Preacher, the Austin-based agency launched by Mother New York alums in 2014, launched a “Pony Up on Venmo” campaign for PayPal-owned peer-to-peer payment service Venmo with a series of national broadcast spots that debut this week.
As you perhaps guessed, the spots play on the phrase, making use of actual ponies. That approach allowed Preacher to tie the selling points of a brand that not all viewers will be familiar with to the memorable (and ridiculous) image of full-grown adults on very tiny ponies.
In “Rally Cry,” for example, a group of friends argue over whose turn it is to pay the bill outside a bar when one friend steps up to give a speech about how “happy hour should end happy” and they can easily split the bill with Venmo app. In addition to “Rally Cry,” which will run in both 30- and 15-second versions on networks including Comedy Central and MTV, there are also a series of 15-second spots exploring how different friends from “Rally Cry” use Venmo to pay for things like fancy camping, smoothies and pizza.
“Pony Up” follows on the heels of CP+B L.A.’s “Unboxing Venmo + Expert Brad Hall Review” in July. In addition to broadcast, the campaign, which will run for two months, also includes OOH and social media activations.
“This is our opportunity to drive awareness and to showcase our personality,” Venmo marketing director Kasia Leyden told AdAge. “It came together in a really clear way as a rallying cry against those awkward moments of having to ask someone to pay you back.”