You can learn a lot by looking at how each of the mobile payments players – at least those in the market today – tout their capabilities. We took a peek at the pitches and how the mobile pay rhetoric changed since the “Pay” space grew threefold. Read (and watch!)
You can learn a lot by looking at how each of the mobile payments players — at least those in the market today — tout their capabilities.
What’s notable about each of the big tech “Pay” players — specifically Apple, Google and Samsung — since their respective launches is how they’ve chosen to promote their products and which companies they have promoted as part of their own mobile wallet promotions. Each promote convenience and security, but each does so in very different ways — a fact that becomes increasingly evident when looking through their marketing and promotional pushes.
Starting with commercials like this one:
Android Pay hasn’t even hit the market yet, but it’s already got a catchy commercial that shows how paying with Android Pay is the fast, easy way to pay anyone, in any scenario. A woman at a drugstore, a man on the run swinging in a cafe, a person grabbing a Coke from a vending machine. Android Pay has tried to personalize its service by reminding consumers that they can pay their way (as long as it’s with Android Pay, of course).
It also has some subtle advertisements for companies who have been on the Apple Pay bandwagon since day one. A tray at Whole Foods, a Bank of America or American Express card being loaded — those two have paraded Apple Pay in their own commercials.
What stands out in Android Pay’s app, however, is its focus on in-app mobile payments — an area some in the industry believe will be the bread-and-butter for mobile payments. Take Etsy, for example, which is featured in the video. Etsy also just recently added Apple Pay in-app purchasing and now has Android Pay, too. Grubhub is another app featured in the video, which highlights how prominently the “buy with Android Pay” button will be featured on the app.
Android Pay doesn’t even need to say Android Pay; it just shows off its little highly recognizable green robot mascot. And while Apple Pay highlights its deal with Uber for in-app pay, Android Pay features how to pay in-app with Lyft instead.
And what’s very noticeable in Android Pay is Google’s effort in showing how consumers can pay for their favorite brands via Android Pay.
Perhaps as its rollout gets closer, Samsung Pay will offer up a commercial that focuses strictly on its Samsung Pay option. But then again, perhaps not. Samsung has its own way of doing things.
What Samsung has done in its first commercials that highlight the mobile payment option is focus on the power of the phone itself, not just the mobile payment feature. To get people to buy in to Samsung Pay, the company has turned its strategy to focus on getting people to first buy the latest Samsung smartphone: the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge. Makes sense. After all, getting that device in the consumers’ hands is the first step in making those mobile payments possible.
By emphasizing that “next is now,” Samsung is hoping to differentiate itself from the rest of the pack, reminding consumers that paying by mobile is just part of the Samsung experience.
Will Graylin, Global Co-GM of Samsung Pay and CEO of LoopPay, pointed out to PYMNTS in a recent interview that Samsung’s focus is on the consumer experience, and its commercial certainly reflects that mantra. In fact, Graylin went as far as saying, “Our goal is to just say, ‘Whoever gives the best consumer experience should get the consumer’s attention.'”
And that’s what Samsung is attempting to do in its smartphone commercials like this one:
Apple is the master of getting others to do the promotional heavy lifting for them.
You’ll note that the Android Pay commercial mimicked a lot of the same features that were featured in the Apple Pay commercials. There’s just one difference: Android Pay advertised its supporters, but Apple managed to get its supporters to advertise for them. Remember those Apple Pay commercials that were featured last fall? Bank of America, Chase and American Express all have their own version — each touting their own institutions as much as Apple Pay. The commercials were all focused on the same thing though: the convenience and speed of paying with Apple Pay.
Most of Apple Pay’s commercials, like the rhetoric seen in this Bank of America Apple Pay commercial, show a “day in the life” type of theme, touting how Apple Pay can save the time it takes to run those pesky errands.
We love numbers and love reporting them. We know you love them, too. It’s just really hard, sometimes, to cut through all of the numbers to get THE numbers, the ones that you would feel good about putting in your presentations to the CEO and building your revenue forecasts around.
Which brings us to the number of points of sale that enable Apple Pay.
At the recent WWDC event, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple Pay will soon be available (starting in July) at 1 million locations.
And as MPD CEO Karen Webster points to in her recent column, we can’t pinpoint that number. In terms of merchant locations, the best we can do is ~124,000, including 40,000 Coca-Cola vending machines. We aren’t counting laundromats or parking machines or transit turnstiles or terminals that have been shipped and not activated.
If you help us find them, we’ll be sure to update the PYMNTS’ Mobile Payments Scorecard — the one-stop shop for gathering the most up-to-date stats about who is accepting what mobile payment option and how many users have embraced them.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More