This weekend online market place eBay staged a large installation of a selection of some of their most successful products in the high-concept shopping mall Bikini Berlin offering visitors a chance to win their favorite product. With the event eBay once again showed how diverse their product range is and that there really is the perfect product for everyone.
We live in a world surrounded by purely digital products: online shops, smartphone apps, social media platforms. We spend so much time with these virtual entities that we somehow completely loose touch with the companies behind them. An event like this is a great opportunity for users to connect a “face” with something we otherwise only use as a tool. I see the events that we’ve done with iHeartBerlin over the last 10 years as the same thing. It’s a way for us to manifest the blog in the real world, get to know our readers, and showcase that we do more than just writing about things, we can also create them and take part in the cultural ongoings of Berlin.
For eBay the installation was a great way to showcase an aspect of them, that many people still haven’t fully comprehended. The online platform that became famous for its auctions and sale of used goods has diversified and grown immensely over the years. Now they are one of the largest market platforms for retailers that also sell brand new goods. In the installation they presented best-selling examples of 4 hugely popular product segments: sneakers, headphones, lamps and helmets that were hung from floating balloons or placed inside trees. The lucky winners of the wheel-of-fortune-style game that queued in long lines for a chance to participate could then enter the installation and plug their favorite product like a cherry from a tree – literally!
With this simple, yet effective idea the online giant managed to touch base with the offline world in a way that made a lot of visitors of the mall quite happy. What better way is there to connect with the real world than making people happy with a gift.
Thanks to eBay for the support.
