Trade Me has won the October Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award for its New or Used campaign, which it says highlighted the range of new products available while staying true to the “Kiwi tone” of its brand.
The online marketplace wouldn’t reveal whether the proportion of new productions sold on Trade Me had grown as a result of the campaign, but says the campaign raised awareness that it doesn’t just offer used items.
It says it will know more quantitative results from the campaign in January, after a study by Perceptive Research.
“The idea of the campaign was to pit new vs used and highlight the range of brand new goods available on Trade Me,” says general manager of marketing and demand Aimee McCammon. “A dose of humour was a good fit with the slightly irreverent and Kiwi tone of our brand. While new goods have been part of Trade Me since day two, our research showed that people weren’t necessarily aware of this. The intention of the campaign was to start to change that and ramp up awareness on this front.”
Chief creative officer at agency WhybinTBWA, Toby Talbot, says nearly every item featured in the ad “aside from the Afghan hound and the toy boy” was sold, adding the bike saddle (burdened in the TVC by a large naked man) got the most questions.
“Obviously, there is huge loyalty for all things ‘used’ in New Zealand and this is just the start,” says Talbot.
Colmar Brunton’s Harriet Dixon described the ad as strong and impactful.
“The message of being able to find anything on Trade Me is both relevant and compelling, by persuading viewers to use Trade Me more and seeing the site as more favourable compared to other trading websites. With the familiarity of the yellow and blue colours, along with the little blue kiwi, these branding cues aid strong branding for the ad.”
