MasterCard (And Gwen Stefani) Will Reward You For Using Apple Pay

Mastercard has enlisted the help of The Voice judge and No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani to front a new campaign that will see the credit card company reward customers for using Apple Pay, Adweek reports.

Stefani fronts a 30-second TV ad (watch it below,) created by McCann XBC, which sees her standing at the top of a tall building behind a cannon, firing gifts like handbags and concert tickets at MasterCard holders who use Apple Pay. The campaign extends into the real world, with MasterCard offering some lucky Apple Pay users prizes such as a meet-and-greet with Stefani and World Series tickets. It forms the next chapter in MasterCard's long-running "Priceless Surprises" series. (Stefani, of course, once did a series of ads for HTC's Windows Phones but seems to have defected to Apple.)

The campaign comes at a key time for Apple Pay. While there has been a huge wave of PR surrounding the launch of Apple Pay, which allows users to pay for items in-store by using their iPhones, Apple has not supported the payments system with much paid-for advertising. As a result, not many iPhone users have used Apple Pay, and some don't even know it's there.

Only 4.6% of iPhone 6 users transacted with Apple Pay on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, according to a survey conducted by InfoScout. Overall, just 9% of iPhone 6 users have ever used Apple Pay since it launched on October 20.

Why did Apple Pay underperform? The two largest drivers were that 31% of consumers did not realize Apple Pay was accepted within the store, and 21% simply forgot to use it.

An education push on Apple Pay is clearly needed, which this MasterCard campaign - with its added incentives of prizes - will go some way toward doing.

Here's the TV ad, starring a jubilant Gwen Stefani.