Black Friday Bay ad gets Burnley touch

An eBay advert has thrust a Burnley business into the national spotlight after the e-commerce giant chose the company as the face of one of its Black Friday campaigns.
Colin and Rachael White set up Thingimijigs in 2004.Colin and Rachael White set up Thingimijigs in 2004.
Colin and Rachael White set up Thingimijigs in 2004.

The multinational retail conglomerate filmed two promotional videos at the Thingimijigs Ltd warehouse at Empire Business Court on Liverpool Road in Burnley, highlighting eBay’s role in supporting small businesses like Thingimijigs, a self-styled ‘shopping site for busy mums’.

Owner and joint-director, Rachael White, set up Thingimijigs with her husband Colin in 2004, offering worldwide delivery on a range of items, with the company’s Black Friday deals prompting eBay to contact Rachael with a view of filming the adverts on location in Burnley.

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“They were putting together their promotional video and asked if we’d like to be involved,” said Rachael, who attended Ivy Bank High School. “My daughter, Helana, who’s 10, features in it, making staff a cup of tea like a little helper elf.”

eBay filmed both promotional videos on site at the Thingimijigs warehouse in Burnley.eBay filmed both promotional videos on site at the Thingimijigs warehouse in Burnley.
eBay filmed both promotional videos on site at the Thingimijigs warehouse in Burnley.

The advert’s production team started filming the videos, which are available on YouTube and featured more as social media adverts, in October, with the Thingimijigs warehouse - just one of three UK companies elected to feature in the campaign - fully decked out with Christmas cheer, taking on an air of an elven workshop.

“They spent six hours decking our warehouse out with Christmas lights; they had to do it in the middle of the night like elves!” said Rachael. “I’m a Burnley girl and the company is a member of the Burnley Bondholders [so] it’s good that one the Christmas videos was filmed in Burnley.

“It was quite a lot of people for what was a minute-and-a-half video, really,” added Rachael. “Their eight-man team had to stay in the Holiday Inn on Pendle Way and get an early start for filming!

“You’ll see the warehouse decked out in tinsel and fairy-lights but, trust me, it doesn’t look like that normally!”

You can watch the two videos here and here.

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