Background

COVID -19 took the entire world by surprise, and is estimated to cost the world economy a staggering $1Tn. India was no different, India's economy which is driven by hardworking small and medium scale businesses suffered a great deal of losses These businesses lost not just customers, but also their pride and identity. Almost 2/3rd of SMBs were reported to have shut during these times. In a country where business is a badge of pride and identity and e-commerce is not as widespread, How can these hard working shop owners, on the busy streets of India, keep their businesses running? The challenge was to help the hard-working sellers see an opportunity beyond domestic market through exporting online, Objectives; (1) Create awareness amongst the sellers to sell to the world (2) Get the sellers to register and start exporting online

Describe the strategy

This campaign was aimed at talking to the proud faces of Indian economy ie Sellers from SMBs in India across categories like jewellery, auto-parts, apparels etc. Research suggested that business was the identity and pride for Small & Medium Businessmen in India. However, success in business to them, was to become the hero in the 'mohalla' (neighbouring area). They did not see beyond traditional means of doing business. We knew Digital was the only way to communicate during COVID since no one was stepping out of their homes. Digital also allowed for better tracking & remarketing opportunities. Our approach was to make sellers see opportunity beyond their neighbourhood market. We showcased the problems faced in traditional business and brought ebay as the new solution. This was not just limited to the front end task of marketing. We also built the backend that ensured smoother onboarding of exporters on the platform.

Describe the execution

The messaging was brought to life via 2 ad films feature quintessential Indian seller faces (Brijendra Kala & Kurush Deboo) In a span of 3 months, we were able to showcase our ads across India, domestically to sellers (using the SMB cohort feature on platforms) on Hotstar (OTT), Native ads (Network 18), Google & YouTube (with high intent) & Facebook + Instagram networks (for wider reach).

List the results

We spoke to 13.6million+ sellers engaged with 10.3Million sellers 20,000+ sellers wanted to register with eBay to sell globally. We also saw a brand lift of 9% just from the Hotstar placement of the film. We were able to achieve 30% of the global business target (Refer to confidential section for more details)