Afterpay celebrates its regulated era with new campaign

As new buy now, pay later rules kick in, Afterpay has launched a major campaign highlighting its differences to credit cards.

Afterpay campaign celebrates the differences between BNPL and credit cards

To herald the arrival of new legislation governing the buy now, pay later category, Afterpay has launched a major integrated campaign highlighting its differences to credit cards.

The campaign aims to celebrate the brand’s “regulation era”, which began on June 12 with the introduction of stricter new credit lending rules for BNPLs. The campaign aims to reinforce Afterpay’s credibility by promoting its differences to credit cards, such as BNPLs’ lack of interest and hidden fees, and suggesting these common credit lending practices are outdated.

It’s the latest campaign from the market-leading BNPL service and aims to reinforce the brand’s dominance in the market, while helping to educate sceptics who are unsure about the safety of BNPL. Afterpay hopes to entice new customers through a major integrated advertising campaign that rolls out this week across outdoor, TV, print, online and social media channels.

“We know that 35 per cent of people have said that they would start using Afterpay, or seriously consider using Afterpay, once the regulations came in,” Afterpay vice-president of marketing, international markets, Joel Moran said. “That’s really positive as it will help more people feel more confident about our services.

Afterpay VP of marketing, international markets, Joel Moran

“The campaign aims to position Afterpay as the fairer, smarter alternative to credit cards, which helps customers avoid interest, revolving debt and hidden fees, while reinforcing that we’re transparent, interest-free and proudly regulated.

“We’re trying to de-glorify credit cards and encourage people to make more informed decisions, and maybe think twice and not be proud when they pull out a credit card in store.

“I’d prefer that people were like, oh, you’re paying with the credit card, are you OK? Rather than this idea that people feel it’s a privilege to have a gold card.”

The campaign has been led by research that found that 56 per cent of Australian Gen Z said credit cards “gave them the ick”, while 76 per cent of Gen Z said credit card bills make them feel anxious. The study, conducted by Morning Consult for Afterpay, also revealed that 84 per cent of Australians believe using credit cards can be financially dangerous and that 57 per cent of people who have owned a credit card have switched to another payment method.

Afterpay is hoping to tap into what it believes is a changing attitude to credit cards, particularly among Gen Z and millennials to showcase “more transparent payment alternatives like BNPL”.

However, while the new campaign is targeting this core audience, Afterpay is running full-page newspapers ads, in a bid to create a buzz around the campaign and reinforce how regulation is providing credibility to the BNPL market.

“We are using press because it creates a statement and says ‘this is legit’. We’re also running ads across Meta, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, all those places,” Mr Moran said. “We’re hoping our press ads might go viral. We don’t have the budgets that ANZ, NAB and Commonwealth Bank have. That’s why we have to be smart and savvy with our creative, with our media and with the timing. That’s where we can get a little marketing competitive advantage.”

Afterpay is running full page newspaper ads to celebrate the difference between its service and credit cards.

Like most of Afterpay’s marketing activity, this latest campaign draws on the brand’s positioning as a challenger to the status quo of the financial services market.

“This campaign, and the boldness of our messages, really leans into our Aussie disrupter and challenger brand roots that we’re very proud of,” Mr Moran said. “We are an Australian tech company that pushes against the big guys to be successful and help our customers along the way.

“With this campaign we are seizing the moment, post regulations being implemented, to ­silence the sceptics who might like to think we’re just like credit cards and show them that we’re a better alternative. We want prospective customers to give us a go and existing customers to be proud they’re making the right decision. We always like to say that our customers are financial savvy and in-the-know ­people. So this is another campaign which adds to our value proposition.

“We want to celebrate the fact that Afterpay is a better solution and help our existing customers celebrate us more and help reinforce their decision and give them more facts and figures to share the word of mouth that we’re such a better alternative, and post-regulations, people can feel even more confident with the products that we provide.”