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.

Today, 25% of Gen-Z state their ideal future job is to be a social media Creator. To many of them, building a personal brand seems more fulfilling than working a 9-5. The evidence of people making six figures early in their twenties has pushed interest in Creatorship. However, many don’t know how to get started and good advice is sparse to none. While it may look easy, becoming a successful Creator takes a lot of know-how.

This led us to our insight; With no clear path to success, aspiring Creators are left to navigate uncharted waters alone.

Our idea was to help Gen-Z make their Creator ambitions a reality by giving them mentorship and guidance. GetP@id was a first-of-its-kind, social edutainment series that taught aspiring Creators important skills to establish themselves as professionals and succeed. By delivering value in a compelling way, Visa could stand out and connect with Gen-Z.

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. Gen-Z’s want to become professional Creators but lack guidance and they over-index in trusting 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 thrilled to be coached.

Our media plan strategy prioritized Gen-Z’s must-have social platform TikTok as our content hub. There we planned to tap into native behaviors like stitching, sounds and re-posts to attract and engage users. We'd also post select content on YouTube with its engaging how-to content and Instagram for added reach. We'd strategically sequence challenges and episodes to produce an engaging storyline throughout the initiative.

GetP@id paired 3 new Creators with 3 established Creators in Fashion, Food and Music. The 7-week program launched with an attention-grabbing music video and series announcement. Next, we issued the first of 3 challenges with a video on Visa’s owned channels. This had Mentees getting outside their comfort zone, trying something new. They exchanged ideas with their Mentors via posts on their channels and stitched replies, then posted final submissions which became a “recap episode.” This cycle repeated for the next 2 challenges where Mentees created sponsored posts and pitched new revenue stream ideas.

TikTok was the primary source of discovery and content for GetP@id. Opportunistic funds allowed for agile promotion of best-performing content, boosting performance. We also applied spend to our Creators’ channels to support them. YouTube extended reach providing tips and tricks pulled from Mentor challenge responses and content was posted on Instagram. The campaign tallied 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.

And, Visa’s Social Share of Voice grew +37.5% versus pre-program to 55% (Payment Category), creating strong momentum.