eBay France Campaign Turns Competitors' Sold Out Products Into Promo Codes

When you're looking for the new hot thing that’s just come out, you go straight to Amazon, FootLocker, Asos, BestBuy...

But few things are more frustrating than discovering that it is sold out.

However, there is a sacred place where you can always find those sold out products: eBay.

So how could the brand help people remember that eBay is not only the best place to buy a vintage collectable, but also the best place to buy the new hot thing without naming competitors, which is not allowed for legal reasons in France?

Armed with eBay’s new French signature “Come, it must be on eBay” and an unmissable marketplace, Marcel Paris decided to use the frustration caused by eBay competitors to eBay’s advantage with #TheSoldoutPromoCode.

The first promo codes were generated directly from eBay’s competitors' sold out product URLs.

Based on a direct and social media campaign on social networks, eBay targeted the major communities constantly facing the sold out problem, to engage them with the brand.

Marcel provided them with a simple tool. Directly on twitter or on a dedicated website, shoppers just had to copy/paste the sold out URL from competitors' websites to generate a single use personal promo codes for the products of their dreams still available on eBay with a 15% discount.

In less than 24 hours, people flooded the web with sold out URLs from eBay’s competitors' websites, to generate more than 10 million media impressions. The campaign became a number 1 trending topic on twitter and created a 360% spike in traffic on eBay.fr during the operation.

Without ever naming eBay’s competitors, The #SoldOutPromoCode spread the word that when it comes to buying something, if it exists in the world, it is probably for sale on eBay.