Submitted by Smoking Gun

#YOPO You Only Pay Once

Smoking Gun built the YOPO campaign for OpenMoney against unregulated Buy Now Pay Later financing, earning 14 pieces of media coverage and 32 Instagram influencer stories.

32Instagram influencer stories
a total reach of 42,125Instagram influencer story reach
including 13 national hits, and 1 regional. Titles such as The Sun, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Sunday People, iNews, YourMoney.com and ThisIsMoney.co.uk all ran storiesnational and regional coverage split
14 pieces of media coveragepieces of media coverage
100%share of reports containing key messaging

Case in 60 seconds

Buy Now Pay Later financing was rising quickly in popularity while remaining completely unregulated, so OpenMoney needed to raise awareness of the debt risk and argue for regulation without simply attacking a product consumers were adopting.

The campaign appears to turn on the reading that debt warnings land better as relief than as reprimand, because framing single payment as freedom and calm gives people something to move toward rather than a behaviour to feel judged for.

You Only Pay Once, shortened to YOPO, organised the work around the feeling of freedom and zen that comes from paying once for items a person can actually afford rather than becoming trapped in a cycle of debt.

Smoking Gun designed three billboards, researched consumer attitudes to Buy Now Pay Later and outreached the findings, and interviewed real people who had fallen into a debt trap. Campaigner Alice Tapper launched the content with OpenMoney, joined by Ed Lemont and Tabitha Warley on Instagram alongside micro influencers, with a broadcast day featuring Anthony Morrow and Alice Tapper.

Smoking Gun reports 14 pieces of media coverage including 13 national hits, and 1 regional across titles such as The Sun and The Times, with 100% of reports containing key messaging and 32 Instagram influencer stories reaching 42,125.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Consumers at risk of debt through Buy Now Pay Later financing, alongside the media and policy conversation about regulating those products.
Buy Now Pay Later was growing fast as a convenience while carrying an unregulated debt risk, so the campaign had to name that risk without dismissing the appeal of spreading a cost.
Financial advice platforms compete for attention on a subject most people avoid, so OpenMoney took a consumer champion position on a live regulatory argument rather than talking about its own product.
OpenMoney positioned itself as a consumer finance champion pushing for a better, fairer financial sector, joining the existing campaign for Buy Now Pay Later regulation rather than starting a claim of its own.
Based on the available evidence, the work assumes people recognise the cycle of debt more readily through another person's account than through a warning, which is why real case studies sat alongside the attitudes research.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram

Partners

  • Smoking Gun (lead_agency)

Creator role

  • Alice Tapper — creator
  • Ed Lemont — creator
  • Tabitha Warley — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
Instagram influencer stories32content_pieces
Instagram influencer story reacha total reach of 42,125reach
national and regional coverage splitincluding 13 national hits, and 1 regional. Titles such as The Sun, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Sunday People, iNews, YourMoney.com and ThisIsMoney.co.uk all ran storiesperformance
pieces of media coverage14 pieces of media coverageperformance
share of reports containing key messaging100%performance

Why Smoking Gun's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Pairing survey research with interviewed case studies of real people gives a policy argument both a scale claim and a human one, which is the combination national desks appear to have run, since 13 of the 14 hits were national.

  2. 2

    Recruiting a campaigner who already holds authority on the issue, rather than a creator hired for reach alone, lets the launch read as a continuation of existing advocacy, and Alice Tapper launching the content with OpenMoney worked that way.

  3. 3

    Media training the spokespeople before a broadcast day appears to be what protected message discipline at scale, because Smoking Gun reports 100% of reports contained key messaging across every outlet that ran a story.

  4. 4

    A named campaign with its own page and hashtag gives earned coverage somewhere to send people, which is why search visibility sat in the brief alongside coverage rather than being treated as a separate objective.

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