eBay North America Socials
- 1.5 wk Sprint Cycle
- 1 Steve Aoki Retweet & Purchase
- 3 day Oreo Cop the Drop Turnaround
eBay North America's social program ran on a week-and-a-half sprint cycle — tight enough to stay genuinely responsive to whatever was happening in culture. The work leaned into flat lays of featured products and found its energy in pop culture tie-ins, series moments, and limited drops. When something broke in culture, the goal was to have eBay's version of it ready before the moment passed.
Working at that pace means reading briefs critically and fast. The format question — static or animated — is a creative decision that has to be made early, because rebuilding mid-sprint isn't an option.
DJ Skee was auctioning a set of ten signed collector cards on eBay, and the brief called for a static social post. At the team kickoff, the format problem was immediately apparent: ten distinct cards in a single static frame would either be too small to appreciate or too crowded to read. The case for animation was made at kickoff — not after a round of static designs had already been built. When the client gave the go-ahead, the animation gave each card its own moment while keeping a cohesive, high-energy feel appropriate for a collector auction. Steve Aoki retweeted, then purchased the set.
The Oreo Cop the Drop was a different kind of test — not a format question, but a speed one. The window was narrow, and the turnaround was three days from flag to live asset.
The brief tells you what the client asked for, but it doesn't always tell you what the work actually needs. On the DJ Skee project, the brief said static — but the work needed animation, and raising that at kickoff rather than building the wrong thing and pivoting later is the habit this program reinforced.
The sprint pace also sharpened something about creative confidence under constraint. Three days is not long, but three days with a clear brief, a fast-aligning team, and no rework is often enough.
