The problem
eBay had high brand awareness but low consideration: people knew it, but didn't see it as a modern marketplace or serious platform for entrepreneurs. Pre-wave research sharpened the brief: 28% of British adults had considered starting a business, but fewer than a third had gone further, put off by jargon and perceived barriers. The campaign needed to shift perception and actually move people to act.

My Role
Campaign delivery at scale: led delivery of a $1M+ integrated program across a team of up to 30, spanning print (8 articles, 2 cover wraps), digital (27 articles, programmatic, roadblocks, A/B testing), video (5 films with social cutdowns), OOH (co-branded napkins, beer mats, coffee cups), and DOOH (geofenced taxi cab displays) — from initial co-branded storyboards through to the final campaign report.

Mentoring program — concept to delivery: owned a 10-week mentoring scheme — a format with no prior template in branded partnerships. Ran a Dragon's Den-style competition with Touker Suleyman as judge, selected 15 winning entrepreneurs ("Doers"), paired them with 8 established mentors, and managed contracts, a launch workshop at Guardian HQ, a Slack community, and weekly qualitative surveys throughout.

Stakeholder and compliance management: coordinated across editorial, creative, production, legal, infosec, and the client — aligning on GDPR compliance, competition T&Cs, mentor SLAs, and diversity criteria for Doer selection. Pushed back on client selections to ensure nationwide representation and avoid a London-centric shortlist.

The Outcome
250K+ Unique users — KPI met.
750K+ Video views — KPI met.
+24 percentage points Would start a business with eBay (15% → 39%)
+13 percentage points Brand love (28% → 41%)
🏆 Commended, Best Retail Marketing Strategy — The Drum Content Awards