ABOUT

Our Client:

Founded in New York City in 2014, Paxful is a leading peer-to-peer platform for financial trading, specifically with Bitcoin. With more than 300 payment methods available, it is the leading marketplace for Bitcoin buyers and sellers.

Our Brief:

The drastic devaluation of the Venezuelan bolivar resulted in the Venezuela-Colombia border becoming one of the world’s hottest spots for cryptocurrency exchange. With this in mind, Paxful were understandably keen to enter the Colombian market. Sherlock Communications was brought on board in the middle of 2019 to help position Paxful as the primary peer-to-peer market for making in-country transactions.

As well as this, the client wanted us to help publicise the benefits of using Bitcoin, dispel doubts and myths about cryptocurrency, and urge for regulation by the national government. The target audience was described as people between the ages of 21 and 65 who, regardless of their socioeconomic status, were interested in investing in Bitcoin.

Our Challenges:

As a result of Colombia’s recent history, there was widespread mistrust of any financial transactions that operated outside the traditionally regulated financial framework. This included many public figures — journalists, news anchors, politicians — being openly hostile to the idea of cryptocurrencies, believing they could undermine the role of the state and be used for criminal purposes. This mistrust among key opinion formers, many of whom made sweeping statements, led to confusion regarding what Colombians could or should be willing to embrace and accept.

Paxful had zero visibility in the media so started from a negative position in that there was zero recognition but widespread distrust of the sector and those operating within it. The client had a small and engaged customer base, but there was a general lack of knowledge of crypto and, when we started the campaign, there were high-profile international stories of investors losing millions at the hands of absconding crypto exchange executives or — worse — lost passwords.
There was also a misconception that crypto is only for programmers, adding to the confusion and misinformation surrounding the whole industry.

The Strategy and Execution:

The first thing we needed to understand was why Colombians were so against cryptocurrencies. How much did they genuinely understand about Bitcoin; where had they sourced that information; what were their main fears; were they willing to listen and be educated? There were plenty of negative opinions on this subject from journalists, but very little hard evidence to back up these views. We would run a consumer survey with reputable polling platform Toluna Insights to discover the real level of knowledge about crypto, and in particular Bitcoin, among Colombian citizens. This would enable us to better understand our target audience’s mindset and how best to position Paxful.

Given the hostility we encountered from journalists, our next priority was to develop a robust relations programme, challenging preconceptions and educating opinion formers on Colombians’ true use and needs from Bitcoin. We would also look to actively but objectively teach citizens of the benefits of crypto and break related stigmas. As these types of currency did not have the support of the Central Bank of Colombia, they were often addressed cynically by media. Positioning Paxful as a credible source of information would be key.

The survey results of 1,100 Colombians were surprising to say the least. We expected to find high levels of confusion, misunderstanding, and even some fear. Instead, we found Colombian citizens to be considerably more accepting and progressive than the prevailing view from journalists. For example, more than 80% of respondents were familiar with crypto and 80% were open to investing in it.

These results provided the strategic basis for an overarching ‘Bitcoin Back To Basics’ campaign that involved us producing explanatory content, but more importantly giving Paxful a platform on which they could reassure, educate and inform. We produced press releases announcing the results of the survey, complete with commentary from Paxful spokespeople. We also developed and placed a series of thought-leadership bylines in major publications such as La República, Portafolio, Colprensa and Agencia EFE, each of which provided syndication in the most important media outlets with national and regional coverage. Listicles in key target media covered topics such as: “The Dos And Don’t Of Bitcoin”, “Success Stories Of Bitcoin Investments In Latin America”, and “How To Invest In Cryptocurrency”.

The Flagship Action As a means of improving engagement and trust, we organised a media tour across Colombia, taking in major cities such as Bogota, Medellin, Pereira, Armenia, Manizales and Cali. We also visited various universities, including the Universidad de Área Andina in Bogotá, one of the country’s most prestigious. As well as a series of other user engagement meetings, we organised phone interviews with interested users in Ibagué and Cucutá, a border city with Venezuela.

The tour generated more than 90 pieces of coverage in the first two months, including exclusive interviews in major national outlets such as Agencia EFE, Caracol Radio, La República and Portafolio. Coverage also appeared in regional media, as well as on the main TV channels, reaching more than 350,000 viewers.

As a follow-up, we hijacked news coverage of Venezuela to place a story about Colombia’s first cryptocurrency-enabled ATMs at the state border, complete with comment and insight from Paxful. This resulted in 28 pieces of coverage and was picked up internationally, appearing in English on Yahoo! Finance.

Building on this momentum, we will be launching a #BuiltWithBitcoin campaign in 2020, which will support NGOs that provide educational programmes and support refugees in deprived communities. Paxful will provide the initial donation before enabling users to fund the campaign with a percentage donation of the value of their trades.

Response and Reaction: From the start of the campaign in August to the end of the year, Sherlock had generated 190 pieces of coverage for Paxful, more than any other cryptocurrency brand has ever enjoyed before in Colombia. The client also revealed it had completed transactions in the country worth in excess of one million dollars and were “highly satisifed” with the results.

“We recently started working with Sherlock Communications to raise brand awareness in Colombia,” said Nina Paragoso, Head of Communications, Paxful. “Being a company in an emerging industry, Paxful encounters many challenges when entering new markets, but Sherlock has helped us helped us strategically put out stories to highlight the brand in the market. They have been pro-actively generating new ideas on how to position the brand and been scheduling interviews with key media to achieve maximum exposure.”