Overview: PayPal wanted to have its name in lights as “the way to pay” during the critical fourth quarter. Using its hundreds of retail partnerships as well as its own e-commerce website devoted to Holiday shopping, Access leveraged PayPal’s shopping know-how to secure hundreds of holiday stories.

The Challenge: Despite being owned by an e-commerce giant, PayPal was not traditionally seen as an expert in the shopping space. To secure share of voice and increase brand visibility during the crowded holiday season, Access needed to showcase PayPal as a neutral player that could elevate itself beyond the season’s price wars to give unbiased shopping advice that consumers deserved.

The Plan: As such, we positioned PayPal as the ultimate shopping expert in the eyes of media and consumers alike, creating a PayPal Shopping Specialist persona to be the face of the campaign. Access pitched this new personality to broadcast and print media as a source for holiday shopping trends, deals and gift suggestions. The PayPal Shopping Specialist went on the road and spoke with media across the top 25 DMAs. Access supplemented the Shopping Specialist advice with data around the holiday season’s top shopping dates – Black Friday and Cyber Monday – that spotlighted the exponential growth PayPal’s experienced during the past few holiday seasons, specifically within the mobile space.

Success Metrics: Access successfully raised PayPal’s profile during the holiday season – one of the most crowded news cycles – and set the foundation for the company as a key source for holiday shopping data. PayPal was included in nearly 600 holiday print and online stories and more than 520 broadcast segments, resulting in a total of nearly 200 million media impressions. Access’ holiday campaign for PayPal resulted in a 19 percent increase of media coverage from 2009 to 2010 and social communications that reached more than 19 million Twitter followers.