Crafts marketplace Etsy launched its first ever US-wide TV advert on Tuesday. The 30-second promo aired during the premiere of a new show called “Making It”. That’s an NBC show with Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. Offerman does the voiceover on the ad.
Ans as the voiceover says, “We all need stuff, but sometimes life calls for something more meaningful.” The advert then considers special moments that can be enhanced by a “human touch” such as weddings and dinner parties before remindind shoppers of what Etsy offers. All the sellers featured are genuine and a 60-second version will be seen on digital channels and through the seller community in the weeks to come
It was developed by Etsy’s internal creative team created with assistance from agencies We Collective and Wax. This isn’t the first TV ad ad from Etsy: they have experimented with it here in the UK in previous years.
We decided to treat this as a love letter to our sellers. We’ll use the ad as an opportunity to talk about the importance of specialty. This is just the beginning of a lot of testing and figuring out ways we can use above-the-line to help support our sellers.
– Linda Kozlowski, COO, Etsy
It’s worth noting that Kozlowski is in charge of all marketing for Etsy and it’s heartening that they are investing and experimenting. It’s positive that this will, perhaps, be the start of a new horizon for Etsy. They are seeking to explore new ways of promoting their marketplace and that’s a good thing.
But, worthy of particular praise, is the focus on merchants and the distinctiveness of produce for sale on the marketplace. It’s exactly the sort of focus that would be extremely welcome from eBay.
(And we’d share the video of the ad if we could find it in an embeddable format so you can see it in this post: but that has proved elusive. Sorry.)
