In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Erin Holt, Gumtree’s Head of Partnerships. Gumtree now goes beyond household items and includes cars, jobs, real estate and services. There are now over 7.8m Australians using Gumtree – or gummies, as they affectionately known and Add to Cart wanted to get an update on Gumtree, understand more about Gummies and explore how eCommerce brands might be able to access this huge audience. In this conversation we learn more about the primary Gumtree customer – promisingly named the super intender. We also dive into how Gumtree created a book with kids star and viral video sensation, Jimmy Rees. And stay until the end to hear how Erin’s own Gumtree pick up experience ended up with her whole family being invited into a stranger’s first birthday party.
“You don’t want to be at the bottom end of that funnel, shouting and trying to compete with so many others, it’s really important that brands do their hand-holding up front.”
Erin Holt
Questions answered in this episode include…
- How does the Gumtree advertising process work?
- You recently released an extensive research project, what did that report reveal?
- How would you recommend that retailers harness the power of local?
Everyone knows a super-intender, right?
“It’s the rise of the super-intender that’s come through, which is a really great audience for me to talk to and market about, because they’re an audience that know what they want and how they want it. And I don’t know why it was surprising. because my hubby is exactly this.
So he’s been on Gumtree for the last 10 years. When we first moved into our first place, he had every alert for every brand you could think of and just knew what he wanted. So he was purposeful, he was in that mindset. And that’s exactly what came from the research.
So 64% of our consumers come with a brand in mind, and 81% of them are there with intent. So all those verticals you listed for, are they listing an item, are they buying item, are they having conversations within the community, or are they even listing a job on our jobs vertical, or a car for sale? So there’s so many different things they can be doing at one time. And they definitely are. I think that’s our unique proposition, is that they’re in that transactional mindset.”
Gumtree experience
“I’ve had some good experiences on Gumtree, that’s for sure. One of the most recent ones was after we went on a road trip in October last year coming out the back of lockdown 1.0. We’re on our way down south, and I really wanted this little buggy which basically clips on to a pram so the toddler can stand on it. I was trying to find one on the way down, this is how fast trading happens. And I was looking, looking. I was like, there’s one on the way down south. So my husband’s like, “Oh god, all right. Let’s do it.”
We went and I knocked on the door and they’re having a massive birthday bash for their one year old. They ended up inviting us in for cake. She would not take no for an answer. All my husband can see from the car is me getting dragged into the house by five people. And he’s got kids in the car. It was actually such a hot day. He’s like, what do I do? Do I go after her? Get the kids? So he ended up having to get both boys out, coming up, trying to see what’s going on.
And they dragged him into the house with the kids like, “Oh, you’ve got kids. Come in. It’s a party.” And they would not let us leave. It was big family do. I think they were Filipino. It was great. It was so much fun. So it was actually one of my favorite experiences.”
No need to shout
“So insurance brands are huge for us right now, especially with our new network proposition with the CarsGuide and Autotrader brands. I think what we’ve been able to do and really harness our data, is to know when our consumers are in in-market, new market and future market, and really bucket them up. A brand has come board recently and they’ve done the first cross network campaign, and leveraged that data to ensure that the right messaging is getting to the consumers across the right part of the journey.
I think that’s really important for brands to understand is that you don’t want to be at the bottom of the funnel shouting and trying to compete with so many other brands. It’s really important that they do their hand holding up front. We’re able to put them through labs. We bid out some really engaging content that we’re able to serve across the network in high impact units. And so, that one’s actually been really successful. Great click through rates, great response as well in the brand uplift study.”
Links from the episode:
- Planet Ark
- Jimmy Rees
- Ollie and the Spectral Spectacles
- The Changing Face of Consumerism report
- Gumtree Media UpNext
- Shopify Plus and Pet Culture (sponsored)
- Signet and Sienna Byron Bay (sponsored)
This episode was brought to you by…
