We all crave connection with others who geek out over the same things as us. And when you find that common thread, it doesn’t matter what your differences are. “Old School Meets New School” for eBay Watches is about using watches to find common threads that unite different people, talents, and industries. In this series, we bring two celebrities together to have an intimate conversation around luxury timepieces and how they incorporate watches into their personal signature style. Our goal was to break down preconceived notions about watch culture, invite diverse perspectives to the table, and emphasize the endless expression of personal style that luxury watches can bring.
The luxury watch category can feel stuffy and exclusive–gripping onto the “old world” way of thinking and leaving little room for new schools of thought. With this series, we saw an opportunity to peel back the latent layers of luxury and sharpen our focus on the purpose and personalization that a luxury watch can bring; filling whitespace in the category that taps into the emotional benefit that connects a community of enthusiasts together.
For each episode, we passed the mic to an unlikely pairing of head-turning talent that defy the standards of “old world” luxury. Fashion maven Iris Apfel & rapper Lil Yachty were the perfect pair to kick off our series: unquestionably different people from contrasting walks of life who found their connection through watches and shared their unique perspectives on style (and even exchanged phone numbers after filming!). In Episode 2, we took the idea of “old school” and “new school” to new heights, inviting legendary fashion stylist Law Roach and renowned singer/songwriter Teyana Taylor to discuss the “old”, traditional rules of fashion and how the future of the industry breaks gender norms, celebrates Black culture, and emphasizes the beauty of individuality and boundless design.
Each episode focused on one long-form video as the hero piece to capture the intimacy of the conversation and give our audience a chance to dig deep into the bonds that our talent developed when they found their common connections. We then surrounded our hero videos with additional content, leaning into Instagram’s video-focused ecosystem. Bespoke Reels and Stories showcase an intriguing mix of soundbites from our talent to drive cultural relevance, and mesmerizing watch imagery to boost eBay’s brand credibility in the luxury watch space. The success of Episode 1 paved the way for more optimizations for Episode 2: we introduced unique Instagram Shop Collections and shoppable posts to tie the conversation back to product and highlight each talents’ collection that can be replicated from eBay’s inventory. We also took the narrative of Episode 2 to new heights by partnering with GLAAD to auction off two of the luxury timepieces featured in the campaign, ultimately raising over $60,000 that went directly to the charity to support the LGBTQ+ community.
With Old School Meets New School, we set out to break through into culture and establish credibility and consideration for eBay in the luxury watch space for a younger, more diverse demographic. And with the help of our celeb talent and impactful press pickup, we were able to do just that. Both episodes generated over 120M impressions, indicating mass reach to qualified audiences and driving an average engagement rate of .44%, which increased episode over episode.
Over 30M post engagements indicated our audiences’ consideration of our content, while brand health metrics measured by Instagram/Facebook’s Brand Lift Study showed strong ad recall (avg. 4.9%) and top-of-mind awareness among our audiences (Episode 2 driving results 1.5pts above benchmark).
Both episodes generated nearly 100% positive sentiment and sparked conversation among our existing audience as well as new audiences we sought to increase on the channel over time. In fact, @ebaywatches female followership increased by 5% after both of these campaigns, proving that our narratives defied those luxury standards that were built to break down.
