Venmo vies to become Gen Z’s preferred payment option - Brand Innovators

Venmo vies to become Gen Z’s preferred payment option

  • Venmo is positioning itself as the payment option of choice for Gen Z in a new marketing campaign themed “What’s Your Venmo.”
  • The new effort, from agency 72andSunny, illustrates the various ways in which the app enables users to connect in ways beyond sending and receiving money. 
  • To that end, the campaign highlights several new features including the ability to split payments among users and groups and other functionalities including debit cards, direct deposits and business profiles.

Venmo is well known for its ability for individuals to pay each other simply and efficiently, but over the years the app has expanded to include products like a debit card and an ability to use the payment system to pay for goods and services through its mobile app and on retailer sites. The new campaign seeks to highlight all of those options as it targets younger consumers, ages 18-29. 

A commerical in the new campaign shows a woman beginning her day by checking her Venmo balance. She then uses the app to pay for a manicure via a mobile payment and then for a mobile grooming company to clean her mud-covered dog. The narrative then switches to follow the groomer who uses Venmo to contribute as part of a group to a gift for his father’s birthday before depicting a group of women using Venmo to calculate payments at a group dinner with friends. The spot ends with the original woman taking Venmo payments for her small business. 

A second spot in the campaign depicts the young woman using Venmo’s mobile app and debit card to earn cashback through various purchases, including a manicure, clothing and a food truck. 

The campaign will run on streaming and connected TV channels, digital video, audio, social media, influencers and out-of-home in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas – all areas that have a high concentration of affluent Gen Z digital natives. 

Venmo’s campaign comes on the heels of its parent company, PayPal, launching its largest campaign to date via an effort featuring actor Will Ferrell. Some 70% of consumers are already using mobile payments, and the category is expected to reach $408 billion in transactions by 2029, according to Mordor Intelligence