Fresh off a strong and strange first quarter of 2014, PayPal is off and running in Q2. With a new look, in the form of a redesigned logo, and a new campaign aimed at putting people back in charge of their money PayPal wants to make everyone’s “life better in tangible, practical and magical ways.”
With a very public fight over PayPal’s future between the board of its parent company eBay and investor’s rights advocate Carl Icahn in Q1, there were times in early 2014 that PayPal’s future looked uncertain. Then the Q1 earnings reports came out, and it appeared that consumers were less concerned about PayPal’s future at eBay than insiders were; total payment volume was up 27 percent and the number of active registered users increased by 5.8 million bring PayPal user total base to 148 million users.
Despite its strong increases in Q1, PayPal is not content to sit on its heels and bask in its success, and instead is moving forward with two new campaigns aimed at changing both how customers think about both the company and their relationship with money.
The first campaign announced yesterday was a global push called Powering The People Economy, which is intended to be a celebration of putting people back in charge of their money.
“PayPal has an opportunity and responsibility to help people take control of their money and use it in any way they want, through seamless and delightful experiences,” said David Marcus, PayPal’s president. “Powering The People Economy is a recognition of what our customers should expect and demand from us – secure, easy and convenient payment experiences that get out of the way and get them closer to what they want.”
The populist campaign moves away from describing the services offered and instead focuses on the user experience, whether that user be a consumer, merchant, developer or employee. The focus on the campaign is simple simplicity and a frictionless experience.
Television ads will air on major networks in a variety of programming in each market, along with print and digital media throughout the summer and into the fall of 2014, but you can get a sneak peak at one of the new adds below.
PayPal is not just launching a new populist campaign to help people feel more connected to their payment method; they are also launching a new logo to symbolize their evolution from a purely online experience to a new everywhere experience.
“Our new brand identity goes far beyond an updated logo,” said David Marcus, PayPal’s president. “We have aligned this with our first global brand campaign. We’re setting a new expectation with our global consumers, developers and merchants: PayPal is redefining the future of money by putting people first. After all, money doesn’t make the world go round, people do.”
The themes PayPal hopes to touch upon with the redesign are forwardness, connectedness and PayPal’s position as a visionary company.
