Am I the only one sick of the Yahoo run-of-site media buy?  When it comes to reaching a general audience online, web marketers are still very much beholden to a few major media properties – Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Google.  Because of higher CPMs, it rarely makes economic sense to spend more than a fraction of our media budget on interesting niche sites, the Gawker’s, Salon’s, or Oprah.com’s of the Web world.

Every time we have a brainstorm about media planning for a new campaign, I suggest eBay.  With more than 80 million visitors every month, eBay consistently ranks in the Top 5 of all online properties.   But if you ask our media planners, eBay doesn’t really want to play.  The company lacks its own media reps, and the focus is on plain banners rather than innovative technologies or executions.

To my knowledge, Toyota is one of the few advertisers to capitalize on eBay’s massive general audience with the Moving Forward Gallery, a co-branded microsite that provides an overview of the Toyota vehicle line-up presented like a museum gallery.  Golden Palace’s various stunt auctions and bids (remember the Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese?) also count.

Today Domino’s Pizza announced a much deeper eBay partnership that underscore the site’s potential.    Domino’s will auction off high ticket items like iPods and flat-screen TV’s for $9.99 to promote a new $9.99 pizza deal.  To be eligible, bidders must participate in an online scavenger hunt at AnythingGoesDeal.com.  It’s a very smart promotion that recognizes how
people use eBay and rewards persistent browsing.   Read more from MediaPost.  (Thanks to Kim Spiegelberg).

Misha Cornes