AdMiration feature: PayPal’s “PayPal Everywhere”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we researched PayPal’s “PayPal Everywhere” ad. The ad is part of their massive campaign featuring Will Ferrell that announces the PayPal Debit Card can now be used for contactless payments anywhere that accepts Apple Pay.

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to a woman checking out at a store with contactless payment through PayPal. As the “ding” of payment success sounds, Will Ferrell pops up from behind a plant and asks, “Did you just pay with…PayPal?!” 

The woman responds, “Yeah, you can use it in stores and the cash back is wild.” Will Ferrell stares at her in awe at this news and Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere” begins to play. He then turns to look at both the woman and cashier and asks, “Are you guys feeling this?” And starts to twirl around to the music. 

A montage of scenes with Will Ferrell using PayPal start to play out, from him using it at a coffee shop and learning about their monthly 5% cash back feature, to discovering all the places he can use it online while riding on horseback in the desert, to using it to quickly tap and pay for insane new outfits at a retail store, and keeping his information safe while using to pay at a “shady” lemonade stand run by two kids. 

Clips from these scenes flash across the screen again as he sings, “Ohhh ahhhh, I wanna pay with you everywhere.” 

The ad comes back to the original scene at the register when Will Ferrell says, “I’d really like to pay with this.” To which the woman responds, “I know right!” And he quickly says, “No, I mean like move!” 

The ad closes with Will Ferrell continuing to dance as a voiceover says, “Every payment. Everywhere. Every time,” as the words “Don’t just pay, PayPal” appear on screen. 

3 facts

• “PayPal Everywhere” is a winner! It performs in the top 5% of US financial services ads in potential to drive both short-term sales and brand equity.

• Viewers clearly recall the key messages (“PayPal makes payments seamless, whether you’re online, in stores or on your mobile device” and “PayPal offers cashback and rewards on your purchases, giving you extra value with every transaction”)  driving above average persuasion and brand appeal when compared to other US financial services ads and other US ads in general. It’s unusual for a financial services ad to drive strong short-term sales potential vs all other ads, which demonstrates the strong creative success of this spot.

• Will Ferrell, the music and the humorous storyline make this ad distinctive, highly enjoyable and emotionally engaging to viewers, eliciting humor, love/like reactions and surprise. 

2 learnings

• Using humor, when done in the right way, can work effectively for financial services advertising. In fact, financial services ads in general tend to utilize more humor than a deeper emotional connection like “love” vs. other categories. In this case, strong humor makes the ad highly distinctive, enjoyable and enables PayPal to stand out from the clutter from all ads (both financial services and other categories). But it’s important to do this in a way that is highly relevant to viewers.

• Using celebrities and music to enhance the story are compelling ways to effectively convey intended brand messages in your advertising. When done well, they can improve ad efficacy, but it’s critical to not let these elements overshadow the brand or message. It’s also important to ensure a celebrity and music fit well with the brand and don’t potentially alienate a key audience. 

1 reflection

Have you thought about how you could effectively use music to deliver your message in a compelling way? Music can be used in many ways to make stronger content, but this is one way to get a message to stick with viewers because it gets into your head like an ear worm, making the message even more memorable over time. If used consistently, it can also build strong linkage to your brand.

PayPal’s “Everywhere” campaign, created by BBH USA, is their largest ad campaign to date. 

The campaign demonstrates how users can now use their PayPay debit cards to make payments “everywhere” Apple Pay is accepted. Their partnership with Apple, called PayPal Everywhere, includes many updates in addition to contactless payment, such as  an auto-reload feature to top up balance and 5% cash back (up to $1,000 monthly).

“PayPal is truly everywhere and more rewarding than ever,” says Geoff Seeley, Chief Marketing Officer at PayPal. He continues, “This points to the exciting direction we’re heading in as we continue to evolve PayPal into an easy, safe, and rewarding way to shop everywhere.”

The campaign also marks the launch of a new visual look for PayPal that will run across out-of-home, digital, streaming, radio, audio and social. 

The ad spot intends to break finance category norms with comedy favorite Will Ferrell and generate excitement about their new “everywhere” features.

PayPal’s “PayPal Everywhere” ad has outstanding results, scoring in the top 5% of US financial services ads in driving both short-term sales (Sales Impact: 97) and brand equity (Brand Impact: 100) potential! 

Zappi’s findings show that financial services ads tend to struggle to connect as well with people compared to other categories, meaning they are often less likely to reach and resonate with people. Despite this, “Everywhere” has a strong Brand Impact (85) and average potential Sales Impact (58) even compared to all US ads, further demonstrating its overall strength and how creativity worked well to make the topic more interesting.

What are some of the key elements that drive success for the new PayPal “Everywhere” ad?

Overall, the ad’s story was about the PayPal brand and how it can help you go everywhere, because it can be used anywhere and everywhere. You can’t play back the story without talking about PayPal and the benefit of it being used everywhere. This is consistently threaded throughout the entire ad via several different scenarios in a fun and engaging way.

