The Summer Hits Of PYMNTS (Set To Music)

This summer has certainly been anything but a sleeper in the world of music — or payments. Every year, we expect the music industry to deliver a bevy of new tracks all vying for the “hit song of the summer.” So, too, is the case for the payments industry, which we look to during the summer to bring a slew of new technologies, innovators, and companies vying for dominance.

In the summer of 2015, with the looming EMV deadline fast approaching, the industry showed no signs of taking a vacation as the weather in the northern hemisphere hit record highs. MPD CEO Karen Webster, as always, had her hand on the pulse and was delivering commentary on pace with (and often ahead of) the latest news. As we head into the final weekend of summer, PYMNTS presents a look back on 10 instances where Webster had something to say about top stories of the season — with the top summer songs to match.

STORY: Why Android Pay Isn’t Really About Payments At All

SONG: “Trap Queen” – Fetty Wap

Shortly after Android Pay was announced, Webster made the case that, although the burgeoning platform did offer payment capabilities (obviously), like all “wallets” it was facing the uphill battle of consumer and merchant acceptance. But Webster suggested that the platform could, in fact, have designs on things of a higher priority than its name would suggest — such as being another way for its parent company to sell more advertising on Google search pages.

A bold assertion to lay out — but that’s the kind of thing that a no-nonsense trap queen does, as Fetty Wap can tell you.

STORY: What Mobile Wallets And Smartphone Cameras Now Have In Common

SONG: “Can’t Feel My Face” – The Weeknd

When Apple and Google Android recast mobile wallets as smartphone utilities, Webster was compelled to point out a big caveat: Is that really how consumers will pick their fave mobile wallet? Hopeful if you are Apple or the GOOG, but how many people actually stick with the weather app, for instance, that comes with their phone? For operating system based wallets to take off, they have to be more functional than the apps that work anywhere on any platform, and they have to work across any channel, with no limitations. In other words, not a slam-dunk.

Imagine if, for example, phones limited your ability to take selfies. You wouldn’t be able to see your face! (Or feel it, like The Weeknd apparently has trouble with when he’s around that girl he likes.)

STORY: Are Card Networks Tomorrow’s Ad Platforms?

SONG: “Hey Mama” – David Guetta featuring Nicki Minaj, Bebe Rexha & Afrojack

Webster drew a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” analogy to the potential for card-linked offers to make a move on traditional advertising models, in fact, blowing them to smithereens. Though they’d been around for years, card-linked offers had really posed no threat to ad business as usual…but the proliferation of mobile phones, and innovators who are leveraging the power of their software and the transaction data of the card networks might have created the perfect environment, as Webster put forth, for those offers to strike when established ad platforms least expected it.

Sort of like listening to “Hey Mama”: it starts out as an EDM jam, then catches you completely off guard by transitioning into island music.

STORY: What’s More Valuable – A Buy Button Or a Digital Wallet?

SONG: “Where Are Ü Now” – Skrillex & Diplo with Justin Bieber

Noting that just about every commerce site has or wants a buy button, Webster posited that there was actually more than one kind. She recommended that online merchants would be wise to decide which type of buy button to employ — and how — in order to best remove friction and turn browsers into buyers.

Otherwise, simply loading buy buttons into pages and presuming results could leave a lot of merchants asking consumers (like the Biebs wonders): “Where Are Ü Now?”

STORY: The A, B, Cs Of PayPal’s Next Act

SONG: “Cheerleader” – OMI

On the day that PayPal began trading as public company, the industry was excited. Webster, though, gave her audience an “A” — as well as a “B,” and a “C” — outlining a number of elements that would determine the company’s success (or failure) in digital payments moving forward, now that it was no longer linked to eBay.

OMI could use those kind of specifics in “Cheerleader,”  as one has to wonder if the support he’s singing about will last very long after the summer.

STORY: The Emperor’s New Currency

SONG: “Bad Blood” – Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar

With disasters befalling digital currency all over the world — the Silk Road founder still getting in trouble while in prison, CEOs getting arrested for bitcoin misappropriation, and serious malware issues, to name a few — Webster didn’t exactly say “I told you so,” but she also didn’t pull any punches in explaining exactly why and how things like bitcoin were doomed from the start.

Tay-Tay isn’t mad about the failed relationship she sings of in “Bad Blood”; she’s just disappointed.

STORY: How To Reinvent Retail In Three Words

SONG: “Shut Up and Dance” – WALK THE MOON

Webster came away from the Retail Reinvention Summit knowing that there were as many ways to approach the reinvention of retail as there were innovators interested in giving retailers a hand in doing it. Quite simply, though, the success of that reinvention — and the payments experience that underpins it – comes down to three words. As Webster explained, retailers that focus on the customer experience are poised to make big waves throughout the space.

Simple and fun, just like that WALK THE MOON earworm that had people dancing all summer.

STORY: Exclusive: MCX CEO On CurrentC’s Future

SONG: “See You Again” – Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth

The day after the payments network MCX announced a public beta that would give its mobile payments product, CurrentC, an opportunity to be tested across a variety of merchants with store locations in Columbus, Ohio, Webster revealed her exclusive interview with MCX CEO Brian Mooney.

Their conversation about the future of CurrentC was a positive one, not unlike the uplifting number about looking ahead that was written for the movie Furious 7.

STORY: To See The Future Of Retail, Look At Mobile Banking

SONG: “Watch Me” – Silento

Everybody in the retail space would love to have a crystal ball on the industry’s future. As Webster explained, the secrets may actually be held in the area of mobile banking. For retailers to accelerate into the future, Webster attests that they would be well-served to study the strong and secure digital foundations that mobile banking put in place decades ago.

If mobile banking could whip or nae nae, it would be singing like Silento.

STORY: The Great American (Express) Spin-off?

SONG: “Fight Song” – Rachel Platten

In her penultimate piece in the last full month of summer, Webster addressed the tough year that American Express has had so far. Among its setbacks, the company saw its market share drop 14 percent, lost a couple of key card partnerships, saw an activist investor take a 1 percent stake in it, and suffered the tragic passing of its president. Looking back on the many successful self-reinventions that Amex had facilitated in its 165-year history, Webster focused on the positive and laid out a big idea that could get it back on track once again — but the company has to be willing to fight.

And what better way than with the backing of Rachel Platten’s (actually quite pleasant and melodic) “Fight Song”…for an effort that will likely go well into the autumn and beyond.