eBay turned to DEPT® to create an experiential moment that brought its collectors platform
to life by engaging a niche cultural community with a tech-enabled event experience.
Tapping into one of the most popular divisions of collectable culture, trading card games
(TCG), we aimed to make the brand synonymous with collectability, and get TCG fans to see
eBay as the destination to acquire rare and unique collectable cards.

The problem with trading cards is they’re always of existing characters. But with the
immersive TCG ME booth at MCM Comic Con, eBay gave attendees the chance to be the
stars of their own story and immortalise themselves as AR-generated avatars within a
personalised, collectable and digitally-shareable trading card.

15,000 TCG fans immersed themselves on-stand, while fans not in attendance were able to
use a dedicated Snapchat lens that gained 17 million impressions, +216,000 shares (3.54%)
and average play time of 23 seconds vs the 12 second average.
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After launching the dedicated eBay Collectors social account earlier in 2022, eBay turned to
DEPT® to create an experiential moment that brought it to life, targeting a niche cultural
community with a tech-enabled experience.

Collectables customers are a vibrant community of enthusiasts, but after identifying trading
card games (TCG) as one of the most popular divisions of collectable culture, we selected
MCM Comic Con as the ideal place to deliver on eBay’s brief.

As one of the leading conventions for superfans of comics, TV, movies, art, fiction and pop
culture; MCM Comic Con was the perfect place to engage this niche audience with an AR-
fuelled experience that would make the brand synonymous with collectability.

MCM Comic Con is full of distractions, with every stand competing for the audience’s
attention. Therefore our biggest challenge was to create an experience fans would want to
give their precious time to. But they will happily queue for hours for an actor’s autograph, so
we knew they would put in the time if the reward was worth the effort.

Our guiding principles for making the reward ‘worth it’ included:
● Offering something money can’t buy
● Leveraging credibility from authentic partnerships
● Making it exclusive to MCM Comic Con attendees
● Creating something physical they could take home
● Giving something personalised and truly unique

And the TCG ME booth concept was born. Understanding that eBay needed to show up in a
really authentic and credible way to effectively engage the audience, TCG brought together
the essence of the eBay’s business (‘trading’) and MCM Comic Con’s roots (comic
characters) to appeal to fans and present, creating content that was not only fun, but
wanted.
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We turned the problem with trading cards (that they’re always of existing characters) into an
opportunity, enabling eBay to offer attendees the chance to be the star of their own story and
immortalise themselves as AR-generated avatars within a personalised, collectable and
digitally-sharable trading card.

The immersive TCG ME booth at MCM Comic Con became the focal point of our campaign,
with the ultimate aim of getting our audience to see eBay as the destination to acquire and
trade rare and unique collectable cards by driving 10,000 people to the on-stand experience.

But to support the awareness build, we didn’t want to limit ourselves to the collectors and
enthusiasts attending the event. While they would still be offered an exclusive opportunity,
we created an AR lens that could be used by fans across the country so that reach wasn’t
limited to the audience attending.
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Recognising the proliferation of immersive technology and the opportunities it presents to
brands, we ensured the TCG ME experience combined physical and digital worlds.
After posing for a photo at one of the booth’s interactive AR photo booths, participants were
able to customise their cards by inputting their name and selecting one of nine titles (the
Slayer, the Magnificent, the Trainer, the Sensei, the Trickster, the Answer, the Wanderer, the
Messenger, the Treacherous) as well as choose their powers and card design styles;
MMORPG, Futuristic, Anime, Superhero Retro, or Classic Adventure. The style designs
were made with Midjourney.

The technology then combined the user’s image and inputted selections to create a bespoke
and personalised trading card that the user could preview through the AR filter on-screen,
which was then printed, placed in a sleeve to be worn on the MCM Comic Con lanyard and
taken home as a physical, personal collectable.

Each card was stamped with a unique serial number, ensuring users could guarantee its
authenticity and driving home the collectability message; as well as generating hype and
driving more people to the stand as visitors shared their experience with others across the
two days.

Every participant also received a digital version of their card via email, which could be
shared across social channels with the hashtag #ebaycomiccon22, generating even more
awareness and engagement for eBay.

50% of eBay’s stand at Comic Con was dedicated to the AR-fuelled TCG ME experience,
which was available throughout the entire weekend and free for all attendees to participate.
While the remaining space was dedicated to showcasing the range of rare and collectable
cards and games on its platform, adding substance to the style of the experience.

In addition to shaping the creative concept and delivering the immersive experience itself (in
collaboration with Noonah and Experience 12), DEPT® was responsible for generating hype
through art direction for the entire campaign and eBay’s MCM Comic Con presence, as well
as an OOH strategy; ensuring the concept was not only engaging on the event floor, but
transcended across digital and offline channels.

Building anticipation, DEPT® created an AR lens allowing fans not attending MCM Comic
Con to feel part of the experience by creating a virtual custom trading card on Snapchat, with
randomly generated designs, powers and titles. The AR lens was promoted on the platform
with the support of MediaCom.

To build anticipation and combine both the physical and digital mediums, DEPT® created an AR lens that allowed consumers who may not have attended MCM Comic Con to create their own virtual trading card. With randomly generated designs, powers and titles, fans that didn’t attend could still feel part of the experience by generating their own custom digital card on Snapchat. 

DEPT® also took this engaging concept and transcended that into an OOH strategy. To grab the attention of attendees and drive people towards the eBay stand, we took over placements all around Custom House overground station, the nearest TFL stop to the Excel centre where the convention took place.

The ads encouraged users to uncover their power and get their TCG card at the eBay stand.
The OOH displays also featured a snap code with a CTA encouraging users to go to the eBay stand.
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This was all about engaging with fans and connecting the audience with ebay, to see eBay
as a destination for their collectibles. We wanted to make sure we engaged with them in a
playful way, that brought them to our stand, gave them something memorable and unique, to
deepen our relationship with them and was worth waiting in line for.

The main measure of success was impressions, raising awareness for ebay as collectible
destination and attendance to our stand, and both of these were a huge success.

There was a constant queue for the ebay stand snaking around the corner for the whole
weekend, with over 15,000 on-stand users at MCM Comic Con, which +50% vs target. We
connected with fans and over 2000 unique cards were taken home.

● 6.1 million impressions via the the local London Snapchat lens across three days
● 17 million total impressions on Snapchat for all lens uses
● +216,000 shares (3.54% share rate)
● Average camera play time of just over 23 seconds vs average playtime of 12 seconds

Eve Williams, CMO, eBay UK said: “Collectables customers are a vibrant community of
enthusiasts and we set out to bring their passion to life with TCG ME. Comic Con celebrates
so many universes and it’s been an exciting challenge to ensure our concept is not only
engaging on the floor, but transcends into digital and OOH channels, as the results show.”