| Title | THE CUTEST AD ON EARTH |
| Brand | EBAY |
| Product/Service | EBAY PLUS |
| Category |
D03. Use of Branded Content created for Digital or Social Media |
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Entrant
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ACHTUNG! Hamburg, GERMANY
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Idea Creation
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ACHTUNG! Hamburg, GERMANY
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Media Placement
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ACHTUNG! Hamburg, GERMANY
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PR
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ACHTUNG! Hamburg, GERMANY
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Production
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ACHTUNG! Hamburg, GERMANY
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Credits
| Mirko Kaminski |
achtung! GmbH |
CEO |
The Campaign
What stands for carefreeness and lightheartedness like nothing else – and can yield any amount of Earned Media? The components you see in most of viral videos: heart-warming creatures like kids and animals. The idea: “The Cutest Ad on Earth”. The film presents the most heart-warming creatures in the world: baby kittens, ducklings, tortoises and guinea pigs on skateboards, dogs sharing a bathtub, a hamster, a dragon, three really gorgeous little moppets. And a pink unicorn-piglet. The clou: They are all put together in ONE video connected to the product promise of carefreeness and lightheartedness.
Creative Execution
Ice cold and merciless: baby kittens, ducklings, tortoises and guinea pigs on skateboards, dogs sharing a bathtub, a hamster, a dragon, three really gorgeous little moppets. And a pink unicorn-piglet. All together in ONE branded video – presented on eBay YouTube channel, newsletters and facebook. Millionfold liked, shared and commented.
A gigantic success: more than 3 million video views, 67 % of which are purely organic. No end of likes, shares and loves. And a click-through rate of almost 4 percent – ten times more than the eBay PLUS measures to date. That’s how carefree online marketing can be!
We all understand the principles for going viral online. However, the innovative approach taken by this project is a showcase example. Deliberately and obviously playing around with these principles, and the exaggeration with a large dose of self-mockery are what lends “The Cutest Ad on Earth” its charm. It is anything but matter of course for a company like eBay, which is constantly being observed. However, courage pays off: given that 67 % of over 3 million views were generated purely organically, and the CTR to eBay PLUS is significantly higher than with other campaigns, eBay has done everything right.
Insights, Strategy and the Idea
eBay mercilessly pull out all the stops and post a film online that’s almost too sweet to stomach. Because it pushes cuteness to the absolute limit. In order to reach engagement and click-through to eBay PLUS a cunning little in-page and in-stream seedling concept gets the ball rolling – and the users on the internet take care of the rest at lightning speed – the female users in particular.