eBay UK has hired a new marketing lead: Gareth Jones is joining as Senior Marketing Director.
Jones comes from Compare the Market where he was Director of Marketing Strategy, Planning and Performance. At the comparison website, he developed the company’s marketing plans and roadmap, including the Meerkat brand activity and the launch of Meerkat Movies.
He apparently has over 20 years of marketing experience with brands including Carphone Warehouse, Capital One, T-Mobile, Royal Mail and Rolls Royce.
Tanya Lawler, vice president of eBay in the UK, said: “Gareth is a best in class marketer with a proven track record of developing strategies which flow across customer touch points and key platforms. Gareth will play the lead in creating and delivering seasonally relevant, targeted marketing campaigns to the 18 million Brits who visit eBay.co.uk each month.”
This looks like a good hire at first glance. Clearly the Meerkat stuff from Compare the Market is one of the most seminal advertising and marketing campaigns of the past decade and we all know it. If Jones can bring a bit of that addictive and recognisable magic to eBay then it’s happy days for buyers and sellers. Simples.
4 Responses
i count the cliches in the article above
ii surely the price comparison sites trick is to be no such thing
the lower the current monthly cash outlay on a mortgage the more likely the long term overall cost will be higher – even the thikcoes targeted by the tv advertising are capable of working that out
consumers mugged today by ‘discounts’ are the ones stuffed with the subsidy cost for next year’s disingenuous offer
compare or confuse the market?
very different ethos from ebay
but ebay has become ineffectual for my business as a seller
its basic use was that of economical (if untargetted) advertising – a use being promoted at ‘ebay university’ seminars some years ago
it probably gets binned now as we simplify our digital selling
Easy job;
“What is out target market and what are we selling?”
“Women, they buy majority of presents at Christmas”
“OK, create the campaign around ‘Don’t compare the pheasants, compare the presents’. I’m off to lunch”
Please Gareth Jones as you start to get your feet under the desk could I ask you to have a good look around your ebay empire and also to check the current and indeed historic posts on such as Tamebay. There is still a great deal of good will towards ebat. But what we want as sellers on ebay is to be able to sell and sell and sell again. The vast majority of sellers on ebay want to provide our customers with a first class service. Please clear away all the obstructions that ebay puts in our way so that we can move together into a golden ebay future for ebay and its thousands, no millions of sellers.
Do that and we will all respect you. Give us more of the obstructions and we will all cross you off our Christmas Card Lists.
I hope its just me that finds ebay executive speke so annoying…perhaps someone could invent an app that translates ebaydrivel into plain English? anyway, I digress; Gareth Jones’ meerkat marketing was inspired, it was fun and having emails from around the world as your meerkat toy made its slow journey to you.. very clever.
Lets hope this is part of Devin Wenigs plan to revitalise ebay buyers; lets make ebay fun again, it’s a good appointment, but I would think , alas, he won’t stay long. Like all things ebay, if its any good they will tinker with it until its not.