Work

B2B

eBay

Designing a seamless, immersive hybrid experience that wows

eBay brings together an international audience of entrepreneurs each year for eBay Open, their largest gathering of eBay sellers. Ingenuity has been an ongoing partner, working in lock-step with eBay’s Seller Engagement team to envision and execute the annual theme format, content and design for these epic three-day events.

eBay Open was made virtual following the pandemic. In person, it had high energy. Online, it had higher attendance. eBay wanted to deliver the best of both. They challenged us to create a richly immersive, interactive hybrid event that would seamlessly blend live and virtual content.

We proposed a Behind the Scenes creative theme that would give sellers unfiltered access to a completely reimagined eBay Open experience. The event provided networking opportunities with other sellers, access to leadership, interaction with eBay leadership, and early access to product updates and platform improvements.

Backstage view of four people prepping to be recorded.

Presentations would mirror Ted Talks, bringing speakers to the forefront for dynamic presentations. There would be live discussions between sellers and executives: an in-person kickoff in three major cities, plus regional watch parties. We’d share insider tips, tricks and new product features. And an emcee would provide the consistent thread, while bringing unbeatable energy to the event.

Laptop view of virtual platform for eBay Open.
Detail page view of eBay Open brand book guidelines.

Of course, the concept was just the beginning. Over the nine months leading up to the event, we created a comprehensive brand playbook to inform all touchpoints to bring the event to life cohesively — including multiple templates for promotional materials, social video assets, intro/outro animations, event banners, merchandise and more.

We managed the planning, coordination and design of 42 presentations, including nine keynotes—delivering over 50 pre-recorded videos for the three-day event. And to ensure speakers weren’t presented “in a box” per the expected virtual platform, we designed eBay- and event-branded sets to bring the audience in, underscore the event theme, and optimize the user experience.

Behind the scenes view of director and presenter getting ready to record.

The result was a dynamic and cohesive end-to-end brand experience that engaged sellers beyond expectations.

Graphic depicting two eBay Open stats: +10K sellers attended and +100K chat messages sent.
Graphic depicting two eBay Open stats: +1.5M organic impressions and 93% event satisfaction.