Fergus C.’s Post

This time next week, an epic thing in my little world is going to happen. I’ll be joining the amazing team at Airwallex as Director of Corporate Affairs, EMEA. If you’re not in the world of fintech, you could be forgiven for not (yet) knowing that Airwallex is one of the leading and fastest-growing global banking and payments platforms out there, who do some incredibly cool things to help their business customers collect, hold, convert, send and spend money around the world. Their story started in 2015 in Melbourne, but today I cannot wait to join the 2023 story-tellers, including Stacey Zolt Hara, Stephanie Kendall, Liz Liang, Nick Creevey, Lea Cademenos (again!), Natalie Williams, and many others. To say I’m excited is an understatement. So stay tuned for updates in the coming weeks and months. But for now, team Airwallex, thank you for inviting me to join the ride. And Bring. It. On.

Calling all petrolheads (and EV battery aficionados!) to share that eBay’s ‘Goodwood Museum’ Charity Auction is still live.. https://lnkd.in/exNU67Fi The eBay Museum celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Goodwood Circuit, and the 24 eclectic exhibits include everything from a Sterling Moss signed period Goodwood programme, to at-the-time ground-breaking safety features, through to my favourite item; a Flux Capacitor from the ‘Back to the Future’ films. All proceeds will raise funds for automotive industry charity, Ben Automotive Industry Charity, and the auction – running until the end of this week – was part of eBay’s wider presence at the Goodwood Festival of Speed event last week. Thanks to our marketing and events team we showed up brightly and noisily amongst the usual car manufacturers, with a message that eBay is doubling down on showing the benefits (both environmental and economical) of buying second hand vehicle parts and accessories, over new-new. And on that note, I also wanted to share that in recent days our great agency and in house teams worked together to land two additional epic stories on car recycling on eBay. The first was a six-page feature (yes, SIX!) in key trade title WhatCar?, and the second was a five-minute well-branded segment in BBC Click.. (Have a watch yourself if you can, from 18 mins and 45 second in: https://lnkd.in/eAcHfdbK). PS please don’t bid for the flux capacitator. I intend to swoop at the last minute.. PPS if you don’t know what a flux capacitator is, I probably don’t want to be your friend anymore

Coming at you with a car-heavy update to close the week.. First up I wanted to share that eBay’s car and vehicle parts & accessories team have continued to score some top notch coverage thanks to the wonderful team at Charles Trent Ltd in Poole, including with this lovely brand and message-tastic piece in Top Gear, out today: https://lnkd.in/eGXDQUgJ Continuing the theme, this week we were also in another key trade title, Auto Express, with a 4-page feature, bringing to life the same colourful story of how recycling cars and their parts could and should be the future of a circular motor industry. (And if you take a look at the 3k+ comments written to date in response to an epic 30-min programme by Johnny Smith on his Late Break Show – https://lnkd.in/eNRFt_Yj – you’ll get a sense that this is a very welcome development indeed..). Finally, potholes. Yep. They are a scourge on our roads, and as these recent pieces in The Sun and Mail Online attest, some places have it worse than others! https://lnkd.in/etaCSGkW https://lnkd.in/e79BSqH2 Hopefully you’ll be hearing more about eBay’s role in the life of motorists in due course, including on the advertising side from our talented brand colleagues and agency partners, and at Goodwood next month, but for now, toot toot. 

Tip-top job alert.. Anyone looking to move in to comms at a global ecommerce company that does loads of cool stuff and never stays still? Anyone wanting to join a small but perfectly formed team that focuses on growth categories such as car parts & accessories, and reputation protection & growth? Anyone want to work with Yours Truly, and have a hybrid commute to leafy Richmond? If so, you know the drill: https://lnkd.in/ed4JePbS

‘Tis the Friday before a Coronation and a three-day weekend, so what better way to mark the occasion by sharing that our local phonebox has (organically) graced the BBC and Times today, thanks to a fun sculpture to salute King Charles: https://lnkd.in/ez73639z (third picture) and https://lnkd.in/eVZq_USU (first picture) And speaking of local things, this week eBay also travelled to one of our fantastic motors/car parts & accessories sellers, Charles Trent Ltd, to launch eBay’s ‘Certified Recycled’ proposition for motor journalists in one of the most apt of environments. The CT site in Poole is not only the UK’s biggest and most advanced car ‘de-production’ lines out there (think of a car assembly factory in reverse), but it brings to life the complex but colourful and exciting process of recycling car parts to a whole new level. The skill of the mechanics is second-to-none, and it’s great to think that over 60% of the parts salvaged and certified there go on eBay UK. But frankly nothing beats the James Bond style car crusher at the end of the process.. (Watch the clip below for more. And yes, the leftover metal is sent on, melted down and re-used too). Oh, and the media coverage. Tonnes of motor trade title articles have landed, a bunch of regional BBC and ITV news programmes have aired - e.g. here https://lnkd.in/eKteHYzh - and scores of regional radio interviews have been nailed too. And there's a bunch more trade and national coverage pending over the coming days and weeks too. Phew!

