Interac tracks the tempo of Canada’s economic recovery with the launch of Sound of Spending

TORONTO – August 11, 2021 – What is the sound of Canada’s economic recovery? Interac today launched Sound of Spending, a soundwave that tracks national shopping trends over the course of the pandemic. Debit spending on food, home, entertainment, travel and shopping was mapped against different musical instruments, revealing the changing spending habits of Canadians over time, and demonstrating the return of consumer confidence evidenced through rising shopping levels in recent months. 

The Sound of Spending blends creativity, anonymized and aggregated data, and technology to represent spending through the most universally understood medium: music. Through the track, we can hear that: 

• Canadians’ spending hit a high note in early March 2020¹ with a rise in grocery spending frequency by 15 per cent.
• Canadians’ spending hit a low note in April 2020 due to declared states of emergency with the spending frequency associated with restaurants, entertainment and travel decreasing by 35 per cent.
• Canadians’ spending hit a high note in May 2020 with a rise in home improvement spending frequency by 186 per cent.
• Canadians’ spending hit a low note again in January 2021 as the country was hit by COVID-19’s second wave, with the spending frequency associated with shopping and other categories decreasing by more than 50 per cent.
• As economies started to open up, Canadian spending hit a high note again due to a rise in shopping and entertainment spending frequency by 37 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

Interac also created an online tool that encourages Canadians enter their own spending habits and generate a song unique to them². Canadians can compare their own Sound of Spending to the national soundwave via an Interac interface that leverages spending variables to generate a unique song customized to each user.

“At Interac we know that giving Canadians greater insight and control over their money helps them get more out of life, so we created an innovative tool to encourage Canadians to map their spending data and create an individual ‘money melody’,” said William Keliehor, Chief Commercial Officer at Interac. “We produced a national soundwave to sonically illustrate how Canadian spending habits are helping to rebuild consumer confidence while charting our economic recovery.”

The Sound of Spending is the latest activation of Interac InLife^TM, the brand’s new platform which celebrates living a simpler, more joyful, less stressful life. The company recently released findings showing that feel-good spending is on the rise as Canadians make purchases to boost their mood during the pandemic. This same sentiment is reflected in Sound of Spending, with expenditures linked to eating out and shopping reaching a crescendo this June as things started to open.

“Turning spending into sound is a new way to experience a concept that is largely viewed as transactional,” said Andrea Danovitch, Associate Vice President, Marketing & Brand at Interac. “Sound is a new and a powerful way for us to reach consumers through the experiences and passions that connect us all.”

About Sound of Spending

Interac Sound of Spending is an innovative digital tool that transforms spending data into music. The national track was created using anonymized and aggregated debit spending data between January 2019- June 2021.

Anonymized and aggregated debit transactions were pulled based on merchant categories such as bills, entertainment, wellness etc., to present a view of Canadian spending patterns during the timeframe. Interac was able to reflect the specific peaks and valleys in the data using soundwaves which were then converted into a national soundtrack.

Canadians can now create their own soundtrack using Interac’s interface at interac.ca/soundofspending by simply entering the dollar amount they spent per month across each category, to create their own personal soundtrack that reflects their expenditures.

Note that all national data was anonymized and aggregated, and no personal information is collected when creating users’ unique tracks.

About Interac

Interac Corp. empowers Canadians to transact digitally with confidence by providing payment and value exchange services. Through our world-class privacy, fraud mitigation, governance and digital identity and authentication expertise, we help keep Canadian customers safe and secure when transacting. With nearly 300 financial institutions connected to our network, Canadians choose Interac products an average of 18 million times a day to pay and exchange money. Interac champions workplace culture and corporate citizenship based on the principles of responsibility, diversity and inclusion. We are proud to be one of Canada’s leading and most trusted financial brands. For more information, visit In the Know. 

^{1 The national track was created using anonymized and aggregated debit spending data between January 2019- June 2021, pulled based on merchant categories. Peaks and valleys in the data were represented by soundwaves which were then converted into a national soundtrack.}

^{2 No personal information is collected or stored during the use of the online Sound of Spending tool.}