Shop, Talk, Buy, Shriek

  “The centerpiece of the [eBay] campaign is a six-week Web series, featuring Ms. [Samantha] Bee, called ‘Unwrap Attack,’ which is inspired by the so-called Christmas gift freakout videos on YouTube. Ms. Bee presents fanciful examples of those videos, in which gift recipients shriek, scream and go gaga as they open presents, and encourages eBay customers to submit their own versions at lovetogive.ebay.com.
   There is also an application on the eBay Facebook page (facebook.com/eBay) named the Unwrap Attack Creator, which offers users a choice of over-the-top reactions to gifts they receive like ‘tears of joy’ and ‘bouncing off the walls.’
   The light-hearted [eBay Web series] campaign is an example of social commerce or social shopping, which brings together networking with buying online. Who better to devote a campaign to social commerce than the Web site that proclaims itself the world’s largest online marketplace? 
   Social shopping is becoming ‘a driving force for e-commerce,’ said Christopher Payne, vice president for the North American operations of eBay in San Jose, Calif., particularly among the customer that the company calls ‘our female enthusiast shopper, who is laser-focused on giving not just a me-too gift but a gift that’s something unique, just right for the recipient.’
   Those customers ‘like to hunt for an item, like to talk about it and like to share’ the results, Mr. Payne said, and among them ‘social channels have become dominant.’
   ‘We’re definitely trying to tap into the same emotional insight,’ he added, by concentrating the campaign in the social media favored by the target audience.” 

See article at: NYT 15Nov10: “EBay Promises Christmas Freakouts”