August 26, 2004
By Gail Schiller
Online shoppers, logging on to the eBay's home page to search for antique teapots or the latest electronics gear, might be surprised to find themselves first confronting the two fearsome monsters from 20th Century Fox's upcoming Alien vs Predator.
That's because Fox has entered into a strategic partnership with eBay that makes it the only studio granted the right to market its films directly to millions of eBay users via animated ads on the auction site's home page.
In addition, the pact encompasses customised microsites for new film releases and exclusive offerings for the eBay community.
The microsites are self-contained websites within the larger eBay site. Fox's eBay microsites will include exclusive film clips, trailers, pictures and links to the website www.Fandango.com to purchase movie tickets.
eBay said it is the first time a movie trailer has ever been streamed on its site.
In the nine years since the Internet site was founded, eBay has allowed only three companies to present animated advertisements on its home page. AOL and Toyota were the first two, and Fox now becomes the third.
Neither Fox nor eBay would disclose the financial terms of the deal, which launched with I, Robot last month and will continue through to the year's end with the upcoming Fox films Alien vs Predator, Taxi and Fat Albert.
While the eBay film promotions will last three to four weeks, the animated home-page ads will run just two days - the day before and the day of a film's opening.
"The reason we're on eBay is it's the largest and probably the most important community on the Internet today," Fox executive marketing agent Jeffrey Godsick said
. "The eBay community is growing, and more importantly it's a culture. It's also an uncluttered (marketing) environment for us. We're eBay's only entertainment partner."
Fox said it was particularly interested in the eBay partnership because research shows that 52% of eBay's nearly 49-million unique monthly visitors had attended a movie in the previous 30 days.
For its part, eBay said it decided to team up with Fox because the studio "really wanted to become part of the eBay community" rather than just advertise on the site.
To that end, Fox will auction off props and wardrobe items from its films, link eBay pages featuring items related to its movies to its microsites, create merchandise exclusive to eBay such as limited edition movie posters, offer special screenings for eBay users and provide free film graphics, pictures and icons that eBay members can use to customise their listings.
"This endears Fox to our community," said Don Albert, senior director of strategic partnerships at eBay. "They see Fox is actually endeavouring to become part of the community and support the community."
Albert said eBay talked to several other studios when seeking out a strategic entertainment partner to enhance the eBay marketplace but was most impressed with Fox's approach.
In addition, Fox ads that link to its microsites will be posted on thousands of eBay auction pages that list products related to a particular Fox film, its theme or its talent.
eBay pages listing Will Smith CDs, Isaac Asimov books, robots and other sci-fi-related items featured I, Robot ads because it was inspired by an Asimov novel. - Reuters
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