BPI banks on millennials for growth

BPI WOOS millennials with ‘Make The Best Happen’ campaign.

THERE is no question about it—the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is one of the most stable financial institutions in the Philippines.

Established in 1851, this 164-year-old bank is the country’s oldest and has earned a reputation of strength and durability that its peers can only look at with envy.

But the people who know BPI as such are literally getting old. And in their place are now the so-called “millennials” who care less about boring things like “stability” and, instead, want the companies they deal with to understand their needs. In short, to be “cool.”
BPI’s officials are loathe to say it out loud but they are playing catch up with smaller, more nimble rivals who have recently tapped the services of younger “millennial” celebrities to endorse their products and services—a strategy that seems to be working given the growing number of banks taking this route.

Recently, the Ayala-controlled bank, the third largest in the country and traditionally the most conservative among the big financial institutions, launched a rebranding campaign aimed directly at the youth.

And the bank tried to speak, directly and indirectly in a language that today’s youth would understand.

“Traditionally, BPI has always directed its campaigns toward the older segment. But we realized that this older segment [clients] are already customers of BPI, and they make up our strongest segment,” BPI strategic brand management head Tricia Quiambao told the Inquirer during the unveiling of the bank’s “Make the Best Happen” campaign.

At the core of this new campaign is a shift in the way the bank approaches the younger set, which it wants to target.

BPI said it now wants to focus on needs-based financial planning where individuals make decisions based not on returns but on goals they want to achieve.

The bank’s statement explained it thus: “The process begins with helping clients identify their life needs and goals and then create a priority list based on those aspirations. Clients are then encouraged to make personal financial assessments, computing, among others, one’s net worth, cash flow requirements, and even emergency funds. Based on this initial assessment, BPI helps clients create a game plan, mindful of their budgets, goals, risk profile, and investment options.”

And to reach its target market, the bank went online, using a “microsite” devoted to the Make the Best Happen campaign (www.makethebesthappen.ph) to address some of the top life and lifestyle goals of most individuals: travel, health, parenting, shopping, future and dining.

“It is enriched every week with updated content derived from current areas of interest,” the bank said.

The idea is to offer younger would-be clients a smorgasbord of products and services, which they can avail of through the help of BPI—whether using BPI credit cards to pay for that dream vacation or gym membership or taking out a loan from the bank to pay for that cool Vespa scooter they’ve been dreaming about.

“So we really want to grow the market starting from when people are starting to grow on their own. So you bring them along with you as they grow,” Quiambao said. “This one is specifically directed at the millennials.”

“The campaign is not obviously advertising the services to you,” she added, explaining the bank’s “soft sell” approach. “But rather, we have to know what you need … and then [we ask] what are our products that can help fill those needs?”

The question now is: Will this strategy pay off—not just for BPI, but for other banks that have adopted this “woo-the-millenials” strategy—given the higher credit risk involved in dealing with younger clients?

Quiambao is unfazed by the risk, noting that millennials are reaching the age when credit risk profiles, on the average, begin to stabilize.

“And there are always products that you can find to suit the startup target market,” she explained. “It’s a matter of re-engineering your product to be able to address their needs and profiles.”

“The objective is this: As they grow, as they mature, as they become more affluent, they will stay with us,” Quiambao said.

Indeed, BPI’s experiment, along with those of its peers, is something the wider banking industry will be keenly observing. And for BPI, it could just be the key it needs to unlock the client growth potential offered by the country’s large so-called “demographic dividend.”