What if your customers were your cheapest media channel? Ryan Martin talks with Mike Haywood, Co-founder of BrandPay, about "customer media". BrandPay rewards everyday customers, not influencers, with store credit when they post about brands they already love.
Mike explains how a $1-per-like experiment at his AirBnB retreat grew into a world-first build with Meta.
He also covers why AI search runs almost entirely on third-party content, and how brands like LSKD now get a new piece of customer content every 33 minutes. On average, the cost per click comes in at about half that of paid media.
Mike explains how the idea started. During COVID he ran a hinterland retreat and paid guests $1 per like in wine-cellar credit for posting content. Six months later it was named best holiday home in Australia and featured in Vogue.
He also talks about building a world-first integration with Meta, and the psychology that makes customers post (time and effort, not likes). He shares hard numbers on cost per click, spend-back rates and category performance.
Why BrandPay separates customer media from UGC and creator content
How a $1-per-like guest experiment led to a Vogue feature and a new startup
Building with Meta: a world-first API use case and the challenge of fraud prevention
Why fixed rewards beat per-like rewards: everyday users think in time and effort, not engagement
How the BrandPay wallet works: store credit in Apple Wallet, worth half its value at other brands, with the other half returned to the rewarding brand
#ad disclosure, and why customer content doesn't feel like selling
AI search and third-party content: Google lowered its follower threshold for showing third-party content in search from 300k to 35k to 10k
The review flow: 48-hour auto-approval for reels (24 hours for stories), and 98% approval rates
Pricing: a 25% fee on top of rewards, with no SaaS or setup fees
Attribution: first-degree clicks at about 50% of paid media cost per click, plus the "BrandPay halo effect" measured via Triple Whale
Why brands with real community (Facebook groups, Klaviyo lists) win first
85% of rewards are spent back with the brand, on average within about 5 days
Which categories perform best: fashion, beauty, skincare, nutrition, pet food, sunnies and furniture
First-mover advantage and the "infinite half-life" of third-party content
Product launches: building customer media groups by postcode
Beyond e-commerce: distributor brands, service businesses, and TikTok coming soon
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