Afterpay bets its biggest brand spend yet on 'It's About Time'

Afterpay has committed its most significant brand investment to date to a new global platform, 'It's About Time', built on one proposition: time is the only thing you can't borrow, so spend it well. The work comes from the buy-now-pay-later ( instalment payments spread over fixed periods) brand's in-house creative team at parent company Block, with four brand films produced by Berlin-based Anorak and directed by Harrison Adair.

The rollout is already under way. Out-of-home launched on 19 October, with the films following from 2 November across TV, BVOD (broadcaster video on demand), YouTube, Meta and TikTok. The platform goes live in Australia and New Zealand alongside the UK, where Afterpay trades as Clearpay.

What does this change for the brand's positioning? Quite a lot, judging by the categories it now claims. Spanning tools and materials, home, travel and apparel, the platform deliberately widens where Afterpay shows up — in big milestones and everyday purchases alike, not just retail checkout moments.

How the films work

Each of the four films runs on a single, continuous camera movement: a slow rotation triggered by a purchase. As the camera turns, it reveals what that purchase went on to enable — another season, another milestone, another memory. The end lines share the same discipline, with every film arriving at the platform's name by a different route. One example: 'It's not about the new tools. It's about time.'

Mikaela Wagner, Head of Brand at Afterpay, framed the strategy in unusually blunt terms. "Time is the one thing none of us can borrow. But the way money works decides who gets to use theirs well – and that's the gap Afterpay has always existed to close," she said.

She continued: "This platform is about what comes after the purchase, not the purchase itself. It's never really been about the trip, the table, or the thing itself – it's about where that trip takes you, the moments around the table, what gets built in that backyard. We want Afterpay to be the reason those moments start sooner."

The Block team behind it

The credit list signals how deeply the work sits inside Block, Afterpay's parent company. The internal roster includes:

• Carlo Michelangelo Luetto – Head of Brand Creative, Block
• Evyn Staley – Head of Brand Strategy and Marketing, Block
• Mikaela Wagner – Head of Brand, Afterpay
• Heather Brown – Head of Production, Block
• Sean Conroy, Jonathan Skale and Dimitri Kalagas – Creative Directors, Block
• Miles Cartwright and Brandon Murray – Senior Art Directors, Block
• Chane Rennie – Creative Strategist, Block
• Michelle Vanya – Media Manager, Afterpay
• Madi Pinkus – Social Media Manager, Afterpay
• Josh Clark – Production Assistant

Media planning and buying ran through agency Kaimera, with Georgia Green as Account Director and Alex Freilinger and Jamison Charalambous as Client Executives.

On the production side, Anorak Films handled the shoot with executive producer Felix Knabel and director of photography Diego Garcia. Editorial came from Assembly Rooms UK with editor Jack Foster. Colour correction was done at Rascal by colourist Tim Smith, VFX and finishing by Time Based Arts, sound by Ed Downham via King Lear, and an original music composition from playdis.

For marketing leaders, the story is a case study in platform discipline: one idea, four executions, one camera move, one end line reached four different ways — and a brand pushing past transactional messaging toward what the purchase unlocks.