Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 26.08.2025 
At SEEN Connects, we believe influence is about driving real action, sparking genuine connection, and creating campaigns that resonate long after the scroll. That’s why we’re beyond proud to be shortlisted for Best Audience Engagement at the UK Social Media Awards 2025 for our work with eBay on the “See Things Differently” campaign.
This shortlisting is not only recognition of the results we achieved but also a testament to our philosophy: when you put human connection at the heart of strategy, the outcomes speak for themselves.
Who We Are
We are a social and influencer marketing agency creating cultural relevance and meaningful impact for brands. Since launching in 2016, we’ve been on a mission to prove that authentic influence drives genuine business impact, and human connection is our superpower.
We’re now a 40+ strong team, proudly independent and female-led, partnering with global brands like eBay, John Lewis, Lululemon and ABBA Voyage. As our Managing Director, Mae, puts it:
“We’re known for making the whole process of partnering with influencers feel seamless and stress free, handling the heavy lifting for our clients while delivering real, measurable business results.”
With the majority of our clients remaining loyal to the agency for over three years, we’ve struck a chord in an industry often characterised by transactional relationships and fleeting partnerships.
The Campaign: “See Things Differently”
Our award-nominated work with eBay centered around a powerful human insight: there are an estimated 294 million unused items in UK homes, worth over £9 billion. That’s millions of opportunities gathering dust.
We set out to change behaviour by reframing free selling on eBay as more than a transaction. It’s about two universal motivators – making money and letting go.
Strategy Rooted in Human Behaviour
To bring this to life, we created two core influencer archetypes:
- Economisers – motivated by earning extra cash.
- Musers – motivated by freeing up physical and mental space.
This approach gave us a framework to target diverse audiences across fashion, home & garden, tech and lifestyle, while showing that anyone can find value in what they no longer need.
Our strategy spanned Instagram, TikTok, Meta, and Snap, building an engine of always-on, reactive content that resonated with audiences in real time.
Campaign Highlights
The campaign ran for six months from October 2024, with peaks around cultural and calendar moments that encouraged action. Some of our favourite moments include:
- Nick Grimshaw and his niece Liv hosted an activation in London, where people could list items for free on eBay and see them lit up in lights at The Outernet
- Based on the insight that we scroll three times the length of the Eiffel Tower each day, we created a behaviour change campaign in January to swap the scroll for selling.
- Spring cleaning initiative, motivating audiences to sell up to £1,000 worth of items from their homes as part of a broader narrative of refresh and decluttering.
These touchpoints allowed us to stay fresh, relevant, and truly audience-led throughout the campaign. Our strategy set a new benchmark for audience engagement by going beyond vanity metrics. Competitors were already promoting free selling, but we knew we had to do more than just join the conversation. By building a cross-category influencer network rooted in behavioural insights and activating it through culturally relevant, calendar-driven storytelling, we raised awareness and drove engagement for eBay’s offering.
Being shortlisted for Best Audience Engagement at the UK Social Media Awards is incredibly meaningful to our team. It validates our belief that audience engagement isn’t about fleeting likes, it’s about sparking conversations, shifting behaviours and building trust. This recognition celebrates the work of not just our team, but also the amazing creators and partners who helped bring “See Things Differently” to life.
“For us, awards like this highlight the importance of human-centric marketing. It’s proof that when you lead with insight, creativity, and connection, the results follow”, says Mae.
We’re proud of what we achieved with eBay and grateful for the opportunity to share our story at the UK Social Media Awards. Whatever the outcome on the night, being shortlisted is a reminder of why we do what we do.
Visit us on seenconnects.com
