Winning mindshare and market share in the online payment domain is notoriously difficult. I remember the hundreds of online payment dot.coms that appeared and disappeared during the Internet boom in the 90s , all trying to become the standard of the online payments. The online payments business is for all intents and purposes dominated today by PayPal, the powerful credit cards, Google checkouts and a few
local successful online payment formulas like the Dutch iDeal.WePay is a newcomer in the field with a somehow different value proposition; they opened their offensive against PayPal by a very simple and "cool" guerilla action that attracted the attention of mainstream media, of The New Influencers and created a substantial buzz in the blogsphere and Twitter: By Icing PayPal.
Taking the opportunity of some negative publicity around PayPal's freezing of customer accounts the WePay guys dropped a block of ice filled with frozen money on the sidewalk in front of the PayPal head office. A textbook Social Media marketing action following the Social Media marketing strategies matrix (below).
Let's see what blocks of the Social Media Strategies Matrix are relevant to this action.
Looking to the different options I would argue that the most important elements of their Social Media strategy include creating buzz around their brand with PR and Direct Marketing (column 3) using their web site blog , a YouTube film (communities) and Twitter (Social Networks) and also Reaching the New Influencers (column 4) with high caliber blogs like TechCrunch posting on the action.
Social Media Marketing Strategies
