Online auction giant eBay has launched a new TV ad campaign in which it playfully pokes fun at Amazon and argues that its site and services are geared more towards getting consumers what they want, rather than soullessly offering them generic essentials.

In terms of sales and revenues, Amazon is by far and away the more prominent of the two companies, but eBay has been attempting to bolster its performance and secure its unique position with marketing which reflects this.

The new ad emphasises the fact that rather than being sent out from anonymous, cavernous distribution centres, the items offered via auction are effectively a direct line between the buyer and the seller, creating a more bespoke, personality-driven approach to safe shopping online.

Furthermore, eBay is playing up its reputation for being a place where people go to indulge their hobbies and habits, snapping up items that are not vital to daily life but bring more fun and excitement to customers that take the plunge.

Of course, eBay is also successful at encouraging impulse buying, with late night sessions often resulting in orders being placed which might later be regretted.

In the first three months of the year eBay enjoyed a four per cent increase in revenues, hitting the equivalent of £1.7 billion during Q1. This may sound like a lot, but it is still 14 times smaller than Amazon when the two are compared directly, so it needs to use ads to make up ground in this way, according to The Drum.

By differentiating the experience of safe shopping online that it offers from its rivals, eBay is both standing out from the crowd and potentially carving a more specialised niche for itself, which can have its own issues.