Lessons from eBay's Pandemic Pivot (Jordan 2020)

There's something interesting about global media planning that could easily be missed. It's not just about buying advertising space in different countries, though that's certainly part of it. Rather, it's the art of orchestrating conversations that flow across borders, weave through cultures, and connect channels in ways that create something far more meaningful than the individual pieces might suggest. To understand why this matters so much, let me tell you about what happened when eBay UK found itself in quite the predicament back in 2020. Picture this: they were up against Amazon's deeper pockets and  louder voice, all whilst trying to keep 300,000 small businesses afloat during an unprecedented pandemic. What they chose to do next provides us with a masterclass in strategic media planning.

The True Nature of Global Media Planning

Think of global media planning as the central nervous system of contemporary marketing. It ensures that when a brand speaks, it does so with consistency while honouring the subtle differences that make each market unique. This goes well beyond simply translating advertisements or shuffling budgets between different countries. It's about spotting the shared human behaviours and cultural threads that connect us all, then cleverly grouping similar markets to create strategies that feel genuinely local while maintaining that all-important global coherence.

Imagine you're conducting an orchestra where each instrument represents a different market, channel, or audience segment. Your job as conductor isn't to make everything sound identical, but to ensure harmony - allowing each section to express its own distinctive voice. In a recorded lecture on my master’s programme Maya Epstein from Nestlé captures this beautifully when she talks about finding "common playing fields across markets" identifying "similarities and differences across markets for the client".

The importance of this approach in today's marketing landscape really cannot be overstated. Consumer media habits shift almost daily, influenced by new technologies, emerging platforms, and global events that reshape our world. Artificial intelligence, mixed reality, and programmatic media buying are transforming how brands reach their audiences. Against this backdrop, global media planning provides the strategic framework that prevents marketing efforts from becoming little more than scattered noise. When executed well, it delivers efficiency through combined media buying power, provides access to specialised expertise across different markets, and most importantly, creates those unified brand experiences that drive genuine business outcomes. Done properly, it transforms marketing from being merely a cost centre into something far more valuable: a genuine growth engine.

What eBay's Crisis Response Reveals

The eBay UK story from 2020 offers several insights about effective media planning that extend far beyond crisis management. When lockdown arrived and physical retail simply vanished overnight, eBay faced a stark choice: compete more aggressively against Amazon's advertising dominance or find an entirely different path. They chose the latter, and what a choice it was. Rather than simply throwing more money at advertising spend, eBay did something remarkable. They handed their entire £9 million marketing budget directly to their small business sellers, making them the heroes of the campaign. This wasn't just altruism, though it certainly looked generous. It was brilliant strategic thinking. The way they executed this across different media channels revealed three fundamental truths about modern media planning that deserve our attention.

First, agility consistently trumps perfection. eBay managed to turn their entire campaign around in just one week, taking advantage of the unusual flexibility in media markets during the pandemic. Television costs had softened considerably and audiences were surging. Print advertising was generating 21% more attention than usual. Podcast listenership was growing steadily. The team built their media plan without even having a creative concept ready, booking flexible slots that could accommodate whatever content emerged from their sellers. This teaches us something important: rigid, long-term media plans often prove less effective than adaptive frameworks that can respond to market conditions and audience behaviour as they actually unfold.

Second, integration amplifies impact in quite extraordinary ways. eBay didn't simply run separate television, radio, print, and digital campaigns. Instead, they created a beautifully connected ecosystem where each channel reinforced and strengthened the others. Television viewers were retargeted online. Print stories were amplified through digital partnerships. Radio content was refreshed weekly to maintain relevance and freshness. Kantar's (2018) research shows that maximum campaign effects come from using four or more channels, unified by timing and creative consistency. eBay proved this principle delivers real results: they achieved a remarkable 256% year-on-year increase in small business sign-ups alongside 40-50% month-on-month sales growth for their featured sellers.

Third, authenticity scales far better than polish ever could. By using genuine seller stories, authentic photographs, and real quotes instead of corporate messaging, eBay created content that felt truthful across all channels. This approach solved one of the most common challenges in global media planning: how do you maintain consistency whilst ensuring local relevance? eBay's answer was elegantly simple: source locally, amplify globally.

The customer journey eBay created shows us exactly how modern media planning should work. A potential seller might first encounter the brand through television, hear reinforcing messages on radio, discover social proof online, read credible stories in the national press, and finally convert through carefully targeted digital advertising. Each touchpoint built familiarity and trust without feeling repetitive or overwhelming.

The Wider Picture

What makes this case study particularly instructive is how clearly it demonstrates that effective media planning can serve multiple objectives at once. eBay improved brand consideration by 11%, increased purchase intent by 88%, and drove significant commercial growth whilst genuinely supporting their community during a crisis. This dual outcome of commercial success and meaningful social impact points to something important about the future of global media planning. Today's audiences increasingly expect brands to demonstrate purpose, not just product benefits. Media planning that aligns with authentic brand values whilst delivering measurable business results represents where this discipline is heading. The eBay example also shows us how crisis can accelerate innovation in media planning. Necessity forced them to be more agile, more authentic, and more integrated than they might have been under normal circumstances. These lessons apply well beyond crisis situations.

Global media planning, when done properly, isn't simply about reaching people efficiently. It's about creating conversations that really matter, building relationships that endure, and delivering outcomes that benefit everyone involved. eBay's pandemic pivot proves this approach isn't merely idealistic thinking. It's genuinely profitable.

RR

References:

Jordan, L., 2020. eBay: Stronger as One. WARC. Available at: http://www.warc.com [Accessed 27 May 2025].

Kantar Millward Brown. (2018). AdReaction: The Art of Integration. [online] Kantar Millward Brown. Available at: https://www.upa.it/static/upload/adr/adreaction_the_art_of_integration_global_report1.pdf [Accessed 28 May 2025].