eBay & Bangers: Mad for Cars

Client

eBay

Year

2024

Sector

Linear Branded Entertainment/AFP

Format

TV & Digital

Background

The car industry is now almost entirely reliant on customers driving new cars they don’t need with money they don’t have. Shockingly UK car finance borrowing for 2022 was almost £41 BILLION, up £4bn on the previous year, which is ultimately not sustainable!

It’s also, fundamentally, damaged car culture as people care less for cars they have or give them back at the end of their lease. eBay Car Parts and Accessories wanted to change this and bring back the nation’s love for cars as well as “drive” advocacy and credibility, to help position themselves as THE single destination for all car parts and accessory needs.

Tinie and Naomi Schiff sat on the bonnet of a car

+43%

Up on volume

To optimize reach the first episode launched straight after the England vs. Italy Football in October ‘23 and was up +43% on volume, +46% on share for ABC1s (50% of profile), +133% on volume and +142% on share for Men (65% of profile).

2.2M

Total views

The entire series, instantly made available on launch as a box set on Channel 4 streaming and third-party platforms to maximise viewership – exceeded 2.2m views in total.

x4

Viewers were more likely to consider eBay

Independent research by Ci found that viewers were x4 more likely to consider eBay than non-viewers and we also stole share from competitors - jumping in affinity ahead of Euro Car Parts and closing a 27-point gap with Amazon on “trust” to just 12-points.

The Big Idea

EssenceMediacom came to Channel 4 looking for a big, mainstream, longform branded entertainment “vehicle” that could help eBay create greater engagement in pop culture and “borrow our cool” with recognisable Talent.

In response, Channel 4 Sales and Channel 4 Commissioning proposed a new original format called “Bangers”, produced by Plum Pictures and Tinie (formerly Tempah)’s own company Imhotep Studio. On screen, the series would see Tinie team up with F1 analyst and stunt driver, Naomi Schiff, to take a nostalgic look back at the cars from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and battle it out for the best-in class! We believed this idea would answer the brief whilst being completely unique in the automotive market.

We’re thrilled that viewers saw significant uplifts in brand KPIs vs. non-viewers: top-of-mind awareness (+9%) and key brand perceptions for eBay ("brand I feel connected to" +19%). We look forward to championing eBay’s car parts and accessories in 2024.

Maria Betes

Head of Marketing at eBay

Making It Happen

We created a 4 x 60 min TV series that covered a different car category each week (4 x 4, Hatchback, Family and Sports), Tinie and Naomi were joined by

Celebrity Guests Ian Wright, Guz Khan, Tom Kerridge and Patrice Evra to share their own personal recollections. Watch a snippet here!

eBay's full sponsorship across linear and Channel 4 streaming was accompanied with contextually relevant moments where eBay could be visually and verbally integrated into the series, from Tinie using their app to search for products for contributors, to the “eBay Enthusiast Poll” which used real data from eBay’s customers to help decide the best car model if there was a draw in the final challenges!

To fully integrate the series outside of the show, additional TV and digital ads were created to use key clips and stills from each episode to fuel conversation with new audiences across Channel 4’s plethora of platforms, Snap and YouTube Social Sales, TikTok and Meta.

eBay also brokered a brand ambassador deal with Tinie himself where he selected his own favourite parts and accessories, and, in a first for a Linear Branded Entertainment project, eBay even built a driving game on Snap where you could steer your own Banger by moving your head left to right to win points and avoid obstacles!

Results

To optimize reach the first episode launched straight after the England vs. Italy Football in October ‘23 and was up +43% on volume, +46% on share for ABC1s (50% of profile), +133% on volume and +142% on share for Men (65% of profile).