eBay x Stoll & Co. : Behind our Authenticity Guarantee
This campaign met watch enthusiasts on Reddit and collector forums to introduce eBay's Authenticity Guarantee: a first-of-its-kind trust program for pre-owned luxury goods. Message association landed 4x above North America benchmark and set the creative direction for years to come.
MY ROLE
Social Lead, Luxury Watches — Insight, Strategy, Creative Direction, Execution
PARTNERS
eBay North America Creative and internal cross functional teams
PLATFORM
Facebook, YouTube, Organic Social (@ebaywatches)
OUTCOME
Blueprint for national "Meet the Authenticator" campaign, later expanded to global markets including Australia and the UK
4x
Higher brand lift than North America benchmark
4.8% lift vs. 1.1% benchmark
8.8M
Total campaign impressions across paid social
3.3M
Total thru plays at $0.04 cost per thru play
$0
Agency or production budget — produced internally
THE PROBLEM
The community did not distrust the Authenticity Guarantee. They distrusted the unknown.
When eBay launched its Authenticity Guarantee for watches in September 2021, the reception in the collector community was not enthusiasm. It was skepticism. On Reddit, Omega forums, Rolex forums, and WatchUSeek, the questions were consistent and specific: Who are these authenticators? Would opening the caseback void a warranty? How can eBay possibly verify the movement of a luxury Swiss timepiece?
I was reading those forums not as a passive observer but as primary research. What I found was that the underlying concern was not really about eBay's ability to authenticate. It was about transparency. The buyers who were asking "how do you know you can trust their judgment?" were not asking an unanswerable question. They were asking a question nobody had bothered to answer yet.
THE PARTNER
The credentials that made the community stop and listen.
Stoll & Co. was not a random vendor. Founded in 1982 by watchmaker Ron Stoll in Dayton, Ohio, it had grown into the largest independent watch service center in the United States. Factory authorized by over 30 Swiss luxury brands including Omega, Cartier, IWC, Panerai, and Tag Heuer. An 8,000 square foot facility with 65-plus watchmakers and specialists holding a combined 600-plus years in the craft. When collectors asked "who are these people?" the answer was hiding in plain sight. I just needed to put it on camera.
THE EXECUTION
Three videos. Two days. One internal team.
The production was entirely internal. No agency. The North America Creative and Social teams handled everything: concept, location scouting, filming, editing, and distribution. Day one was location scouting and filming the authentication process. Day two was interviews with Ron Stoll, Michael Edelman, and Jamie Dolinar. The format was documentary-adjacent by design. Over-produced content would have felt exactly wrong for a collector audience that prizes authenticity and craftsmanship over polish.
The editorial strategy was to craft three distinct stories from the same footage, each addressing a different layer of the trust question, and then cut them across multiple lengths for different paid placements: 6s, 15s, 30s, and 60s, all built around the same core narrative.
The :30 was the standout performer across all formats: tighter watch aficionado audience targeting combined with CRM lookalikes drove 4.7M impressions, 1.4M thru plays, and 2.3M post engagements from that cut alone.
