Using color in marketing

When our brand's visual prominence needs to fluctuate based on audience and context, our color system flexes to accommodate these different scenarios. For example, when we’re competing for attention with other brands, we rely on our core logo colors to establish brand recognition. In instances where our brand is already prominent, we can be more flexible in our brand expression and use a broader range of color.

Core marketing palette

Our core marketing palette consists of our core 4 logo colors and 3 neutrals. We use this palette to establish recognition when we’re competing with other brands for visual attention and brand attribution. These situations include off-platform and out-of-home marketing. In these instances, we use our 4-color logo on a white background, supplemented by black and light gray.

Off-platform marketing

Off-platform marketing includes out-of-product banner ads, social media promotions, and placements that compete for attention in busy environments. These examples use the core marketing palette—generally on white backgrounds and always with the 4-color logo. We use black backgrounds in some cases, like Black Friday ads or video end cards. For more guidance and examples for specific campaigns, see Expressions.

Out-of-home marketing

Out-of-home marketing that uses the core marketing palette includes pop-up stores, billboards, and other street-level placements.

Expanded marketing palette

When our brand is already prominent and our customers are in the context of eBay, like on our website or social media channels, we can be more flexible in our brand expression and use a broader range of color with our expanded marketing palette. This includes levels 400, 500, and 700 from our full color palette, which we use mainly as background colors. To find the matching foreground colors for each background color, use the Color pairing tool.

Pink

Red

Coral

Orange

Marigold

Yellow

Dijon

Avocado

Green

Kiwi

Jade

Teal

Indigo

Blue

Violet

Lilac

Neutral

On-platform marketing

On-platform marketing that uses the expanded marketing palette includes banners, events modules, and ads on eBay's homepage, landing pages, and support pages.

Marketing on other eBay channels

Off-platform marketing that uses the expanded marketing palette includes emails, social media posts, and stories.

Internal marketing

The expanded marketing palette can also be used for internal communications like decks, reports, and articles on the eBay Hub.

Email marketing palette

Below is the subset of our marketing color combinations that meet accessibility standards in all clients and should be used for any secondary modules where colored text is layered on a colored background. Use the Expanded marketing palette for background colors in hero images.

Pink

Red

Coral

Orange

Marigold

Yellow

Dijon

Avocado

Green

Kiwi

Jade

Teal

Indigo

Blue

Violet

Lilac

Neutral

Dark mode

Whether our marketing colors change in dark mode or not depends on which marketing palette is being used, if it’s in product or email, and if it’s an image or not.

Product marketing

Marketing placements in the product do not change color in dark mode. We lock our marketing color themes so that they will look identical in both dark and light mode. This ensures that we retain adequate contrast with the photo and text on the background color they were designed for.

Light mode

Dark mode

Email marketing

In emails, images and icons will always stay as-is in both light and dark mode. However, the email background and text colors will invert in dark mode and any area where colored text is layered on a color background will also change. Because all email clients translate colored backgrounds and text differently in dark mode, we can’t always be sure exactly what color it will be translated to. We have performed extensive testing to ensure that all Email Marketing colors meet accessibility contrast requirements in all clients in dark mode. Here is an example of how hero images and secondary modules get translated.