Western Union

Goal: Overcome outdated consumer perceptions to leverage trusted & iconic global brand.

Stephenson Group’s mission was to drive revenue growth of Western Union’s Payments division by establishing Western Union’s essential role as a leader in payment systems and creating strong recognition of the Western Union brand for business and consumer payments.

Tactics:

To overcome outdated consumer perception of Western Union as a telegraph company, Stephenson Group (SG) worked with Western Union to translate the company’s value proposition and further define the payments division through a multi-pronged thought leadership strategy. SG and Western Union leveraged Western Union’s quarterly survey of American consumers, the Money Mindset Index, to secure feature coverage in targeted consumer media outlets while creating traction for Western Union’s executives with feature interviews and contributed articles in targeted industry outlets, as well as speaking engagements at key industry conferences.

Results:

From April 2010 through October 2011, SG secured:

259 media placements in top consumer and industry outlets, including:

American Banker, Forbes, FOX Business News, Bank Systems & Technology, AOL Finance, Bank Technology News, CNBC, Credit Union Magazine, MSNBC, Employee Benefit News, Financial Planning, Green Sheet, Hispanic Business, Investment Advisor, La Opinion, MSN, Reuters, United Press International, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo!, On-Air with Ryan Seacrest/KIIS-FM, Z100-FM, Univision Quentas Claras

10 speaking opportunities a key industry conferences, including:

  • IASA Annual Educational Conference & Business Show
  • NACHA Payments
  • Source Card Forum
  • Chartwell/EMACS: Customer Experience Conference
  • Electric Utility Consultants (EUCI)
  • Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)
  • Utility Payment Conference
  • Northeastern Utilities Credit & Collection (NEUCC) 2011 Conference
  • Mashable’s Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit