There's a new generation of small businesses languishing in the cash-only economy because they lack a simple mobile payment solution.
This is complicated by the fact that a new generation of digitally native, social-first consumers are carrying less cash than ever and yet, are hungry for unique content, products, and services.
Both groups have typically viewed PayPal as a tired digital brand.
In truth, PayPal has the tools to bring this person-to-person marketplace to life. We needed to bring these two groups together.
To achieve this, we chose the day when people desire real connections more than any other: Valentine's Day. We introduced a gift that couldn't be bought at a store – a poem.
#poemgrams brought together 12 poets during Valentine's week, via live events and a social microsite. Poets chatted with customers and gave them free, custom poems designed to share on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Recipients were encouraged to tip the poets via the mobile app or online service.
The poems, along with unique content created by PayPal, were promoted through social channels.
The #poemgrams campaign lasted one week, and in that time:
A lot has changed since PayPal launched in 1999. With the rapid adoption of mobile, payments have moved from the online world into the palms of phone- and tablet-wielding people worldwide. PayPal needed to make inroads with this new generation of digital native, social-first consumers. While they are aware of PayPal, this group views the brand as old and disconnected. In reality, PayPal is the missing link between these digital consumers and the growing "maker" economic movement.
To change perception of PayPal, we needed to bring a unique, social, and sharable product to this audience via real craftspeople. A single artisan can become a business, and a consumer can now reach for their phone instead of their dwindling cash. We wanted a way to:
To inform our campaign, we started looking into the evolution of the "maker" movement and the elements that resonate most with our target consumer. Through our research, we uncovered the following insight from an Iconoculture report on the rising artisan trend and associated evolving consumer behaviors, "The 'Small' Mindset Goes Big" –
Whereas PayPal was perceived as an impersonal "big brand," the millions of entrepreneurs and artisans that use PayPal are not. In fact, they are individuals empowered to create and grow their own businesses through the ease and flexibility of PayPal's global payments platform. These people are the faces of the brand and we knew we had to put them front and center – from there we embarked on a campaign to humanize the PayPal brand in a resonant way and create meaningful connections with our consumers.
We chose a day when people desire real relationships and unique gifts more than any other: Valentine's Day. On this day, PayPal would celebrate the smallest of businesses—a single artisan, the poet. That's how the #poemgrams campaign was born.
The week leading up to Valentine's Day, we took a multi-pronged approach consisting of live events, an online hub, social content and influencer cross-promotion to drive people to our experience. We secured twelve poets available online and at the 3 live events to speak candidly with consumers to create custom poems, perfectly designed for social sharing.
On the website, consumers had the ability to live chat with a poet or submit a form with custom information and would be emailed within 24 hours with their custom poem. At in-person events, poets conversed with consumers and typed up the poem on vintage typewriters.
The campaign not only connected with our audience emotionally—through giving away a unique, shareable Valentine's Day gift—but it also increased PayPal's equity with consumers and the social community at large.
In just one week:
