EBay hires PHD and gears up for first UK above-the-line ads

Campaign 04-Jun-04

PHD has won the media account for the auction site eBay, following a four-way pitch against Starcom Motive, Media Planning Group and the incumbent, MediaCom.

EBay is preparing to embark on its first above-the-line ad push in the UK; recent work has run solely online. This will mirror its efforts in Germany and the US, where the business is handled by the San Francisco agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners.

In March, eBay appointed Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners to its creative account. DLKW beat Joshua, Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters and Ogilvy & Mather to take the brief.

EBay is expected to increase its ad budget from the £3 million it spent last year to take account of this new activity, which is expected to commence later this year.

Simon Darling, eBay's UK marketing director and a former head of interactive marketing for Unilever, put the accounts up for review shortly after he joined the company last July. Darling appointed Iain Hildreth, a former head of brand experience at Barclays, as the head of brand and offline marketing to assist with the task.