It's not every day you can change the conversation around a brand.
PayPal had an awareness problem. Everyone knew you could use PayPal to send money to a friend or buy stuff on eBay. But fewer consumers knew that you could use PayPal to shop on the go with Starbucks, Uber, The Home Depot, Cineplex and other big brands that people use every day.
We came up with an online strategy that appealed to our urban, video-hungry target. Instead of telling people how easy it is to use PayPal, we’d show them, focusing on how two competitive friends used their phones in the real world. Even in the bathroom.
The results were beyond expectations: 10 million total video views, with 4 million video completes. A one-day YouTube masthead buy yielded 19 million impressions, with an impressive 56% VCR (video complete rate). Our 15 second pre-roll videos had an 84% VCR, vs. industry benchmark of 12%. Overall, VCR was 3X the industry average.
Our client's head of Global Marketing called it “Probably the best video I have ever seen at PayPal.”
It was such a success that we did a sequel. Our overly competitive pals were back, but now they weren't one-upping each other out of pride. This time, they were doing it for love.
The new romantic thread gave us license to play with classic rom-com tropes, and we actually topped our numbers from the previous year.