PayPal’s pivotal role in the ad is evident with three-fourths of viewers recalling the PayPal brand (vs. the US norm of 68%) after watching it in a clutter of other ads.  The PayPal logo on the phone, app, brand colors and to a lesser extent, Will Ferrell and the adapted Fleetwood Mac song, “I want to pay with you everywhere” are key elements that help people recognize this is for PayPal.

Not only is PayPal integrated into the story in an engaging way, but so are its brand benefits.  Will Ferell and the adapted Fleetwood s Mac song ( to “I want to pay with you everywhere”) are key to making “Everywhere” an entertaining story and bringing the funny everyday scenarios to life in an emotionally engaging way. This makes the ad very distinctive and helps it stand out from the clutter of not only other financial services ads but all ads in the U.S.  

The story is highly relevant (mean score of 3.8 vs. 3.3 financial services norm) and enjoyable (4.0 vs. 3.7 financial services norm) to viewers. People spontaneously mention the key elements they liked are that it is funny and entertaining (19%) as well as the overall content and delivery: Will Ferrell (10%), the different scenarios (10%), the style (8%) and the music (7%).

Here’s what some of the respondents shared:

• "The opening skit covers the whole message. The music was an awesome choice."

• "I love this ad because it is very funny, easy to understand, and makes me use the product because the fact that it offers rewards makes it unique and different."

• "The scenes were entertaining and really showed the reason why PayPal is such a great way to pay for items you want to buy."

• "The settings of coffee shops and shopping venues are reminiscent of everyday consumption scenarios, emphasizing the practical application of PayPal in life."

• "I loved everything!! Will Ferrell was great and so were the other actors. Loved the part with the lemonade stand and the music. Such a great commercial. Well done."

• "I love the actor they chose. I think that made it easier to connect because it was with someone I like."

• "I liked Will Ferrell endorsing PayPal. He sings and is humorous. I liked the savings 5 % cash back. I liked that you could use it everywhere on everything."

• "I liked how they put a celebrity in the ad, that draws influence. I also like how they made a little jingle, so it sticks in your head the benefits of shopping with PayPal."

• "I liked the approach with the song I wanna pay with you everywhere and the usage of Will Ferrell. That’s a plus."

The enjoyable story also drives a strong emotional connection with viewers (Overall emotional reaction of 58 vs 47 for financial services), primarily evoking strong love (27% vs. 15% financial services) and laughter (21% vs. 16% financial services). When we look at the second-by-second emotional response, we also see some like and surprise emitted. This is where the brilliance of Will, the adapted “I can pay with you everywhere” and funny scenarios shine through.

"PayPal Everywhere" does a great job of capturing people’s attention and conveying the messages from the very start. Viewers like the opening scenario of Will and the woman in the store and are “surprised” when the woman mentions paying in store with PayPal and “cash back.” They like when the music starts and Will reacts with “wild.” Other moments they enjoy are when the coffee shop cashier mentions “5% back on any category you choose” as well as when the message “and it keeps my information safe” is mentioned. 

Peak moments of “laughter” are evoked when Will starts spinning and dancing to the song, when he is in the yellow snowsuit and asks, “Is it too scary? I’ll take it” and continues with smaller peaks through most of the second half of the ad with the lemonade scene and him calling the kid “shady.”. “Love” is relatively consistent throughout the ad, which further illustrates the emotional power of this spot.

What’s unusual is that people also spontaneously like the information in the message and promotion (15%), further corroborating the relevance of PayPal’s key messages. The relatable and funny scenarios combined with Will’s humorous portrayal and the song touting the brand benefit of  “I want to pay with you everywhere” as well as the scene commenting about the cash back rewards all worked harmoniously to clearly convey the intended messages:

• PayPal makes payments seamless, whether you’re online, in stores or on your mobile device 

• PayPal offers cashback and rewards on your purchases, giving you extra value with every transaction

These relatable messages contributed to strong brand consideration and brand appeal vs. other financial services brands as well as versus other categories. This illustrates how meaningful messages, when conveyed in a creative and memorable manner, can drive strong sales potential.

What’s most notable about PayPal’s “Everywhere” is the powerful use of both the music and celebrity to make a relatable story shine and create a strong connection with the brand.

The well-known Fleetwood Mac song is cleverly adapted to convey the key message “I want to pay with you everywhere.” The music helps to tell the story AND the message. 

To successfully use a celebrity in your advertising, they have to  be able to tell the story in a way that’s authentic to them and the brand. Will Ferrell is a great fit for PayPal and he brings the story to life in an authentic and humorous manner. People can love the ad whether they know the celebrity or not. However, when they know and love the celebrity, it is even more impactful. Will Ferrell nails this!

This ad from PayPal shows us the power of bringing a great idea to life through a relatable and funny story. They do a fantastic job of creatively using humor, a well-liked celebrity and clever adaptation of well-known music to convey key brand messaging. 

What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

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