Venmo, the highly popular payment app amongst Gen Z and millenials, is giving its users more reason to ditch their traditional cards and banking products in favor of instant payments fueled by visual interactions. In lieu of static emoticons, you can expect more expression in the form of animation when you’re charging someone or paying them back thanks to a new partnership.
Holler x Venmo: making feeds more lively
According to recent research over the course of the last year, nearly half (42 percent) of consumers have utilized some service to send or receive payments compared to 11 percent two years ago. The peer-to-peer payment company is capitalizing on this trend by collaborating with Holler to incorporate stickers into the native app.
“Given 90 percent of users are using emoji in their payment notes, bringing characters like Mizky, Simone, and Romeon to the platform was a natural way for us to expand on our mission: enriching conversations everywhere,” Holler’s CEO and Founder Travis Montaque shared in a statement with Mashable.
Holler’s CEO and Founder, Travis Montaque on stage at Social Media Week New York 2019. Photo by Jonathan Lantz Photography
When users go into Venmo to request or make a payment, they’ll be able to draft their transaction note and tap into a library of Holler stickers designed and curated for them through keyword suggestion technology. Unlike searching for specific gifs on GIPHY, the process is more like the selections you’ll see in chat apps such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
Tailored options include a hoagie sandwich broken in half with overlaid text reading, ‘split the bill,’ a spinning pizza, a trio of exercising doughnuts, and two people pushing an IKEA shopping cart to commemorate that joint furniture shopping trip. All resonate with the types of activities and experiences that result in people transferring money to one another.
Here’s a look at some of them:
What does this mean for brands?
Aside from user-to-user cases, the collaboration stands as one to open doors for brands looking to tap into a new era of relationship marketing — one where messaging apps are favored over social networks as connective tools and allow marketers to drive top of mind awareness in conversations they previously weren’t able to engage in before.
IKEA isn’t the only brand to be included in the library of new stickers according to Venmo. Subway and several others are also participating in the hopes of experimenting with new ways to engage consumers on a more intimate level through fun and sophisticated animated content.
The move is one that ties in nicely to Holler’s mission to address the challenge of younger digital natives who spend as much time engaging within online environments as they do physical environments. Not to mention, Venmo currently boats over 50 million customers.
“We’re always working to bring more expression and excitement to digital communications and push the boundaries of messaging, and we’re thrilled to bring Venmo into our network of awesome platform partners where you can find Holler content,” the company shared.
This is a significant audience for Holler to reach and represents a significant selling opportunity for the ap in the absence of not being on Facebook or any other major social platform. It also serves as a win for Venmo by allowing the app to more accurately caters to the needs of its users
Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.