Little did I know when I wrote about Verizon Wireless promoting Bank of America billpay on its site (here), that the company that brokered the deal, CheckFree, along with representatives from both consumer giants, would be presenting the results of the effort at Nacha's Payments conference last week (see note 1). I wasn't there, but I was filled in on the details by CheckFree's PR director Sheryl Roehl.

First, my assumption was wrong. It was NOT a paid placement by BofA. No money changed hands. It was classic joint marketing with each company promoting the other on their websites. The exposure to each others' massive customer bases trumps any concern over who benefits most by converting Verizon customers into ebilling users (see note 2).

In the prior post, I showed you BofA's ad on Verizon's site, here's what the Verizon placement looked like on the bank's site (note 3):

Verizon banner in BofA's main online banking area

Landing page for the Verizon promo

Email me if you'd like the presentation slides, which also include more figures about ebilling adoption (note 4).

Notes:

1. The joint presentation was by: Angeline DePauw, director electronic remittance Processing, Verizon Communications; Laurie Profilio Sass, eCommerce marketing, Bank of America; and Lori Stepp, managing executive E-bill Adoption Services, CheckFree

2. It's hard to say which company gains the most in an ebill conversion. Verizon saves money by eliminating the paper and BofA potentially converts a customer into ebilling, an important retention benefit.

3. The screenshot is from the NACHA Payments presentation; it is a mockup, note the 2004 date, but presumably is an accurate representation of what the promo looked like.

4. CheckFree presented the latest penetration numbers at the conference, as determined in their Feb. 2007 research conducted by Harris Interactive. Three-quarters of ONLINE households, or about half of all households, now pay a bill or bills online with biller direct (55%) leading pay-anyone (38%) by a measurable margin (19% do both). See inset.