Hoping to bust those Sunday evening blues by sharing a quick toot.. The toot is to mark the fact that this morning our UK CEO Murray Lambell was live on BBC One’s ‘Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg’ show, alongside the Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and a host of other names – including Lisa Nandy MP (Shadow Levelling Up Secretary), Tracy Brabin (Mayor of West Yorkshire), Minette Batters (NFU President), Judy Blume (American author) and Jaan Tallinn (Co-Founder of Skype). Murray spoke about a range of topics, including small businesses, migration and skills, the role of A.I. (on eBay and elsewhere), and diversity & inclusion. For those particularly current affairs and politics minded, the full 60 minutes is here on iPlayer: https://lnkd.in/eMgBDPiu

Always great to see stories about our small business sellers landing in the media, and particularly pleased to see that this morning's BBC Online story - about two of our sellers from Bristol (in the the Home & Garden and Sneaker/Trainer categories) - is one of the 'most read' in the Business section: https://lnkd.in/e8qTP4YF. (Equally great that our awesome Head of SMB Sarah Bryant and the amazing Michelle Ovens CBE get some space for their words of wisdom too). The same story also ran on TV via BBC Points West evening news last night, showing how eBay is the perfect place for "side hustle sellers" to grow their business: https://lnkd.in/exKbMe9Z (from approx 11m 30s in) And while I'm jabbering on about the merits of selling through eBay, today we also saw more regional media pick-up on the fact we're giving grants and support packages away to businesses who want to start or scale their online selling with eBay: https://lnkd.in/eatwchN9

It’s nearly a week late, but I wanted to share a snap from the Terrace Pavilion at Westminster, where a few of us eBayers were lucky enough to be invited by the always-excellent Small Business Britain team to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of Small Business Saturday (3rd Dec). To save on multiple posts, I also wanted to share a video piece about eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee in sneakers/trainers, which featured yesterday in The Economist’s latest YouTube episode, in a three-part series on illicit trade. Counterfeiting is a punchy topic, but pleased to see how eBay is showing up as part of the solution, and helping both buyers and sellers to collect and trade with confidence: https://lnkd.in/eJCQzgJB The press office machine has also been busy this week, as we also launched a story about our partnership with circular fashion experts ACS Clothing, to make second hand items more accessible (https://lnkd.in/ew76iGDe), and issued a release to share new research on what makes British small businesses tick - as well as to slightly trumpet that we’ve given a bunch of grants and support packages to many of those same businesses trading on eBay (https://lnkd.in/ecjg3XXg). There's more coming, but we'll slow down over the festive break. (I promise!)

This week has been a little like buses. You wait ages for one, and then two rock up at once. Specifically, two newspaper front page articles about or mentioning eBay.. The first was yesterday’s City AM, which proclaims “eBay stands up for firms hit by the postal strikes”, and came courtesy of a punchy op-ed from our UK CEO, who has been pushing hard on an end to the dispute – particularly as the strikes are even happening today (Black Friday). The second is today’s Evening Standard, which comes courtesy of eBay’s involvement in the newspaper’s cost of living Christmas appeal, and our awesome eBay for Charity team. And off the front pages, our big boss was also on CNBC in their 'Sustainable Future' slot this morning, talking about eBay’s efforts to encourage shoppers to think more about buying second hand and pre-loved this Black Friday, for both economic and sustainability reasons. So safe to say there's a lot going on - and it’s not even December yet!

What a week! We kicked off by seeking to turn the tide on rampant consumerism by landing this piece in BBC Business Online (https://lnkd.in/eejFzt2Q - thanks again Emma!) in the run-up to Black Friday, by launching a ‘Buy Better Than New’ proposition from our trading and marketing teams, and since then have seen pieces in Times, Evening Standard and a ton of trades and regional broadcast. And earlier this very morning we rounded the week off with an appearance with our UK CEO Murray on Sky News’ Ian King Live, where he spoke about both the circular retailing environment, and the challenges facing our small sellers due to the ongoing mail strikes. But that’s not all – over the next few weeks you’ll hopefully hear more from eBay in the run up to Black Friday proper, plus we have some cool stuff planned for Small Business Saturday (3rd December), as well as more on refurbished. Watch this space!