The Expensify app’s SmartScan is game-changing technology. To do your expenses, you simply snap a photo of your receipt, and done. To get people to try it, we created the world’s first music video you can expense, and broke new ground at the intersection of music, technology and entertainment. We collaborated with Grammy-winning music artists, Emmy-winning comedy writers from SNL and Expensify engineers to create the number-one hip-hop song and number-three music video in the US on YouTube’s Vevo. It was also the most elaborate product demo in history, which included two world firsts.

Expensify is a mobile app for business expenses. People simply snap a photo of their receipts and get reimbursed. Expensify is also a Silicon Valley unicorn, having grown year after year without any advertising, because their tech is so revolutionary. About 60,000 businesses in the US use Expensify. But the world’s a big place, with over 25 million businesses in this country alone—and Expensify wants to serve them all. Their business model depends on individual employees downloading the app for free, then promoting the app internally to other companies. It’s a bottom-up approach. Expensify can make every user into a customer and ambassador, whether they’re using receipts for personal budgeting to build a house or to do their business expenses. Our brief was to get more people to try the app. So we chose to make the entertainment itself an elaborate product demonstration.

On January 24, 2019, Grammy-winning rap mogul and big spender 2 Chainz dropped a new single on his Vevo account. Within days, it was the number-one trending hip-hop song and number-three video in the US on YouTube’s Vevo, with over 12 million views. It was also the most elaborate product demo in history. “Expensify Th!$” was the world’s first music video you can expense. We created an original track and video starring 2Chainz, featuring half-a-million dollars’ worth of receipts. Viewers could snap a photo of receipts to get reimbursed actual cash—exactly how the app works in real life. It culminated with the world’s first commercial you can expense, which aired during the Super Bowl. The spot featured a receipt for 2 Chainz’s $200,000 ice-sculpted Lamborghini. Our campaign coincided with his new album launch, to leverage that hype, and we further integrated Expensify into his hot new single and video.

Expensify’s revolutionary technology can make every user into a customer and ambassador. Their business model depends on individual employees downloading the app, then promoting it to other companies. Expensify has attracted 60,000 businesses without advertising. But when you want to make all 25 million US businesses your customer, you need to make bigger moves. Using a bottom-up strategy, we inserted ourselves into pop culture and got Expensify in the hands of millions. We created the world’s first music video you can expense with rapper and Grammy winner 2 Chainz, and debuted the world's first commercial you can expense during the Super Bowl. These two world-first product demos incentivized viewers to download the app and snap a photo of receipts to get reimbursed actual cash. It was timed with 2 Chainz’s new album launch and a 360 campaign. We mobilized an army of new Expensify users, who continue to promote Expensify.

This was a seriously masterminded approach, all coordinated with 2 Chainz’s new album launch.

1. First, we embarked on a multi-month collaboration with Grammy-winning rapper 2 Chainz, Emmy-winning SNL writers and world-renowned producer Mustard, to create a hit track about spending money, showcasing expensive items and integrating Expensify.

2. We produced the world’s first music video you can expense: a legit interactive music video integrating half-a-million dollars’ worth of receipts for everything from a gold Jet Ski to an ice-sculpted sports car powered by a seafood tower. We got people experiencing the game-changing Expensify app. Viewers could snap a photo to get reimbursed actual cash.

3. An edit from the music video culminated in the world’s first expensable Super Bowl commercial, featuring a receipt for 2 Chainz’s ice-sculpted $200,000 Lamborghini

4. We then integrated Expensify into the hottest single on 2 Chainz’s new album with Lil Wayne.

- “Expensify Th!$” became the number-one trending hip-hop song and number-three video in the US on YouTube’s Vevo (the world’s largest music video platform), with over 12 million views in two weeks

- Exensify got a 1,400% increase in new customers

- 634% increase in web traffic

- Largest jump ever in App Store ranking (*of all Super Bowl advertisers)

- Site traffic peaked at 10,000 new visitors to the Expensify website every minute during the Super Bowl

- Super Bowl highest positive sentiment of any brand, at 97%

- $60 million in earned media

- 7 billion media impressions

- Covered globally by 500+ media outlets

- For the first time ever, the world got hyped about doing expenses