PayPal Disrupts the Financial Industry Again - This Time with Strong Social Influence

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - September 28, 2017) - PayPal is making good on its promise to disrupt the financial industry. In Engagement Labs' latest ranking of social influence among U.S. financial brands (banks, investment companies and credit cards), PayPal edged out American Express to debut at number two. Meanwhile, Fidelity Investments retains the top spot in the TotalSocial® rankings.

The analysis, which is a follow up to the Company's first ranking in April 2017, is based on Engagement Labs' proprietary TotalSocial data and analytics, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance in both face-to-face and social media conversations. The brands in the top ten have earned the highest TotalSocial scores in the category for the last six months.

According to Engagement Labs' report, strong offline scores helped Fidelity retain its hold on the top spot, but PayPal was the real disruptor in the new analysis. The payments company, which has consistently performed very well with respect to social media conversations, has seen a surge in its offline TotalSocial scores in the last six months to catch up with its online performance.

"Since our last analysis of financial brands, PayPal has impressively jumped ten places in our ranking. PayPal moved from being a Social Siren -- a brand that excels at cultivating digital conversations but needs improvement in generating offline conversation -- to a Conversation Commander, which is what we call brands that have mastered the art and science of driving consumer conversations in both spheres," said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs.

Keller continued, "Over the last several months, PayPal has moved more aggressively toward a mobile-first mindset, added new digital financial services such as bill pay, and strengthened partnerships with major banks and tech companies. These actions have elevated consumer conversations about their brand both on social media and also in real world conversations."

While PayPal continues to grow, American Express (Amex), ranked third, has suffered declines in both its online and offline volume scores, which measures the amount of conversations about the brand. The financial company is having a harder time attracting Millennial customers, who are less likely to have a credit card. However, Amex's newly launched features, such as the "Pay It Plan It" mobile payment system, may enable the company to compete more effectively with PayPal for younger consumers.

Visa improved both its online and offline scores over the last six months, and a strong rise in sentiment about the brand catapulted it to tenth in the rankings. MasterCard, which held that spot in the prior analysis, fell to number 13 due to a significant drop in its offline brand sharing score, which means that consumers are talking less about the Company's marketing and advertising programs.

Another brand to drop out of the top ten TotalSocial ranking was TD Ameritrade, which is locked in a brutal price war in the online trading space. The company also saw a decrease in its scores for offline volume and sentiment over the same period.

To learn more about Engagement Labs and how to increase your brand's word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com.

About Engagement Labs
Engagement Labs (TSX VENTURE: EL) is the world's first TotalSocial^® company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry -- both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an "always-on" proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs' patented social media measurement tool and the world's only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands across 16 major industry categories within the U.S., and 350 brands across 18 industry categories in the UK.

To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com.

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