In the endless battle between authenticity and efficiency, Etsy has chosen a side.
The online marketplace, which has built its business on connecting buyers with individual sellers of handmade and vintage goods, is running a holiday campaign that draws an explicit contrast between its offerings and those of its more automated competitors. The first spot, called "Workshop," opens in a factory producing identical objects before shifting to artisans making things by hand — a toy train, a decorative plate, a doll.
The voiceover, in what might be described as a gentle rebuke to the fulfillment-center economy, notes that while machines can produce Christmas merchandise, "magic doesn't roll off a line." The spot concludes with a young girl opening a package to find a doll made to look like her, followed by the tagline "Celebrate being human."
(One imagines the robots at certain large e-commerce operations are unbothered.)
The campaign, created by Orchard Creative and directed by Autumn de Wilde through Anonymous Content, continues the "Celebrate being human" platform that Etsy introduced earlier this year. A second spot, "Ornaments," is scheduled for release on Nov. 6 and will show Etsy sellers transforming personal memories — a father's cannonball dive, a burned ham — into custom holiday decorations.
Daniel Montalto, the vice president of brand marketing at Etsy who goes by "Monty," said the campaign was intended to emphasize that "there's a real person behind every gift." Heather Larimer, the executive creative director at Orchard, put it more directly: "Piles of cardboard boxes and mass-produced stuff ultimately never feel all that wondrous."
The campaign will run across television, digital and social media in the United States and Britain.
Whether consumers will pay a premium for wonder remains, as it does every holiday season, an open question.
Original story published in campaignlive.com: "Etsy conjures up Christmas magic in handmade products and human creativity | Campaign US"