Iskra Velichkova – Kleinanzeigen

Kleinanzeigen is Germany’s leading online classified ads platform, known for its agility and startup-like flexibility. With more than 36 million monthly visitors, Kleinanzeigen offers over 50 million ads simultaneously, fostering a culture of sustainability and community. Their mission is to bring the joy of sustainable trade to everyone, providing a space for buying, selling, or giving away items.

In this brand growth interview Iskra Velichkova, Head of Brand at Kleinanzeigen, talks about the company’s rebranding journey, creative campaigns, and testing strategies, highlighting their efforts to foster sustainability and affordability.

A sustainable way to brand growth

Kleinanzeigen is a recommerce company. The key difference between a recommerce and an e-commerce company is that e-commerce companies measure growth by sales figures and revenue while recommerce companies depend directly on how much traffic and activity occur on the platform. The main KPIs to measure Kleinanzeigen’s growth are what Iskra calls “vibrancy” – visits to the site, monthly active users, number of ads uploaded and responses to ads etc. However, for the brand itself, also classic metrics like awareness, consideration, and brand trust are to be monitored and optimised.

As a market leader in the recommerce sector, Kleinanzeigen represents the whole category. This means in order for Kleinanzeigen to grow, the whole category needs to grow as well. When the whole category grows, competitors grow, but it is also beneficial for Kleinanzeigen and it is beneficial for the environment, which Iskra sees as a fortunate convergence. “We need to encourage as many people as possible to rethink their buying habits. Our vision is that in the future when people need something, they first consider whether they can buy it used,” she says.

If this is not possible, the next best option would be to buy from a small or medium-sized business, for which Kleinanzeigen also has offers. “When people can’t find what they need directly from us, they can still use our platform to find alternatives from other companies. Every time someone searches for something on Kleinanzeigen, they see new ads from other companies as well next to second-hand items from private users. This way, they can compare whether it’s worth buying used or new directly on our platform.” Ideally for Kleinanzeigen, people should prioritise their purchasing decisions this way. However, Iskra highlights that Kleinanzeigen doesn’t generally demonise new purchases because used goods rely on new items entering the market.

“We need to encourage as many people as possible to rethink their buying habits. Our vision is that in the future when people need something, they first consider whether they can buy it used.”

Rebranding successfully

Kleinanzeigen used to be called eBay Kleinanzeigen. In 2021, the entire eBay Classifieds Group was sold to Adevinta who had the right to use the eBay brand for three more years after the sale. However, after only two years, Kleinanzeigen  launched their new brand in May 2023. This rebranding exceeded all expectations. Iskra mentions that both best-case and worst-case scenarios for all relevant KPIs were calculated, but the best-case scenario was exceeded by far.

Several factors played a part in this successful rebranding. Firstly, the name change. “Admittedly, Kleinanzeigen isn’t the sexiest part of our old name. It’s a generic term, which carries some risks. Luckily, we have experience with such names in our company, like mobile.de in Germany and Marktplaats.nl in the Netherlands. We know what it means to have a generic name,” Iskra says.

People were already calling the company Kleinanzeigen because eBay Kleinanzeigen was simply too long, and it did not make sense to discard the familiarity in the name. So after many internal discussions and calculations, Kleinanzeigen emerged as the best option in the short, medium and long term.

Secondly, the communication is crucial. “Communication is the most crucial part of a rebranding process. You basically can’t over-communicate,” Iskra highlights, “Just as you need to communicate intensively internally, you must also do so with all users outside.” Ensuring that the transition for users was smooth and effortless was essential for Kleinanzeigen, but this was only the start. Kleinanzeigen also had to charge the new brand with meaning for users. From early tests, they could see that people associated eBay with quality, safety and trust. Therefore, removing this name from the brand was a big risk, and needed top-notch communication to maintain trust with users.

‘’Communication is the most crucial part of a rebranding process. You basically can’t over-communicate.”

Creative Campaign Testing and Media Presence

Lastly, a new creative campaign was launched together with the rebranding. With the slogan “Kleinanzeigen, große Wirkung” Kleinanzeigen has positioned its brand in between sustainability and affordability. This slogan arose from the internal vision of ‘bringing the joy of sustainable trade to everyone’, and incorporates two main concerns that people face today: cost of living and sustainability. “Our brand positioning focuses on the intersection of affordability and sustainability, which we wanted to strengthen with the rebranding. This led to the campaign “Kleinanzeigen, große Wirkung.” It signifies a significant impact for the user – getting more bang for your buck, earning a bit of money, and for the environment – saving resources.”

The campaign was rigorously tested before launching. First, different category drivers and unmet needs were tested. Then implicit testing methods were used including reaction time measurement to test the brand concept and different logo versions. Lastly, campaign concept tests and creative post-tests were conducted to make sure the campaign would have the highest possible impact.

Media rollout also played a significant role in the success. Kleinanzeigen worked closely together with agencies to maximise the reach of the campaign and make sure that it was delivered to the right audience. “Key channels included TV, online video, social media, and influencer activations. We also leveraged our platform’s strength. 36 million people visit our platform in a month, so logically we also used our own channels to communicate the rebranding through banners, push notifications, and emails. This ensured that our existing users were well-informed, which the media campaign then built upon.”

“Our brand positioning focuses on the intersection of affordability and sustainability, which we wanted to strengthen with the rebranding. This led to the campaign “Kleinanzeigen, große Wirkung.”