Citing the first quarter as a good time for consumers to focus on organizing finances, MasterCard Worldwide has begun re-running a “Priceless” television advertisement launched a year ago to promote the card brand’s bill-pay services, Steve Carnevale, MasterCard vice president of U.S. commerce development, tells PaymentsSource.
“A lot of research we’ve done in the past several months indicates that consumers want stronger control over their finances,” he says. “Our belief is that electronic bill payments are a great way to do that. We’ve been developing this market for quite some time,” says Carnevale. “It takes time to create awareness and demand for card-based bill payment.”
MasterCard during the past 18 months has seen some “accelerated traction” with bill-pay, with consumers writing fewer checks and showing a growing preference for electronic payments, Carnevale notes. And more and more merchants and bill recipients are accepting cards for payment, including such categories as rental and residential, insurance and telecommunications, he says.
MasterCard’s “Pickel Jar” Priceless ad shows a couple’s recurrent use of bill-pay for a gym membership. The ad, which also ran during the first quarter of 2009, is running in 30- and 15-second spots across network programming, including prime time, early morning and golf programming, and on cable television stations, such as Bravo and TNT.
Bill-pay is an important growth area for card networks, notes Gwenn Bézard, research director at Boston-based research and advisory firm Aite Group LLC. “It’s especially important now because bill pay is less sensitive to economic cycles because everyone has to pay bills,” he tells PaymentsSource.
Moreover, the bill-pay space is massive. MasterCard cites a 2008 Aite Group study that suggests the market represents $1.8 trillion in payments, with less than 3% card penetration. “There is significant opportunity to gain market share,” says Bézard, noting more billers are accepting cards because they are efficient and the collection rate is very good.
