senior Account Manager Sarah Cowan Digital Director Ross Howard Planner Sarah Hamburger
Date
November 2013
Background
Trade Me is New Zealand's leading online marketplace. Its only downside is that it's so synonymous with trading used goods that many of its 700,000 daily visitors still don't know they also sell brand new items. So the challenge was to balance up the ledger and show that for everything used there was plenty of new.
Idea
To prove that 'new' had just as strong an offering as 'used', a TV spot was launched that compared equivalent new and used items. The ad was uploaded onto YouTube and all the props and items from the ad became clickable hotlinks. These were now buyable 'used' items found on Trade Me. But if you preferred 'new,' these items came with links to their new equivalents.
Results
A fair bit of buzz was created in the week of auctions with over 110,000 page views, 1,000 bids and over 100 questions from interested buyers. All the used items sold – some for quite a lot, others for not so much as new. With television, radio, newspaper, and online coverage, the people now knew they had another option when it came to buying stuff. Whether they use it or not is up to them.
Our Thoughts
‘As used on TV’ is a genius idea for reversing the perception that Trade Me only sold secondhand items and an excuse for a lot of engaging fun. Another rich idea where I suspect the whole creative strategy just flowed after the initial idea was born. I’d have loved to be in the brainstorm when they were coming up with suggestions for the items to feature. Nice one.