The company I work for (a large, worldwide, office equipment
manufacturer) has a product that is perfect for eBay users. We sell
this product worldwide, and this is available online, through office
superstores and catalogues etc.

We do not want to sell this item on eBay - just advertise that we have
a product in the market that is ideal for eBay users - and when people
click on the advert it takes them to a page on our central website
with more details.

I see that the normal eBay advertising is to advertise your eBay shop
etc - I can find out how to do this, but this is not what we need (we
do not want to set up a shop).

I have seen adverts for credit card, telephone, gas and insurance
companies on eBay - they obviusly do not sell these on eBay. When you
click the advert it takes you to their website.

It appears that these adverts are being served from doubleclick.net -
but I got no specific information from them on how to add our adverts
to eBay.

Who do we contact, and is there a link to a contact page/more
information on how we can achieve this?

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 19 Jul 2005 17:18 PDT

officeequipmentuk...

I just did some pretty extensive research on eBay, and don't
see any documented notices on the possibility of advertising
on the site without being a store owner.

On the US version of eBay, I found no ads such as you said
you've seen for credit card, telephone, gas and insurance
companies. Showing me the pages where you see these would
assist me in helping you.

I did find one page on the UK version of ebay where there
is an ad for Monster.co.uk, which is routed through another
ad company - clk.atdmt.com - and takes you to Monster.co.uk
http://search.ebay.co.uk/credit_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQcatrefZC6QQfltZ9QQsacatZ-1QQsacatZ-1QQcatrefZC6QQsargnZ-1QQsaslcZ3QQsadisZ200QQfposZPostcodeQQga10244Z10425QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1

A search on atdmt.com does produce this cached Google page
which indicates a partership of some sort with eBay, though
the announcement is dated 2002, and that page is no longer
available on their site:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:TWn0Grq3za0J:www.atdmt.com/news/releases/20020709.asp+ebay+site:atdmt.com&hl=en&lr=lang_en

Additionally, a search for eBay on the referral link, at
www.atlasdmt.com also draws a blank. 

Drilling down from the atdmt.com homepage shows a page with
a list of their advertising partner sites for small business,
but eBay is not amongst them:
http://www.atdmt.com/small

Nonetheless, it would seem that ebay might work in conjunction
with such agencies, but my impression is that they would only
allow ads for large, successful companies that are already well
known, or for quasi-partners who have something of value to the
majority of eBay buyers and sellers. Or perhaps it comes down
to companies that have a very large advertising budget, and the
few exceptions for these outside ads cost a great deal.

It might be worth contacting agencies such as atdmt.com or other
ad agencies whose URLs appear in the links for the ads you see
on eBay. If you can point me to the other ads you say you've 
seen for credit card, telephone, gas and insurance companies,
I can assist you in pinning down the companies involved.

sublime1-ga

---

Clarification of Question by officeequipmentuk-ga on 20 Jul 2005 02:10 PDT

Firstly, thanks for the information.

The adverts appear on some European eBay sites - mainly UK and Germany.

For example, on UK ebay website, if you search on an item (such as
"printer") it will take you to the eBay Keywords page.

Click on "Computing -> Printers" to take you to the items for sale
listing, and at the top of the page you will find the adverts.

I have looked on the UK and German eBay websites and found the
following adverts at the top of the pages:

UK ADVERTISERS:
http://search.ebay.co.uk/printer_Printers_W0QQfromZR3QQfsopZ1QQsacatZ1245QQsalicZ3

expedia.co.uk
Thomas Cook holidays
James villa holidays
VIRGIN.NET broadband
AOL Broadband
Telewest Cable TV/Telephone/broadband
NTL cable TV/telephone/broadband
BT (British Telecom) telephone
Monster.co.uk
Ing Direct Savings Account


GERMAN ADVERTISERS:
http://games.listings.ebay.de/Konsolen_Nintendo-Game-Boy-Advance_W0QQfromZR4QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsacatZ14792QQsocmdZListingItemList

mobile.de 
Vistaprint.de
wunschlotto.de

I hope that by visiting these ebay pages and looking at the adverts,
it will help you find out who we can contact. Thanks

officeequipmentuk...

