They’re looking for stories of how Alibaba has helped the set-up or growth of your business, interesting story about how you started your business, the challenges you had to overcome or how working for yourself changed your life. If chosen you could be featured on an Alibaba TV advert similar to the one shown here.

The deadline for entries is the 17th May 2012 and you’ll need to complete the Alibaba survey with details about your business and Alibaba suppliers, as well as your short “Go Global” story.

No one will be sorry to see these adverts gone, advertisers have in the past made horrible flashing adverts and some in the past have even played music on mouse-over (although eBay were quick to ban those).

eBay will be adding new ads to eBay Australia though, they’ll start to see merchandising adverts at the bottom of search results and also as per the UK and US they’ll get adverts on the view item page below the seller information box from the 30th of May. This of course is the worst possible news as eBay have yet to redesign the view item page so Australian sellers can look forward to acres of wasted white space at the top of eBay listings to accommodate the new adverts.

I have to admit to having been a bit skeptical of eBay’s intentions, they’ve not always managed to use the technology that they’ve purchased (Think Skype and Stumbleupon. Skype was one third of “The Power of Three” slogan and the new way to communicate on eBay and Stumbleupon was going to surface all sorts of interesting products. Neither of these happened).

Where has made it though and been reborn as the PayPal Media Network (PPMN). PPMN offers unique location-based mobile advertising solutions to enable retailers in the US target consumers via mobile when they’re in the vicinity.

PayPal Media Network with Where technology gives advertisers the ability to serve a relevant advert to a buyer and can give the option for the buyer to make an immediate purchase and can even offer the choice of collecting the item as they’re passing or having it delivered to their home, all at the click of a button.

It’s not just a solution for mobiles either, the solution can also target consumers when they’re on the net. PayPal Media Network’s behavioral targeting parameters include purchase, browsing, and search history. Purchase history is one of the strongest indicators of a consumer’s intent, far more effective than most other forms of targeting. By using this proprietary and anonymous user data advertiser can precisely target the right consumers with the right message at the right time.

Imagine you’re browsing a popular online marketplace. Let’s call that marketplace “eBay”. There you’ll find some advertising on view item pages just beneath the seller information box. Unlike blanket advertising which you may or may not be interested in Where’s technology enables PayPal Media Network to analyse your purchase history and identify the types of product you’re likely to be interested in.

We’re not that impressed with eBay’s current blanket marketing campaign and Dan still isn’t interested in a mini skirt to go with the Moccasins he’s also not going to buy. Now if they could start serving up interesting ads for Sci Fi and Dr Who that would soon spring some funds from his PayPal account.

eBay you still don’t know me or what I like to buy, but I’m hopeful that one day you might!

“A Dramatic surprise on a quiet square” was designed to publicise the launch of a new TV channel TNT in Belgium. They placed a big red push button on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town along with a sign inviting people to “Push to add drama”. Then they waited…

Of course you probably don’t have the budget for a production like this, but it does demonstrate just how powerful social media can be. Quite frankly I don’t need almost 6 million extra people hearing about my business in one day, but if I could get just a 1000th of that I’d be making a pretty profit and doing very nicely.

Thinking on a bigger scale than my own business… could eBay do something like this instead of another TV Advert like the one they released last month?

eBay say that they’ll be monitoring the results of these tests and pending results they may become permanent. I have to say that the only reason they’ll be deemed worthy of permanent placement will be if buyers are clicking on them. No clicks means no revenue for eBay (regardless of if it’s a pay-per-click or pay-per-acquisition (sale) model). That means success for eBay will be to drive traffic from your listings to off-eBay merchants.

Of course if you’re a potential advertiser it’s worth a punt to see if you can pay to divert traffic from eBay to your own website. Plenty of advertisers already do as evidenced by the text ads at the bottom of search results pages.

Personally I don’t really care that much if eBay have adverts on the view item page or not – I’m confident that the items I offer on eBay are good enough that buyers won’t be distracted by the adverts and like it or not eBay are going to squeeze every last bit of revenue out of the site. However before eBay start messing around with the page design to stick some more adverts on the site wouldn’t it have been a better idea to fix the last abortion of a design that they’ve inflicted on Top Rated Sellers at the top of the page? Note the acres of wasted space on a 1024×768 resolution screen which I’ve highlighted in red.

Top Rated eBay sellers (those that eBay say give the very best buying experience) have the very worst view item page design on eBay. Come on eBay, fix it, and then we won’t complain so much when you inflict more adverts on us. All the time your adverts make our listings look like a school child designed them you’re just giving us a valid reason to complain vociferously about your advert placements.

They’ve done some good work capturing stills in the various rooms that the ad passes through and as well as previously showing the advert in Germany are reusing the material as much as possible. This looks like a carefully prepared and thought out campaign as well it should as the production cost for the sets and filming can’t have been that cheap.

The only bit of poor planing I’ve yet to see around the advert is the lack of a landing page for Home & Garden. Fashion and Electonics have great landing pages as does eBay Motors, but the Home & Garden image (as per above) simply links to the Home & Garden category directory, which is a shame.

If you’ve not seen the advert yet you can see it on Tamebay or just watch a bit of TV and sooner or later it’s bound to crop up on your telly.

I’ve seen a range of products shown from Tech to Bar-b-ques and in this example a handbag.

If you’ve watched TV or browsed the web for any length of time the chances are that you’ve seen this advert in one form or another, or that you will by the end of the month.

Tonight however Lee from Focus Gaming Shop spotted some adverts boasting “Cheaper than eBay” and “Auctioned for 90% off”.

The adverts are for Quibids – they call themselves an “auction website” but in actual fact they’re not much difference to a gamble. They’re one of a large number of penny auction sites where you pay to bid and the only winner is the last person to bid who will then pay for the product at a knock down price. However if you add up the cost of all the bids placed as well as the final selling price the products sell for many times the RRP and most bidders are losers and left out of pocket.

Quidbids do allow you to pay the RRP less the value of the bids you placed if you’re a losing bidder, but that means at best you’ll be paying top dollar for your purchase. For most bidders you’ll never buy a product “Cheaper than eBay”.

I don’t know why eBay are allowing these adverts on the site. It certainly doesn’t enhance the buying experience and the chances are anyone that clicks on the ads and places bids on penny auction sites will end up disillusioned and out of pocket.

You might also spot that the big “NEW” has changed into “NEU”, confirmation that this advert is indeed designed as a one size fits all to be shown across Europe.

We showed you the eBay UK version of the advert last week, but here’s a German version which is cut down missing out the last couple of rooms on the set but focused on electronics.

And here’s the full length German version of the ad

The top section of eBay listings has I thought been a pretty good design in recent times. Nice big images with zoom and enlarge to the left. Title, pricing condition and shipping information in the centre and seller information on the right. Now however due to shoehorning in the advert it’s left a big gap in the left and centre columns above the item specifics.

Please eBay, either resize the adverts to the same width but about 1/3 the height or as an alternative redesign the top of the listing page to make a proper space for the adverts and get rid of the wasted white space.