Branding

Thanks to the pandemic, customers are relying on delivery apps and other digital tools more than ever to interact with their favorite food brands. The PayPal-owned payment service Venmo has quickly become an important part of how young consumers make virtual transactions, but the savviest brands are starting to understand the real untapped potential that the app has to offer. Venmo is an innovative and novel platform for brand promotions, and marketing teams should understand how they can take full advantage of this opportunity in order to stay ahead in the competitive modern food industry.

Burger King® Sends Customers $1 on Venmo to Promote Value Items

Starting on December 28^th, Burger King® has been sending random customers $1 on Venmo as a way of promoting their new dollar menu. This feels more actionable than traditional campaigns that might send coupons through email or physical mailers, since the cash is being deposited directly into a platform that consumers naturally associate with making purchases.

This campaign is also more accessible than many other brand promotions that require customers to download their company app. For starters, it eliminates several steps in the user’s journey to take advantage of the promotion, which may make some consumers more likely to actually go through with the purchase process. Additionally, this allows the company to market to more casual consumers that may feel that they don’t visit Burger King® often enough to warrant getting the app. The brand has an opportunity to convert this group to become more consistent shoppers by reaching them where they already are, rather than asking them to join a rewards program that might feel off-putting if they aren’t at the right point in their customer journey to commit to it.

CBD Seltzer Brand Recess© Uses Venmo to Entice Influencers

In 2019, CBD seltzer maker Recess© sent $3 via Venmo to any user that mentioned the brand on Instagram the weekend of Black Friday. Given that this is one of the biggest party weekends of the year, it makes sense that a brand in the hemp industry would launch this kind of promotion to compete with alcohol brands.

This kind of Venmo campaign is also a great approach to microinfluencer marketing. “Microinfluencer” means that a user has less than 100,000 Instagram followers, meaning that promotions hosted on these accounts are more likely to reach their immediate circle of friends and family. While these audiences are naturally much smaller than those offered by more established social media influencers, they are also able to make more personal and meaningful connections with the followers that they do have.

Venmo is a great space for brands to connect with users that are already in a spending mindset. While few brands have taken full advantage of the opportunities that the platform offers, it seems likely that we are going to see a sharp rise in these types of campaigns as consumers move even more of their commercial activity on to apps.