Seth Godin's Linchpin in one 30 second summary

img

Rad BMX eBay listing reveals the power of a pithy sales pitch

April 23, 2010 | By Paul Ryan

If you’ve ever doubted the capacity of savvy marketing to transform an average product into the must-have slice of cool, check out this brilliant eBay campaign from early 2009. Dubbed “The Wicked Sick Project”, the creative team at Australian advertising agency George Patterson Y&R bought an unimpressive and used BMX from eBay and relisted it with lashings of their ‘rad to the power of max!’ marketing flair.

Screen capture of original eBay listing below, via 2oceansvibe.com [click to enlarge].

bmx ebay ad1 Rad BMX eBay listing reveals the power of a pithy sales pitch

Advertise on Anthill for less than $7.92 per month

Want an ad like this?

Anthill is a ‘lightning rod’ for Australian innovators, entrepreneurs and investors. Doesn’t it make sense to promote your business to these leaders of change? Special Promotion!

Get business bestseller Made to Stick with your listing

Add a New Comment

View Comments

icecreamguru
April 24th, 2010 at 6:23 pm

OK – knowing a bit about how these things work the main issue here was the bike was worth around $100 on second hand market. Sometimes on eBay the “average” level price is not achieved – they got the bike for $27.50 – so a bargain. When they relisted the price went up because they hyped it up – read “advertised it more”. So they gaind around $100 – my next question is when someone asks them to put on similar effort to advertise their product would they/their agency do it for $100 (incl GST) ? I think not. At least they had fun – and we had fun watching it ;-)

[Reply]

alexavery
April 24th, 2010 at 9:13 pm

I love the ad, the idea and creativity.

My only question is why are Anthill hyping something that happened in mid-2009? You gonna bust some dancing Matt on us next?

Got anything fresh in the “creative” space?

[Reply]

Steve
April 26th, 2010 at 5:21 pm

Great – so we made $100 – if it really was a commercial transaction as I assume the test sets out to emulate, the theoretical expenses of 2 of Patts best and brightest, say 1 x hour copywriting (or is that making up “sick” stats that are obviously untrue) at say $150 and Ebay costs say $5 as well as time answering dumb questions from Ebayers about how hard is it to do one of the 687 sick wheelies (account management) etc etc… So I think you guys are right this DOES prove the value (or lack thereof) of creativity without a sound business proposition behind it. Creativity can work but it must be tied to and enhance commercial outcomes if any money is to be made, which was obviously the yardstick here.

[Reply]

blog comments powered by Disqus

Ant Mart

Latest Video

Snazzy Napper: Anthill’s search for the world’s most brainless innovation continues

The product developers describe the innovation as “the snazzy way to sleep while you travel”. What they don’t explain is how this innovation hasn’t yet caused race riots in a country already irrationally fearful of similar headware and community centres. Could this be the most brainless innovation ever?

More>>

Latest Comments

Ant Mart

Anthill Amabassadors

Management Matters

Sponsored by Fonality PABX Solutions

You looked at the big telcos and the big price tag. What next? Fonality believes in providing full PABX solutions that not only do more than our competitors, but at a much lower investment.

More>>

thumb

Tech & Innovation

Sponsored by Ozhosting

Anyone can buy a domain name, create a website and and have a company provide their web hosting. The real trick is to be taken seriously.

More>>

thumb

Upcoming Events

Oct
1

Are you wasting your money on online marketing — on websites and campaigns that don’t deliver?

Does online marketing get you confused? Are you properly exploiting social media? Do you understand search engine optimisation? Is your website delivering you enough business? If you answered Yes to any of these questions, it might be time to get some help.

More>>

Sep
18

Young Entrepreneurs’ Unconvention

Promotion: You obviously have a desire to support entrepreneurship in Australia. So do we! That’s why we have arranged an extra bonus ticket for all Anthill readers to the upcoming Young Entrepreneurs’ Unconvention, on 18 September, 9:00am to 5:00pm, in Sydney.

More>>