Digital Bank's 'Late Comer' Strategy: Why is User Quality More Important than Just Acquisition Numbers?

Being a new player in a market that is already crowded and dominated by aggressive giants is a big challenge for any business. In the 2022–2023 period, the digital banking landscape in Indonesia is at the peak of the “burn money” trend. Several predecessors, such as Bank Jago, Allo Bank and Neo Bank, are aggressively acquiring users in a big way to secure market share.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of competition, blu by BCA Digital is present as a late comer which has just turned one year old. As new players, they are faced with a classic dilemma: Should they join the discount war in pursuit of download numbers, or build a more organic, fundamental strategy?

The strategy selected is the second option. Facing this situation,  Media Buffet as a public relations agency took a bold step by not suggesting a short-term tactical war. Instead, the agency designs a long-term PR strategy architecture that focuses on creating quality users.

Addressing New Player Challenges Via Media-Buffet Narrative Architecture

For a new brand , the biggest enemy is not competitors, but audience habits. In the initial phase of its launch, the majority of people did not understand the urgency of opening a new digital bank account if they already had conventionalmobile banking.

This challenge is even more multi-layered for blu. As part of the largest banking group in Indonesia, the communication challenge is to separate the identity between the subsidiary and parent entities, while convincing the market that they bring different innovations.

Seeing this pain point, Media Buffet formulated a sharp and consistent key message positioning:positioning blu not as an ordinary digital banking platform, but as a “financial friend” for the digitally literate generation in their daily transaction needs.

This narrative is not built on sweet promises of free balance incentives that trigger seasonal users (who register and then delete the application), but is linked directly to real solutions to young people's financial problems, such as the need to separate savings accounts (budgeting) to daily transactions without cards.

The Interest Shift: Evidence of the Success of Strategic-Communication

The success of the narrative design initiated by Media Buffet has proven effective in changing the public's way of thinking. The communication success of a top PR agency is no longer measured by how loud they shout in the media, but rather by their ability to change audience behavior (audience behavior shift).

Referring to the analysis of consumer search behavior data (Keywords Everywhere), there has been a very organic and massive shift in interest (interest shift) among internet users as a direct impact of this PR campaign:

1. Initial Education Phase (January 2022): The keywords that dominate search engines are still basic informative, such as “what is blu bca” or “blu bca is”. The public is still figuring out the function of this platform.
2. Quality Conversion Phase (January 2023):In just over a year, the search narrative changes completely to become action-oriented. People are starting to actively search for specific keywords such as “how to transfer to blu bca”and “blu bca features”.

The shift from the question “What?”to “How do I use it?”is strong validation that Media Buffet's strategy is successful in taking audiences past the awareness stage and straight into the considerationand action stage. The audience not only knows about the existence of the application, but already has a high intention to use it in their daily financial activities—the main characteristic of quality users that clients are looking for. This trend emphasizes the surge in organic search volume for “blu bca” which increased by 2.5 timesYear-on-Year(YoY).

Tactical Orchestration: Turning Media Exposure Into Advocacy

How does Media Buffet realize interest shift without relying entirely on an aggressive acquisition strategy? The hint lies in the comprehensive orchestration of PR services, from recognizing the market, narrative strategy to tactical execution in the field.

Media Buffet cleverly exploits every corporate momentum into stories with high news value (newsworthy). When blu expanded the Bank as a Service(BaaS) ecosystem with BINUS University, ITHB, CJ CGV Cinemas, to MRT Jakarta, we packaged it not just as a business collaboration, but as expanding access to ease of living for young people.

The media relations approach we employ is also very organic. Through initiatives such as Editor BukBer, bluAcademy for Journalists, and casual sessions bluMabar Durian, Media Buffet succeeded in building strong emotional connections between journalists and BCA Digital management.

As a result, mass media is no longer just a one-way release channel. Fellow journalists voluntarily act as public advocates who actively educate the public about the advantages of the blu ecosystem through various points of view in the articles they write.

The impact is clearly visible on the performance of Share of Voice(SoV). Throughout the campaign period, blu managed to lead the acquisition of brand mentions in digital media (reaching 22,446 mentions) with 69.4% dominated by positive tonality, outperforming its competitors who launched earlier.

Main Essentials for PR-Practitioners and Brand Marketers

The story of one year of blu by BCA Digital's journey with Media Buffet provides a new perspective for the industry: being a latecomer is not a curse. In a market saturated with short-term promotions, consistency in building communications that educate and are based on real user needs is the key to winning the market.

Through tactical analysis and the formulation of a sharp and bold narrative, a Media Buffet as a public relations agency Jakarta can help a brand transform from just a new option to a top of mind that sticks in people's hearts. The ultimate metric of success is not how much exposure is collected in one day, but rather how deeply the communication strategy is able to change people's habits and form a quality user base.

Are you also a latecomer who needs strategic help on the brand side? Email directly to our founder Bima Marzuki at bima@mediabuffet.co.

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