I skip almost every ad I see. The one I go looking for is the cash back offer in my card app. Until Monday, I thought of it as a perk.
On Monday night, Citi made it official. I was a guest at the launch of Citi Commerce Media, on the 72nd floor of One Vanderbilt. Thank you, Citi, for having me.
The pitch fits in one breath. A brand pays Citi to reach cardmembers by what they buy. You tap the offer in the Citi app, pay with the card, and get money back. Citi then compares your purchases with those of people who didn’t see the offer.
Citi sees 6.5 billion card transactions a year. Last year, its cardmembers spent $626 billion.
Citi is the 4th big issuer to sell ads this way, after American Express, Chase, and Capital One. So I spent the week working out what it means for every bank and credit union that reads this.
Banks found an ad people want. It pays them back.
My colleague Andrew Davidson has launched Behind the Playbook, OpenBrand’s new podcast on how financial brands win. Each episode puts a leader from banking or payments in front of the microphone to explain the plays behind the results. It is an exciting launch. Please subscribe.
The best line I heard on loyalty all month came from it. Andrew’s guest was Prashant Sharma, who leads rewards cards and loyalty at Citi. He joined in 2025.
Before Citi, Prashant led SkyMiles at Delta, and before that, credit cards at CIBC. His view of the category is simple. “Points still matter,” he told Andrew. “In fact, points may be the beginning of the relationship, but it’s really recognition and experiences that deepen that relationship.”
Prashant judges every program on clarity, credibility, and connection. On credibility, he says it plainly: “Earning might get customers excited, but redemption is where the moment of truth happens.”
Then he looked 5 years out. “Today, in many cases, you expect the customer to become an expert in understanding a program,” he said. “Five years from now, I think the program will become an expert in understanding the customer.”
Andrew closes the episode on a line worth keeping. Points become “the ticket rather than the destination.”
That is the whole promise of an ad built on the purchase. Watch the episode, and follow Behind the Playbook on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Chase has built offers into its own business. Chase Offers started in 2018, and Chase Media Solutions followed in 2024. A brand pays only when a customer sees the offer and buys.
Marianne Lake put a number on the ambition. Chase customers have more than $450 billion of card spend that its travel and shopping platforms can reach. In 2025, Chase booked 5.2% of it.
She wants 10%.
The other 3 took different routes. American Express issues the card and signs the merchant, so it sees both ends of every sale. Capital One bought Discover in 2025 and got a network of its own. Richard Fairbank called that “the Holy Grail.” Citi is the newest, and it agreed in August to buy Kard, a company that builds offers merchants pay for.
Citi’s Pam Habner gave the CFO version at Investor Day in May. Merchant-funded benefits “reduce our dependency on expensive, points-based rewards.” In plain words, the merchant pays for part of the reward.
A bank that owns the purchase can ask a merchant to pay for part of the reward.
Bank of America and Wells Fargo already have the deals. Nearly 1 million clients used deals in the first 7 weeks of BofA Rewards. Wells Fargo opened 662,000 new card accounts in the second quarter. Either one could open its deals to brands and show them measured results.
Regional banks have a closer edge. Your commercial bankers know the restaurants, gyms, and dentists in your towns, and your cardholders already shop there. Bank the merchant, and reward the neighbor.
The average credit union has about 35,000 members. Advertisers buy scale. Together, 4,214 credit unions serve 146.1 million.
What I expect in 2027:
I intend to put this block in every edition, under the banner of intellectual honesty, so you can fairly assess what works best for your own products. This week, the case against my own headline is strong.
The offer often pays a customer who was already buying. $10 back at the coffee shop you visit every morning pays you for a habit you already had. Aaron McPherson told American Banker the main problem “has always been proving lift.” Once a merchant sees that, it pays less, and the bank covers the rest.
The best spot in your app is already sold to you. The top of the home screen is where you sell your savings account, card upgrade, and mortgage. Every merchant offer there replaces one of yours. Chase’s Sam Palmer said customers open the app for one thing first: “making sure that your money, your hard-earned money, is okay.”
Advertisers buy the biggest audiences first. Chase reaches 84 million customers. A bank with 2 million cardholders is a small line on a media plan.
My honest answer. All 3 are real, and they ask for the same discipline. Measure the lift against a group that saw no offer. Price the app slot against what your own product would have earned there. Citi and Chase already tie results to the purchase. The ad that pays the customer back is the strongest format in banking when the bank guards its own app like the scarce thing it is.
Please take a minute today so every edition reaches you.
Chase, American Express, Capital One, and now Citi sell ads built on what their customers buy. The ad that works is cash back a brand pays for.
Every bank and credit union owns the purchase. The ones that share its value with the customer will grow.
If a merchant paid for part of our rewards next year, which merchant would we call first?
