The New Word is Venmo as a Verb
- Hayley Allred
- Oct 20, 2017
- 2 min read
I decided to switch it up this week and instead of talking about social media marketing I want to talk about how brands in particular Venmo, want to become a verb like google or Instagram. “Google, Instagram and Netflix all have one thing in common: They are brands that have become so synonymous with the industries that they specialize in that they’ve become verbs.”I think that once this status of your brand being used as a verb is achieved, your brand has hit the big time.
I am quite familiar with Venmo and many Appalachian State students are as well since it is the most common way to pay beepers and friends. Venmo, I recently discovered, is a PayPal extension. Now PayPal is a very well-known company and has been around for many years but I have never heard someone say, “hey there, let me PayPal you!” Now on the other hand, Venmo just became popular in the past few years and I have heard people use it as a verb including myself. Many times, I have said “Can I Venmo you?”
My friends have wanted to buy pizza and we all just Venmo a single person a dollar to buy the pizza. When I owe money for gas or I am on the go and someone reminds them that I owe them money, Venmo is right there in my pocket to pay them. The only thing I need to worry about with Venmo is the amount of my battery left on my phone, because with a dead phone, there is no Venmo. With no Venmo, the person I need to pay gets very upset because I have no actual money. Despite that one hazard, Venmo, I have to say, I am a fan of. I have never had a problem with it and its convenient to have.
Also, I have noticed while typing this blog that Venmo is so new, unlike PayPal, it gets red squiggly underlines underneath the word when I type it out. I think Instagram just recently escaped from the red squiggly underline on Word. My point is that when a brand is used as a verb and it escapes the red squiggly underline, it the real deal so to say.
In marketing news, Venmo has launched a funny, interactive campaign to turn its brand into a verb. It is called “Blank Me”. It puts a fun and creative spin on its peer to peer payment services that let people send money to each other.
“Each piece of creative features a sentence with a verb missing that leaves users to fill in the blank like a game of Mad Libs. Some of the lines are intentionally suggestive: There’s “Let’s not make it awkward, just ___ me,” and “If you ___ the wrong person tonight, you’ll regret it in the morning,” for example.” But I know that Venmo, since I use it as a verb, could also perfectly fit the blanks. I personally think it’s an original and creative advertising campaign and I hope it will be successful in turning the brand name Venmo into a commonly used verb!
Reference Article: Venmo Wants to Turn Its Brand Into a Verb, Just Like Google
http://www.adweek.com/digital/venmo-wants-to-turn-its-brand-into-a-verb-just-like-google/
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