PayPal recognized that every single employee—from customer service representatives to software engineers—plays a critical role in shaping how the world perceives its brand. Although the company understood the importance of having employees who fully understand, embrace, and leverage the brand, they had never created a comprehensive, robust internal brand engagement program.
Enter Global Brand Works.
Why Internal Brand Engagement Matters
When employees at all levels genuinely understand what their organization stands for, they can communicate it confidently and consistently. This alignment ensures brand promises are kept, customer experiences are elevated, and brand reputation is safeguarded. Moreover, when employees feel personally connected to a brand, it amplifies their motivation, creativity, and sense of ownership.
The Challenge
Before launching the internal brand engagement initiative, PayPal found that only 55% of their employees agreed with the statement: “I understand what the PayPal brand stands for.” This figure highlighted a significant gap between the company’s aspiration for unified brand advocacy and actual employee perception.
An internal brand engagement campaign reached employes via office signage, newsletters, and grassroots events.
Our Approach
To address these challenges, we partnered with PayPal to develop a multi-pronged strategy that included:
- A highly-produced, short, self-propelled online module for all employees
- In-person workshops for customer-facing teams (marketing, sales, customer service)
- Onboarding content for new hires so brand understanding starts on day one
- Deep dives into brand voice and visual identity for content creators
- Training for external agencies and freelancers to ensure a unified brand presence
For each of the modules we stuck with important criteria: the experience must be engaging, interactive, and fun—because learning about the brand should be an inspiring journey, not a dry lecture.
The training shows how growing and protecting the brand is everyone’s responsibility, not just marketing, by sharing stories from finance, legal, product, facilities, and procurement.
The Results
After the roll-out of this comprehensive program, 96% of participants reported understanding what the PayPal brand stands for and recognizing their personal role in growing and protecting it. That’s a significant leap from the original 55%, demonstrating the power of well-executed internal brand engagement.
Remember, all employees are responsible for growing and protecting your brand, no matter their role. By investing in clear, engaging, and ongoing brand training, companies can empower every individual to be a passionate brand ambassador, driving consistency, credibility, and customer trust.
“The real selling point of Global Brand Works is both Shannon and Caroline have backgrounds in working for large matrix organizations. They have empathy for clients, strong marketing decision-making skills, and the ability to execute thoroughly on a budget.” – Fi Naughton, Senior Director, Global Brand Planning, PayPal
I am a new employee at PayPal and went through Caroline’s brand training during on-boarding. It was fun and super helpful for new employees!
Thanks Mary! We are do glad you liked it and found it helpful!
Incredible ways to conduct internal brand training. This one helped a lot.
Glad you found it useful!