Yes, thank you for the feedback. Using the AOL ad displayed on
the page you linked to, I was able to track down the home page
for DoubleClick and dig into their site using Google searches.

Their US home page is here:
http://www.doubleclick.com/us/

Their European home page, which handles the UK market, is here:
http://emea.doubleclick.com/uk/

So I did a site search on the US site for "ebay":

ebay site:www.doubleclick.com
://www.google.com/search?q=ebay+site%3Awww.doubleclick.com

The last result on that search is the 'Smart Marketing Report
Newsletter Archive':
http://www.doubleclick.com/us/knowledge_central/newsletter_archive/

That page lists an article discussing DoubleClick's ongoing
relationship with eBay, in an article dated July/August 2003,
titled 'eBay Signs Multi-Year DFP Agreement - Enables New 
Keyword Ad Program':

"DoubleClick announced in June that eBay entered into a
 global multi-year agreement to use DoubleClick's online
 advertising solutions."

"eBay will use DoubleClick's solutions to enhance the
 performance of its online advertising programs, and to
 provide the ad serving and management capability for its
 new Keywords on eBay service. The service enables eBay
 sellers to reach targeted buyers on eBay through
 "bid-per-click" keyword advertising. It gives eBay a
 powerful way to optimize its online advertising inventory
 while empowering sellers to increase traffic and drive
 more buyers to their item listings or Store within the
 eBay marketplace."

"Under the agreement, eBay will use DART for Publishers
 (DFP), a hosted, enterprise-class advertising serving
 and management solution, which helps web publishers
 efficiently manage, serve and report on online ads."
http://www3.doubleclick.com/market/2003/07/dc/updates1.htm?c=0307_smr&id_lead=newsletter&id_source=newsletter_0307


Dart Motif ads are explained on this page:

"If rich media is the future of online advertising, think
 of DART Motif as the future of rich media. By automating
 and expediting every phase of the rich media process, it
 allows you to go from creative to click-through in days
 instead of weeks."

"Brought to you by DoubleClick and Macromedia, DART Motif
 represents the industry's most significant breakthrough
 yet for creating, managing, and measuring the impact of
 rich media."

More on the page:
http://www.doubleclick.com/us/products/digital_advertising/dart_motif/

And this cached page shows eBay to be one of the Preferred
Publishers of Dart Motif ads:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:-7edavMJzmAJ:www.doubleclick.com/us/products/online_advertising/dart_motif/publishers.asp+ebay+site:www.doubleclick.com&hl=en&lr=lang_en

This page has a link to the Dart Suite of Solutions:
http://www.doubleclick.com/us/products/digital_advertising/

That page links to this one on Dart For Advertisers:
http://www.doubleclick.com/us/products/digital_advertising/dfa/

And finally, here is the contact page for DoubleClick, which
includes a toll-free number and links to online contact forms
for various advertising solutions. The page for Dart For
Advertisers is here:
http://www.doubleclick.com/us/contact_us/default.asp?formID=dfa



A search for "ebay" on their European site:

ebay site:emea.doubleclick.com
://www.google.com/search?q=ebay+site%3Aemea.doubleclick.com

...turns up mostly PDF files which are less to the point
than the results of the search on the US site, but their 
UK homepage, which I gave you earlier, does have a Freephone
number you can use if that's your location. DoubleClick's
international headquarters is in New York.

The UK site is less extensive and user-friendly, but I used
their site map:
http://emea.doubleclick.com/uk/sitemap/

...to locate their page on DART For Advertisers:
http://emea.doubleclick.com/uk/products/online_advertising/dfa/

...and their online contact form:
http://emea.doubleclick.com/uk/?formID=uk-dfa


I think that about covers all the bases. Looking at the 
information about DART solutions tends to confirm what I
suspected earlier, which is that it may only be feasible
for companies with a substantial advertising budget.

I hope you can negotiate a solution that meets your needs.

Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that  
the answer cannot be improved upon by way of a dialog  
established through the "Request for Clarification" process. 
 
sublime1-ga

The researcher reply pointed me to a contact form for DoubleClick.net
- I sent an enquiry and got a response saying they sold their media
business to a company called Adlink www.adlink.net - I am now starting
a conversation with them over how to advertise. Many thanks.