Gen Z is embracing Digital Wallet payments in which the Visa brand is less prominent. As a result, Visa has seen double-digit declines in relevance among 18–34s. Given younger consumers’ potential lifetime value, this could significantly impact the business.

Gen Z sees promise in the growing Creator economy, with 1 in 4 wanting careers as professional Creators — but only 1% of Creators actually make money. So, we saw an opportunity to win over Gen Z by helping them make it as Creators.

Given that 54% of Gen Z spend four hours a day on social media, we knew we had to embrace social. Our work centered on meeting the true needs of our Gen Z audience where they are — on social platforms.

Our objectives included driving lift in brand relevance among Gen Z, demonstrating Visa is a committed partner of the Creator Economy, and improving Visa’s cultural relevance.

For Visa to resonate with Gen Z, we needed to meet them where they are and provide value in a compelling way. While other brands use social media to boast about their products or try to act like consumers, we stood out by actively supporting aspiring Creators and helping make Gen Z’s career dreams a reality.

GetP@id was a first-of-its-kind, reality show-inspired social edutainment series that taught aspiring Creators valuable skills to establish themselves as professionals. We paired three new Creators with established Creator mentors within their category — fashion, music, and food. We issued challenges that simulated obstacles that Creators face on their journey to becoming professionals. Our mentees received advice from their mentors while tackling the challenges, allowing them (and the audience) to learn practical lessons along the way.

Viewers could watch the Creators grow, learn valuable lessons, and experience positive emotions that carried over to the Visa brand.

Our strategy was to establish Visa’s support for the Creator economy by providing valuable content for aspiring Creators, thereby improving Gen Z’s perception of Visa. We knew that 25% of our audience want to become professional Creators but lack a trusted source of guidance. We also knew the group over-indexes in trust of influencers. So, we knew an educational, creator-focused effort would move the needle.

Our approach was to launch a Visa-branded social edutainment series where our audience could learn from Creators — and watch Creators learn. We cast established Creators eager to share their wisdom and up-and-comers willing to be coached in front of an audience.

We activated GetP@id across social platforms, prioritizing TikTok as our content hub. There we tapped into native behaviors like stitching, sounds and re-posts to attract and engage users. We posted select content on YouTube with its engaging how-to content and Instagram for added reach.

We rolled out GetP@id over six weeks, beginning with a music video and series announcement starring our host Kareem Rahma. Our Creator mentors and mentees also announced their participation with individual videos to engage their audiences.

Next, our host issued the first of 3 challenges with a video on Visa’s owned channels. The first challenge asked our mentees to get outside their comfort zone, trying something new. They exchanged ideas with their mentors via posts on their channels and stitched replies, then posted their final submissions, which our host incorporated into a challenge “recap episode.” We repeated this cycle for the second and third challenges, where mentees practiced sponsored posts and pitched ideas for new revenue streams.

Throughout the campaign, mentors also created videos with Creator tips for our audience, which we posted to owned Visa channels on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. In total, the campaign tallied over 100 posts.

GetP@id GotResults! Delivering an impressive +26% lift in brand relevance among Gen-Z, GetP@id reversed double-digit declines.

Visa demonstrated commitment to the Creator Economy with strong lifts in association among established and aspiring Creators:

+13.0% Visa supports Creators

+9.1% Visa is part of the Creator Economy

+7.1% Visa helps Creators “make it”

We drove cultural relevance with a +4% lift among Gen Z that “Visa is part of the cultural conversation,” with 80% of Gen Z in agreement. Among established Creators, GetP@id delivered a significant +8.7% lift in cultural relevance, with +4.3% among aspiring Creators.

GetP@id content was compelling for Gen Z, with a 3.2% Video Completion Rate, over TikTok benchmark (1.65% - 2.75%) — impressive given GetP@id videos averaged 52 seconds.

Visa’s TikTok audience grew +2,700%, with +5.5K new followers plus 4.2K new followers for Creators.

Visa Share of Voice grew to 55% vs. Payment Category, +37.5% vs. pre-program, creating momentum.