Etsy debuted a new TV commercial, and the company is sticking with its marketing message that Etsy is a destination for shopping for gifts. The ad is titled, “Don’t Celebrate Birthdays” and features the tagline, “Gifts that say, I get you.”
There are two versions of the same ad showing guests at a birthday party for a fictional “Julia,” with the only difference being the audio:
Version 1 voiceover:
Birthdays. We’re good at remembering them, but we’re not always great at celebrating them.
So don’t JUST celebrate birthdays. Celebrate Julia, and how much she loves snacks.
Or her elegant style.
Celebrate the home she gave Alfie!
Gifts that say I get you.
Etsy
Version 2 voiceover:
Happy birthday, again. Here’s a cake and some friends.
But what if we actually celebrate Julia, and how much she loves
snacks,
or her elegant style,
and the home she gave Alfie,
with gifts from Etsy.
Gifts that say, I get you.
Etsy
Etsy launched a feature called Gift Mode in 2024 to coincide with its marketing strategy of painting its marketplace as a gifting destination, running an ad during last year’s Super Bowl. Etsy explained its Gift Mode was “an interactive hub for gifting that combines AI and human curation to help shoppers find the perfect present,” that it had launched in January.
Little Black Book said Etsy was running the new commercial across TV and social media channels and cited the following statistic: “There are four searches for birthday items on Etsy every second.”
Little Black Book said the campaign was part of a continued investment to make Etsy synonymous with gifting, “not just for seasonal retail moments, but also for everyday gifting occasions, which make up half of all gift purchases on Etsy.”
Etsy might have chosen to promote its paid membership program called Etsy Insider in its latest TV commercial, but last month, CEO Josh Silverman told Wall Street the program was still in closed beta mode. He said members appeared to value the free-shipping benefit, and Insider could lead loyal customers to come back to Etsy more frequently without the company having to invest marketing dollars to reengage them.
Take a look at the following Etsy commercial posted on YouTube, and let us know what you think – and what kind of marketing do you think would best drive shoppers to Etsy?
They can continue paying millions in ads, but when you have kids running the show, who know nothing of ecommerce to begin with, you’ve got a huge problem.
Etsy’s search has been broken for months. Long time sellers keep telling them of the issue, but to no avail.
Add insult to injury, it appears that Etsy’s newest algorithm is designed to shadow ban long time shops and sellers whom Etsy now considers “stale”. This started in October 2024.
Also, keep in mind Etsy’s very generous buyer satisfaction program (buyer complains/opens case and Etsy refunds automatically AND they keep the item) and their push to offer free shipping across the board, and well, it’s nothing but one big cluster*&^%.
Etsy used to have a certain cache’ and drew discriminating buyers who felt Ebay was a bit downmarket. These buyers also didn’t mind dropping the big bucks on high ticket items. However, those buyers seemed to have disappeared, along the same time that Etsy decided to let cheap overseas goods flood the site.
Solution(s)? Not sure there are any at this point. I don’t see any upshot of continuing to prop up a dead horse.
The “new” Etsy commercial hardly reflects the actual metrics of the vast majority of sellers on Etsy. It will have little impact on them. Instead what I found rather concerning is accessing SEC’s “Edgar,” search for Etsy and see the apparent selling of common stock by the CEO, Directors and corporate employees, who obtained low cost and actuall no-cost shares by the Board of Directors. Most e-commerce corporations facing fiscal stress, and want to survice, actually purchase their own shares. This is what saved eBay and Apple. Etsy has a problem of identity. This sell-off by those granted Etsy common stock is hardly a positive indicator. The new selling software has removed the easy listings on several social media sites, that was a very positive way for sellers to sell. Did the social media sites want to dissociate with Etsy? The solution is simple. Take the actions of corporations that reversed negative growth and modify it for Etsy. Etsy should also use its acquisitions not just to maintain profitability but also integrate the acquistions into the needs of sellers. This would reverse the decline of actual sellers, not just sellers offering nothing to sell.
I don’t think that is going to help Etsy at all. That really doesn’t hit the mark of handmade. Snacks? Ok, many sell store bought snacks on there and resell them and break the rules. Makes no sense with the horse knocking the table either. And Julia? Why? Looks like someone was on drugs or drunk that made that commercial. Mish mosh! Etsy stopped being handmade and stopped being human. Etsy will not correct what is really wrong with Etsy or fix anything. It is train wreck there.
That commercial makes no sense to me.