In Russia a high percentage of the population lives in remote locations. These people lack an easy access to any kind of banking services and anything but basic goods in stores– and at the same time many of them already have an Internet connection.

With this in mind, the #WhereverYouAre campaign was conceived to take us on a journey to the “e-commerce frontier” – highlighting how PayPal enables people living in remote areas of the world’s largest country to buy and sell things and lead inspiring, fulfilled lives, something most people in Russian believe to be impossible.

The campaign was to include video stories that capture the daily lives of five real PayPal customers, including a woman who sells hand-made jewelry abroad and a military man who lives in an abandoned ghost town in the Russian Far North.

The campaign was implemented in three stages:

1) The preparation stage - finding the perfect heroes for the campaign. PayPal reached out to customers to learn more about their experiences in remote locations. Out of more than 700 respondents, five were selected to take part in the later stages of the campaign. The heroes were chosen based on their unusual locations, their stories and whether their stories serve as a source of inspiration for the whole country.

2) The creation of content. As the team wanted to personally visit all the selected heroes to make sure the stories feel as authentic as possible, this took several months of preparation and travel.

3) The presentation. The campaign was teased with a short trailer and then launched with a bang at a large event in Moscow and followed with various types of coverage in traditional media.

• 76 pieces of coverage in Russian and foreign media.

• 3+ million views of the videos.

• 4.1% engagement rate in social media

• 100,000 likes + 10,700 comments + 2,500 shares on YouTube, Facebook, Odnoklassniki and VK.com.

• Total reach of 78,900,000