What you need to know:

• Mediabrands' Initiative has won the media account for buy now, pay later juggernaut Afterpay.
• The brand is moving into retail banking, a move that sparked the media pitch after Ikon merged into AKQA Media, creating a conflict with CommBank, which is also moving into Afterpay's turf.
• Spending approximately $3m annually, Afterpay is expected to increase its spend significantly in a bid to expand.

Appoint now, spend later

Afterpay, one of the largest players in the buy now, pay later category, has appointed Initiative as its new media agency of record.

The decision follows a competitive pitch, which came down to the Mediabrands-owned agency and a group model approach from Publicis.

A spokesperson for Afterpay told Mi3 no agency had been "formally appointed" and Initiative declined to comment. However, industry sources indicated the brand was formalising the last steps to onboard the agency.

AKQA Media previously held the account but was forced to relinquish its services due to a conflict of interest with long-standing client CommBank. CommBank became part of the agency portfolio following the merger between Ikon and AKQA.

Mi3 understands Afterpay currently spends roughly $3m annual on media but is set to increase that tenfold over the next two years.

A move into the retail banking sector is a key driver of its planned media blitz. Locally, the brand is launching a banking and financial services capability, targeted at millennials – Afterpay Money, as major institutions such as CommBank go after its 3.4m user base with its own buy now, pay later solution.

The strategy behind launching Afterpay Money was a major part of the pitch process, alongside its own payment card, a contactless Mastercard stored in a Google Pay or Apple Wallet.

Meanwhile the decision to move into a holding group structure also allows Afterpay to extend its media contract internationally as it begins to run campaigns in its other markets such as the UK, US and Asia.