Positioning DailyPay as Frontline Heroes’ Partner Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
A PR strategy shifts to highlight benefits of earned income software provider during turbulent times.
Overview
As the leading provider of the daily pay benefit, DailyPay allows its customers’ employees access to their earned income before their scheduled pay date. DailyPay originally partnered with Walker Sands to increase its top-tier media coverage and brand awareness, but when news of the pandemic began to spread, the teams had to quickly pivot.
Walker Sands served as a true partner to help DailyPay shift its PR strategy to focus on the benefits its service provided to Americans facing economic uncertainty, while using data, company news and thought leadership to provide media contacts with timely, relevant information.
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The Challenge
DailyPay came to Walker Sands for help in strategically positioning the company as a go-to source in the fintech market through top-tier media coverage, while also highlighting its benefits to customers and prospects. Walker Sands was ready to hit the ground running promoting a major company announcement for DailyPay when coronavirus began dominating the newscycle. Not wanting to add to an already saturated media landscape with news irrelevant to the pandemic, DailyPay and Walker Sands needed to pivot – and fast.
With economic and job uncertainty on the rise, DailyPay knew that its ability to deliver earned wages to employees ahead of their scheduled pay days could provide much needed financial flexibility and control during this time. To further support its customers, DailyPay waived its next-day access fees to on-demand pay, allowing employees to access their income even faster at no additional cost. DailyPay needed Walker Sands to help get the word out about this valuable resource.
The Solution
Moving quickly to pivot its strategy, Walker Sands issued a press release in tandem with targeted outreach to show the media how DailyPay is supporting customers impacted by the pandemic.
Sensitive to the fact that their media contacts were being bombarded with requests – many unrelated to coronavirus and ultimately unhelpful at that time – Walker Sands was careful to highlight the fact that DailyPay’s offer was a resource aimed at helping employees facing financial uncertainty. To ensure reporters would be receptive to the story, the team selectively leveraged friendly media contacts and reporters who had shown an interest in DailyPay in the past across the HR, personal finance and business sectors.
After the initial press release, Walker Sands diligently kept a pulse on the media landscape to evaluate how DailyPay could fit into the conversation in meaningful ways by:
- Leveraging relevant proprietary data: Using their proprietary data, DailyPay released the DailyPay Workforce Index, which tracks the number of employees working and average hours worked by an employee across the call center, hospital, quick service restaurant and supermarket industries. The index displays key trends and insights to provide further value to DailyPay’s customers in those industries. Aside from the index itself, DailyPay also had access to the number of income transfers being requested for coronavirus-related reasons. Both data sets allowed Walker Sands to send verified data to reporters on the impact coronavirus is having on hiring and other activities.
- Conducting a quick poll: To continue providing timely insights to customers and reporters, Walker Sands and DailyPay commissioned an online survey conducted by The Harris Poll of more than 1,000 U.S. adults to better gauge Americans’ financial concerns amid the pandemic. The survey found that 57% of Americans were concerned about their finances ahead of the stimulus check arrivals, among other key data points. Walker Sands used these key statistics to provide media contacts with timely data, while also showcasing the importance of ensuring employees are financially stable.
- Amplifying DailyPay thought leaders: As the media landscape shifted and reporters became increasingly interested in hearing how coronavirus is impacting various business facets, DailyPay’s Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer was eager to serve as a resource. Walker Sands leveraged the CMIO as a thought leader on topics such as the meaning behind data from DailyPay’s Workforce Index and Harris Poll, how employers can empower their employees during a crisis, why financial flexibility is more important than ever and more.
The Results
The press release announcing DailyPay’s next-day fee waive saw impressive results across top-tier, payments and HR media outlets. Most notably, Walker Sands secured a feature in CNBC that DailyPay’s CEO praised as “… the best story [he’s] seen about [DailyPay].”
In total, Walker Sands has secured 51 placements, 12 of which were features, for DailyPay in the three months since the initial strategy shift, including:
- American Banker: Consumers seek early access to wages to soften coronavirus hit
- PYMNTS: Pay Cards, Flex Pay Options Help Employees During Pandemic
- HR Technologist: 43% of Employees Are Getting Paid Early With Access to DailyPay
- HR Daily Advisor: How Can You Help Employees Impacted by COVID-19?
- StreetFight Magazine: Tech Companies Respond as Workers, SMBs Face Covid-19 Pressure
- The Spoon: Own a Restaurant? Here Are Some Resources for Surviving COVID-19
The coverage helped position DailPay as a trusted leader in the fintech market, but more importantly, DailyPay was able to serve as a resource for their customers as they work to support their employees during the crisis. As coverage continues to roll in, Walker Sands is keeping a close pulse on how DailyPay can contribute to the conversation in useful, relevant ways.
