Innovative Local Business: BuddyBid
Finding Value In Social Media
Meet the social auction app BuddyBid Mention the words ‘online’ and ‘auction’ and it’s likely that there are two major brands that spring to mind. However, Neil Campbell and Ken Brickley have added another name to the mix that offers a clear advantage to businesses that value their brand and their investment in social media. BuddyBid is a white-labelled social auction application that enables businesses to monetize their established social communities. With BuddyBid, businesses run an auction under their own branded labelling, while the social experience of Facebook engages users and grows the audience. Catherine Murray spoke to Ken Brickley and Neil Campbell, co-founders of BuddyBid, to learn more about how this application is building brands and engaging consumers on a global scale. Business owners know that they need to have an online presence, but achieving this in a way that preserves their brand and uses their existing online community can prove a steep learning curve. As CEO of Webb’s Auctions, Neil Campbell says he has looked at the movements of social media over the past several years, questioning how it can best be utilised for their business. “There’s a very easy logic around extending into social media, because we publish [our catalogues] on a regular basis anyway,” explains Neil. “Social media is a very specific environment, that can also be very powerful. On the flipside we had Trade Me coming alongside, basically soaking up a lot of the bricks and mortar businesses. But we never wanted to go into that space due to brand equity issues.” Therefore the challenge was to develop a product that protected brand equity, made use of a business’ investment in social media, and provided a monetary return. “We didn’t really want another social media tool that just told our story in a different voice,” says Neil. “We wanted something that engages what people already know about Webb’s Auctions – which is that it is a transactional house. People come to us to buy and sell.”
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The Business Channel
Issue 12 - July 2013
While there are a plethora of online auction websites – with Trade Me and eBay being the most recognised in New Zealand – Neil says one element that none of them offer is the ability to put your business’ brand in front of the client. “We believe quite strongly that there is an appetite for exchanging real value within social platforms. It’s a natural step to have the brand equity variable attached to people competing socially online and transacting in real value.” “Auctions are a great fit with the social media environment,” adds co-founder Ken Brickley. “Auctions have been social for a millennium. They are social gatherings, attended in much the same way as sports – we don’t know what the outcome is, but we’re drawn to it, we comment on it, and we discuss every aspect of it. When I bid on something using BuddyBid, and it goes to my friends’ newsfeeds, the engagement is astronomical compared with the engagement of just commenting and liking a photo – and we think that it’s due to the fact there is an unknown outcome.” BuddyBid was launched in beta just several months ago, after being in development for the past year. Ken says they began by adopting the theme around ‘minimum viable product’ from Eric Ries book The Lean Startup. “Rather than building every single feature, you just take the core features