eBay Stars & Charity: Working for a good cause
The Initial situation:
The worldwide online marketplace eBay has popularised and shaped buying and selling on the internet like no other company. Every day, eBay connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world. Since 2000 the eBay German site has featured the Stars & Charity programme (www.ebay.de/starsandcharity). This is where sellers can auction items, related to well-known people, for a good cause. 100% of the proceeds are donated. On offer, for example, would be meet & greets with actors or a signed guitar of a famous singer or band. Once affiliated with the programme, your auctions are listed free of charge on ebay.de (www.ebay.de) and advertised on the Stars & Charity site (www.ebay.de/starsandcharity).The online marketplace also waives all charges for these sellers.
The goals:
The programme existed in Germany, in its basic form, for over 9 years. In the course of the continued development of eBay's business, the Stars & Charity area was revamped and received greater emphasis in an effort to strengthen public awareness of this unique offering, available only on the eBay Marketplace. Through the acquisition and maintenance of charity partners, the site continues to feature new and interesting auctions. Furthermore, the programme will be integrated into eBay‘s global corporate responsibility approach and will complement other international programmes such as eBay for Charity in the UK (http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebayforcharity/about.html) and eBay Giving Works in the US. (http://givingworks.ebay.com/)
The pioneer communications approach:
In 2008, pioneer communications took over the complete project management of the programme in Germany and immediately set course on its new direction. Along with a re-design of the Charity site, the structure of the programme itself was also optimised to guarantee a more agile response to Stars & Charity inquiries.
In addition to incoming applications, organisations with prominent patrons and endorsements were actively approached with regard to a charity co-operation. Particular attention was paid to potential media partners already engaged in charitable activities or those who had founded charitable organisations. To continually highlight important auctions, those charities featuring on the site were broadly covered using both classic PR channels and social media outlets.
The result:
The Stars & Charity programme has seen a myriad of famous peoples' articles auctioned off for a good cause. Among these were some bizarre articles such as Kate Moss's hairpiece and the ball of paper, which affected the outcome of the football game between Werder Bremen and the HSV in 2009.
Through extensive co-operation with media partners, the Stars & Charity programme attracted very positive attention. The eBay charity auctions were regularly reported in the media, for example in BILD with „A Heart for Children", on Sky (Premiere) with the „Sky Trust" and on Sat.1 with "Get Helping Haiti".
On the whole, this engagement allowed eBay to build on its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) profile. In 2009 more than €600,000 was generated for charity and donated to various charity projects.
The worldwide online marketplace eBay has popularised and shaped buying and selling on the internet like no other company. Every day, eBay connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world. Since 2000 the eBay German site has featured the Stars & Charity programme (www.ebay.de/starsandcharity). This is where sellers can auction items, related to well-known people, for a good cause. 100% of the proceeds are donated. On offer, for example, would be meet & greets with actors or a signed guitar of a famous singer or band. Once affiliated with the programme, your auctions are listed free of charge on ebay.de (www.ebay.de) and advertised on the Stars & Charity site (www.ebay.de/starsandcharity).The online marketplace also waives all charges for these sellers.
The goals:
The programme existed in Germany, in its basic form, for over 9 years. In the course of the continued development of eBay's business, the Stars & Charity area was revamped and received greater emphasis in an effort to strengthen public awareness of this unique offering, available only on the eBay Marketplace. Through the acquisition and maintenance of charity partners, the site continues to feature new and interesting auctions. Furthermore, the programme will be integrated into eBay‘s global corporate responsibility approach and will complement other international programmes such as eBay for Charity in the UK (http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebayforcharity/about.html) and eBay Giving Works in the US. (http://givingworks.ebay.com/)
The pioneer communications approach:
In 2008, pioneer communications took over the complete project management of the programme in Germany and immediately set course on its new direction. Along with a re-design of the Charity site, the structure of the programme itself was also optimised to guarantee a more agile response to Stars & Charity inquiries.
In addition to incoming applications, organisations with prominent patrons and endorsements were actively approached with regard to a charity co-operation. Particular attention was paid to potential media partners already engaged in charitable activities or those who had founded charitable organisations. To continually highlight important auctions, those charities featuring on the site were broadly covered using both classic PR channels and social media outlets.
The result:
The Stars & Charity programme has seen a myriad of famous peoples' articles auctioned off for a good cause. Among these were some bizarre articles such as Kate Moss's hairpiece and the ball of paper, which affected the outcome of the football game between Werder Bremen and the HSV in 2009.
Through extensive co-operation with media partners, the Stars & Charity programme attracted very positive attention. The eBay charity auctions were regularly reported in the media, for example in BILD with „A Heart for Children", on Sky (Premiere) with the „Sky Trust" and on Sat.1 with "Get Helping Haiti".
On the whole, this engagement allowed eBay to build on its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) profile. In 2009 more than €600,000 was generated for charity and donated to various charity projects.