Mobile: The Closest You Can Get to Your Consumers

Campaign Summary

Mobile money transfer service ZaloPay made transferring money as easy as sending a text message by integrating its offer into chat service Zalo. The company leveraged the tradition of Li Xi to promote this service by digitizing the Vietnamese tradition of sending "lucky money" to loved ones during the Vietnamese New Year.

Strategy

Objective and Context:

Mobile payment usage in Vietnam saw an increase from just 37 percent in 2018 to 61 percent in 2019, making it one of the fastest growing markets in the world. In response, new mobile payment apps keep popping up every year. At the moment when this campaign rolled out, ZaloPay had 26 competitors, making the customer acquisition battle tougher than ever. ZaloPay wanted to increase its awareness by letting people experience its social, fast, and convenient money transfer solution in a way that would convert them into an active user.

ZaloPay landed on leveraging Tet, a holiday celebrating the Vietnamese New Year, to kick off its campaign, leaning on insights suggesting the holiday was the most opportune time to for mobile app consumer acquisition. Hence, the objective of the company's campaign was to leverage this golden occasion to recruit one million new users and generate four million transactions.

Target Audience:

ZaloPay's target audience was young adults (20- to 35-years-old), who already had an active demand for mobile payment or transfer. Their mobile payment behavior included internet mobile banking apps and other non-social mobile payment services such as Momo and Viettel Pay. To compete with this plethora of mobile payment options, ZaloPay had to find an easy and intuitive way to get people to experience its money transfer solution.

Creative Strategy:

People generally tend to avoid things that take too much effort. Ease of use is the number one reason for mobile payment adoption. Therefore, ZaloPay decided to highlight its service as easy. However, simply saying that wasn't enough to compete with a plethora of mobile payment options in the market claiming similar things. The company needed to make ZaloPay truly the most effortless mobile payment option out there. The creative strategy used to communicate with the target audience had two main components.

The company leveraged Zalo, the biggest social network and messaging app in Vietnam, introducing ZaloPay as a payment feature in Zalo's messaging app. For the first time, its users could chat and send or receive money simultaneously. The company built awareness for this new feature through a music video and a series of contextual mobile ads.
ZaloPay tapped into cultural moments and consumer insights. During Tet, the majority of Vietnamese people use Zalo to send Tet wishes to their chat groups on New Year's Eve. Moreover, many Vietnamese send loved ones "lucky money" on the holiday as part of the tradition known as Li Xi. ZaloPay capitalized on this tradition by digitizing the process giving Zalo users a digitized red envelope they could use to transfer money using ZaloPay's new social payment feature.

Execution

Overall Campaign Execution:

100 percent of the budget went to mobile social channels, as ZaloPay wanted to ensure a smooth journey from awareness to conversion. While mobile videos were used to drive mass awareness, social content and influencers were utilized to amplify the message and drive app conversion.

First, the company created a jingle called "Chatting is Transferring" to amplify the campaign idea of transferring money being as easy as chatting. To launch the jingle and hammer home this catchphrase, ZaloPay released a mobile-first music video on YouTube that featured Lan Ngoc and Rhymastic using ZaloPay to overcome awkward money situations during Tet. This strategic and melodic concept was attention-grabbing and helpful to build brand association.

ZaloPay then created a series of contextual mobile ads to reinforce the benefits of social payment in relevant money situations such as debt payment, money transfer to family, and online shopping.

The company also used celebrities and micro-influencers to spark interest in the service. ZaloPay optimized media at every touchpoint throughout the consumer journey to drive conversion.

Mobile Execution:

ZaloPay leveraged Zalo's mobile social platform to promote the service. For the very first time, ZaloPay is available in a tab in every Zalo conversation.