Venmo wants people to use its app for more than just splitting meals, sending gifts, or paying rent.
The PayPal-owned social payments platform today released a new spot with Patrick Schwarzenegger and Aimee Lou Wood, part of a new campaign urging people to use the app more often. In the 60-second ad, the White Lotus stars demonstrate all the things users can pay for with Venmo—from rideshares and records to groceries, apparel, or in-flight tipples.
Schwarzenegger and Wood dance through various stores and occasions to a Venmo-themed version of Black Sheep’s 1991 iconic hit, The Choice Is Yours: “You can Venmo this, or you can Venmo that”. The brand worked with 72andSunny on the campaign.
“Everybody I know uses Venmo,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “As an entrepreneur, I’m really serious about my rewards game, so it’s a win I can earn cash back when I pay with the Venmo Debit Card. I love a rewards hack.”
“Hanging out with my lovely friend, Patrick, I quickly found out that Venmo is a go-to way for people in the States to send money to friends, but it’s so much more than that,” Wood said in a statement. “As an Aquarius, I tend to be quite clever with money, so I love that you can earn some serious cash back when you spend your balance with the Venmo Debit Card—that means another astrology reading for me!”
Expanding what it means to Venmo
Venmo has become part of the cultural lexicon in the U.S., said PayPal chief marketing officer Geoff Seeley, noting that people have long been using the brand’s name as a verb to describe sending or requesting money from friends and family. From that foundation, Seeley’s aiming to leverage star power and an earworm to expand the brand’s definition.
It’s the third celeb-led spot that Seeley has overseen in the past nine months, and they each play with a classic song reimagined for the fintech company’s marketing messages. In two PayPal spots released in September and April, Will Ferrell covered versions of Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere and Go Your Own Way.
Seeley’s target audience for the new Venmo campaign is Gen Z and younger millennials, which make up the majority of Venmo’s 64 million monthly users, who want more functionality from the payments app, Seeley explained.
In 2022, the platform cut a deal with Amazon to let shoppers pay with Venmo by clicking a button that connects to the app. Since then, it’s made the integration available to all U.S.-based companies with an online store. It’s currently available on TikTok Shop, Uber, Instacart, and Domino’s.
To incentivize people to sign up for its debit card, which it released in 2018, Venmo is offering 15% cash back this summer for certain purchases at Sephora, Walmart, Lyft, McDonald’s, and Walgreens.
Venmo’s revenue grew 20% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025, the company said. Total payment volume for the Pay with Venmo integration was up 50%, and the number of people who have a Venmo debit card and use it monthly increased by 40%.
That growth is also a boon for PayPal’s ad business, which launched late in 2024. The venture, led by Uber and Amazon veteran Mark Grether, sells ad inventory across PayPal, Venmo, Honey, and lets advertisers target audiences from those apps programmatically across the internet.
The ad will run on linear TV during the NBA Finals this week, but the wider campaign will appear on a range of media including streaming, podcasts, gaming, social influencers, and rideshare, Seeley said.
