A new online-auction site in the UK has begun running a television commercial to increase awareness. Ads for the Tazbar auction site are running in the UK on television programs such as, Angela's Eyes, That 70's Show, Drawn Together, Forensic Detectives as well as on Sky Sport 2 and VH1 music stations. The commercial will air on Coronation Street on November 18 and 21.

The commercials began airing yesterday, and Tazbar co-founder and Development Director Lee Markham said, "In the few hours following the first advert we received more members than any other full day since we started."

Tazbar launched in August, and Markham said there are currently close to 50,000 listings on the site. "We are not focussing on any categories in particular. However in the coming months we will actively pursuing some niche markets that we feel are not well represented centrally on the Internet."

The TV ad campaign will run in three stages. The first will consist of over 600 spots running the entire month of November. The second campaign will run from Christmas day to New Years Eve, and the third campaign will run in January.

Markham, a former eBay Powerseller, decided to develop Tazbar in January 2005 along with Tim James and Glenn James, who were suppliers of wholesale goods to hundreds of eBay traders across the UK and Europe. "We are fully aware of the task that lies ahead," Markham said. "We know that simply creating Tazbar and opening its doors to the Internet is not enough. We understand that we have to drive members to the website. We have to create a healthy balance of both buyers and sellers and most important of all we have to listen to and involve our community of members."

In addition to online auctions, TazBar has an Instant Purchase feature, which allows fixed price sales, and it will roll out a Seller Gallery on Wednesday. This is similar to the stores facility, which will be $5 per month after the first free month. In early 2007, the site will launch Tazcity, which is a whole new auction shopping concept. "This is why we opted to use the name Seller Gallery for the first feature as we wanted to save the name Stores for Tazcity," Markham explained. He said Tazcity is "totally unique and its concept is so simple that it is surprising it hasn't been done before."

He went on to say, "Tazbar is a very serious venture, it has been well thought out and the long term plans are very realistic. Public awareness and value for money are the main points of consideration. Once momentum is gained in the auction section of the site, Tazbar will start to promote its wanted and people sections."

You can view the Tazbar television commercial on the ad channel on AuctionBytes.TV (http://auctionbytes.tv/ads).

http://www.tazbar.com