When Data Becomes the Foundation of Brand Communication

In the midst of increasing interest among Indonesian students to continue their education abroad, the need for transparent and trusted financial solutions is becoming increasingly important. For many international students and their parents, the cost of education is not the only challenge. Cross-border financial management, sending funds, and understanding hidden costs in international transactions are often issues that receive little attention.

Seeing this need, Media Buffet together with Wise designed an integrated campaign aimed at building Wise's relevance among prospective international students and Indonesian students who are studying abroad. This campaign was implemented through strategic collaboration with NIEC, one of the largest overseas education consultants in Indonesia, and involving content creator and international student, Zahid Ibrahim.

Instead of relying on a direct product promotion approach, this campaign was built through a combination of research, education, community, media engagement, and influencer advocacy to create conversations that are more relevant to the audience's needs.

Start with Insight, Not with Product

One of the main foundations of this campaign is research on more than 200 prospective students who are interested in studying abroad. The goal is not just to produce data, but to understand how they manage their finances when preparing for studies or living life while studying abroad.

This insight-based approach allows Wise to emerge as a brand that understands its audience's challenges, not just as a money transfer platform. The research results then become the basis for building a stronger communication narrative as well as material for discussion in various campaign activities.

For us at Media Buffet, using data as a communication foundation is an important step to increase the credibility of the messages conveyed. When a brand is able to speak based on the real needs of the audience, the level of relevance and trust that is formed will be much higher.

Combining Education, Community and Media in One Activity

The culmination of the campaign was realized through Wise's participation in the World Education Festival Jakarta organized by NIEC.

What is interesting about this activity is the attempt to bring together two groups of audiences at once: potential users and the media. On the one hand, this event presents students and parents who are considering studying abroad. On the other hand, this event is also an opportunity to build relationships with the media through discussing relevant and data-based issues.

This approach has its own challenges because the two audience groups have different needs and behaviors. However, implementation results show that the concept has strong potential. During the discussion session, there was visible enthusiasm from the participants who actively listened to discussions related to international student financial management.

For Wise, this activity is an important experience because it is one of the first opportunities to interact directly with potential users in an offline format. This experience provided valuable learning about how to combine communication, education and audience acquisition objectives in the same platform.

The Role of KOLs in Adding Credibility

Apart from offline activities, this campaign is also strengthened through collaboration with Zahid Ibrahim, a content creator and Indonesian student studying abroad.

Zahid's presence provides a more personal and authentic perspective on the experience of life as an international student. From a communication perspective, this approach helps bridge brand messages with real experiences experienced by the target audience.

The results obtained show that this collaboration was successful in creating a wide reach and increasing awareness of Wise. However, internal evaluations also showed that a simpler and more structured collaboration format would likely result in higher effectiveness in subsequent campaigns.

The Power of Partnerships Beyond Sponsorship

One of the most positive outcomes of this campaign emerged from the relationship built with NIEC. During the collaboration process, we discovered that NIEC had actually recommended Wise to its students organically before any formal collaboration. These findings open up opportunities to develop more strategic relationships through affiliate programs and various follow-up activities.

For us, this is an important indicator that the success of a partnership is not only measured by the amount of exposure gained during the campaign, but also by the potential for long-term collaboration that can continue to develop after the campaign is over.

When partners truly understand and believe in the product being promoted, the resulting value will be much greater than just conventional sponsorship activities.

Author: Larisa (Cica)