Yuna takes on brand ambassador role for IOUpay's buy now pay later service

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service myIOU by digital payment services company IOUpay has selected singer-songwriter Yunalis Zara'ai (pictured), better known as Yuna, as its brand ambassador. By engaging Yuna, the company hopes to leverage her connections and wide reach through her fans to encourage Malaysians to embrace BNPL as the new-age payment method. While the company declined to disclose the monetary value of the partnership, it said Yuna will be the brand ambassador for six months until February 2022. 

A quick check by A+M showed that Yuna currently has more than 890 thousand and approximately 2.4 million followers on Instagram and Twitter respectively. She has previously partnered with brands such as phone case brand Casesbywf, UMobile, Malaysia Airlines, Pantene, and Olay. She has recently worked with local fine jewellery brand ‘KIN and luxury designer brand Coach, according to New Straits Times.

The LA-based singer is well-known for her single “Crush” featuring American artiste Usher, which was released in 2016. She has also been featured three times on billboards in New York City, with the most recent being in May last year for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in collaboration with music streaming platform Spotify, as part of a series of promotions, as seen on Malay Mail. 

According to a press release, the company plans to tap into Yuna’s wide reach and connection to her fans and music lovers across the South East Asia region to support IOUpay in its goal of growing its user base and connection with local businesses. Through this partnership, Yuna will be representing the brand as an opinion leader of myIOU through campaigns and promotional activities, across both online and offline media platforms. When asked about their business ROI, IOUpay’s spokesperson said instead of that, it is focusing on helping the local businesses and Malaysians by working together with Yuna to ensure more businesses survive and flourish throughout this pandemic.

Christopher Kok, regional commercial officer of IOUpay, said Yuna is a “perfect fit to join the myIOU family” due to the fact that her personal interests align with myIOU’s business goal of becoming one of the leading digital transaction processors in the cashless economies of Southeast Asia.

Kok added: “Yuna is chosen not only for her capacity as an international icon, but also for her ability to connect consumers with businesses with the aim of helping local businesses, particularly during the pandemic.”

Yuna said that the partnership with myIOU came at “a perfect time” as she was looking for more ways to support local entrepreneurs during these trying times. “With myIOU’s Buy Now Pay Later offerings, together we can help businesses flourish, and empower consumers; during challenging times like this. I am proud to be a part of that. Together with IOUpay, I hope to educate as many people as possible on the ways to leverage on BNPL," she added.

The myIOU app was launched earlier in June and was designed to “accommodate the ever-growing cashless market in Malaysia and South East Asia”, said the company. App users will be able to split their purchases into two, three or six monthly instalments at zero interest. Meanwhile, IOUpay touts a portfolio of partners which include EasyStore, GoBiz by U Mobile, MYP1 and Razer Merchant Services. Some of the prominent merchants on myIOU are Brooks Malaysia, Buffalo Malaysia, Kapten Batik, KK Supermart, Klingen & Erlesen, Manuka Australia, Sans Wellness and Teppanyaki Malaysia. Despite only launching its BNPL feature less than two months ago, the company saw customer receipts totalling more than US$1.2 million in its June quarter report, attributing the increased expenditure to the myIOU launch, according to ASX.

IOUpay has recently been expanding its footprint in Malaysia, having signed a partnership with gaming company Razer’s merchant and e-payment arm Razer Merchant Services (RMS) earlier this June. According to an official blog post on Razer’s website, the partnership will see RMS refer and onboard its network of more than 50,000 merchants to utilise IOU’s BNPL payment services. The partnership follows IOU’s previous agreement with Razer in May with Razer’s fintech company RMS Reloads to provide collection agency services. This seeks to enable IOUpay customers to make BNPL instalment payments across RMS’s network of more than 10,000 physical retail outlets in Malaysia. 

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