Personalised Trading Cards for Conferences | Ebay x Comic Con
As the leading online marketplace for collectible trading cards, eBay wanted to strengthen its connection with Comic-Con’s passionate audience.
For Comic-Con 2022, they partnered with Noonah to deliver an interactive experience that would engage attendees and reinforce eBay’s position as the go-to trading card marketplace.
The solution? Personalised trading cards – created live at the event.
The concept was simple, let Comic-Con’s visitors create their own trading cards; it was down to the Noonah team to figure out how.
Why Use Personalised Trading Cards for Conference Events?
AI-powered photo activations are ideal for events where fans, collectors, and communities come together. They offer:
- Customised, branded UGC that guests are proud to share.
- Fast, high-quality digital and physical outputs.
- A fresh and effective way to break the ice and encourage interaction
- A novel experience that blends fandom, fun, and technology.
For Comic-Con-style events, AI Trading Cards add a layer of playfulness that resonates with attendees and delivers standout branded experience.
Looking for the latest AI evolution of this activation?
Check out our 2025 Comic-Con project to see how we upgraded the experience with full AI avatar transformation.
The Brief
- Raise awareness of eBay’s position as the go-to destination for trading cards.
- Deliver an engaging, memorable experience for Comic-Con visitors.
- Generate branded content for digital sharing.
- Capture first-party data for future marketing.
Our Approach
We designed and delivered a Trading Card Station that combined photo capture with AI-generated backgrounds and custom overlays.
Since many Comic-Con attendees arrive in cosplay, we ensured the photo on each card featured the real guest in their costume. The background, meanwhile, was generated using AI based on the guest’s chosen theme – such as superhero, fantasy, or sci-fi.
Guests began by visiting one of eBay’s fully branded photo booths. After capturing their photo, they selected a background theme. Our system then generated a comic-book-style environment, placing their image into a fictional scene.
Live Personalisation and Printing
After previewing their creation, guests could:
- Receive a digital copy via email, optimised for social sharing.
- Print a high-quality, physical trading card at our Live Event Printing station.
- Take home a unique souvenir, presented in a collectible card sleeve.
This combined a photo experience with a tangible takeaway – driving both in-event excitement and post-event engagement.
The Result
- Over 2,000 trading cards created and printed on-site.
- 6.1 million impressions and 216,000 shares generated online.
- The eBay activation became one of the standout moments of Comic-Con 2022.
The combination of novelty, personalisation, and instant gratification proved a winning formula – with queues forming throughout the day and attendees sharing their cards widely across platforms like Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), all using the event hashtag #ebaycomiccon22.
