Client Studies

eBay Showhouse

eBay’s corporate communications department required an interactive format to present their largest PR event to date – The 2004 eBay Showhouse. eBay extended a challenge to eight hot interior designers for its Showhouse 2004: each decorate a room using only items purchased on eBay. Then eBay faced its own challenge: how to share the designers’ creations with its worldwide customers through a cool virtual tour? We were hired to create not only the virtual tour, but the entire website design for the project, as well as create the lead design for all peripheral sites that allowed the auction items and event tickets to be sold. Additionally, we created all still photography used on the site and distributed out to the various international media via eBay’s PR agency, Kaplow Communications of NYC.

Our greatest challenge was working within the impossible deadlines between the time the house was fully decorated (and shootable) to the launch date. Originally we were given 10 days from the completion of the house to the completion of the website, but with a major PR coup, that was reduced by 4 days to make the site ready for a New York Times article.

Because eBay’s Showhouse 2004 featured so many highly talented interior designers, each with his or her own unique styles, Virtually Anywhere wanted to create an online experience that brought them all together into a single online event, yet also let each designer’s unique flair shine through.

The result is an upscale designed website that helped eBay display… The website includes the main feature – the Virtual Tour – which allows viewers to not only look interactively inside each room, but shop for similar items for their own homes by clicking hotspots embedded over every object that take you to similar items on eBay’s auction website. The site also includes a still photo tour and information on each designer and their approach and experience in this project.

See the final result here:
http://www.ebay.com/showhouse/

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