New insights, released by eBay Advertising today, reveal that it’s not just entertainment brands that can capitalise on blockbuster releases, with 36,000 searches for “flapper dress” recorded by eBay.co.uk in the week following the release of The Great Gatsby in UK cinemas.
eBay Advertising’s latest Barometer, which looked at the ‘halo’ effect that film releases have on other categories, also found that the latest Bond installment had a similar effect, with searches for Aston Martins on ebay.co.uk jumping by 35 per cent following the release of Skyfall.
eBay Advertising’s latest insights also predict a big opportunity for entertainment brands when the clocks go back this October. Last year, eBay.co.uk saw a 13 per cent uplift in searches in the ‘DVDs, Films and TV’ category when the clocks changed compared to the previous week, as customers switched to “indoor” entertainment.
Searches in the ‘DVD, Films and TV’ category peaked in November last year as consumers started shopping for Christmas gifts as well as for themselves, confirming that autumn is a key time for brands in this sector to engage audiences.
In addition, eBay Advertising’s insights have revealed some unexpected shopping groups: on eBay.co.uk there were over half a million searches for “Disney” by men in the 35-54 age bracket between March 2013 and March 2014, demonstrating the importance of behavioural targeting for entertainment brands to reach unlikely film fans and “gifters”.
Phuong Nguyen, Director of eBay Advertising in the UK, comments: “The beauty of online is that it allows precision targeting at scale; which means film and TV brands can engage with millions of interested shoppers, without pigeon-holing audiences by demographic, and other brands can rapidly leverage spikes in consumer interest driven by cinematic releases.”
He added: “When The Amazing Spider-Man 2 launched on eBay.co.uk earlier this year, there were over 4.8 million video views demonstrating the scale of the opportunity for brands.”
Pauline Robson, Director, MediaCom Real World Insight, comments: “Online advertising is an extremely powerful channel in the entertainment marketing mix. It can be highly targeted, interactive, immersive, content-driven and can link directly through to purchase. Of course the key is to understand how your audience is behaving online. This is where behavioural insight is crucial, whether you are trying to drive DVD sales or are a non-entertainment brand hoping to capitalise on the next blockbuster release.”