BANKING & FINANCE
How MB WAY reached the milestone of one million users
THE CHALLENGE
Strategy, from design to digital strategy and implementation
In 2017, SIBS – the leading financial services provider in Portugal – realized that the MB WAY app had only 160,000 users, and only 50,000 of them had used the service at least once. Additionally, only 10% of these users maintained a monthly frequency. This reality was far from the established business objectives and that is when Republica was hired to develop an MB WAY Strategy, from design to digital strategy and implementation.
The process
Looking for more qualified users
The main ambition was to transform the app into the leading financial app in portugal. In order to achieve it, the first goal we defined in the MB WAY Strategy as to increase the user base to 300,000 by the end of that year. Additionally we would increase the number of active users to 150,000, which meant growing both in terms of volume and percentage of the total user base, in simple words, we were looking for more qualified users.
Same investment, new strategy
To achieve these ambitious goals, it was necessary not only to increase the awareness of the application but also to educate Portuguese users about its relevance in their daily lives in order to encourage its usage. We designed a bold and efficient MB WAY strategy to boost its results.
The first step was to conduct a detailed analysis to identify the different user profiles of the most engaged and active users in the application. Based on this profile personalised content was created, specifically aimed at capturing the attention of this young audience and creating a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) among those who had not yet used the application.
Additionally, the “Friend Hunt” Member Get Member campaign was launched, which immediately rewarded users who brought friends to MB WAY. All these actions were disseminated in a personalized manner to microsegments, with specific messages and CTAs. Furthermore, several educational videos were created to not only ensure conversion of interested users but also to simplify the process of using MB WAY.
In parallel, BYD encouraged and assisted SIBS programmers in installing SDKs from major advertiser networks such as Google and Meta and configuring all application events. This led to the optimization of all investments, including audiences, formats, channels, and creativities, specifically for key business objectives, rather than solely focusing on reach, as was done previously.
The impact
In the first year of operation, in just 9 months, the implemented MB WAY Strategy significantly surpassed the established objectives.
The number of MB WAY application users grew immensely, reaching the impressive milestone of half a million, with 84% of these users being active. In the second year, even with the total number of users of financial/banking apps in 2017 standing at 600,000, MB WAY reached the incredible milestone of one million users, surpassing its market by a large margin.
Today, the partnership continues and MB WAY has established itself as the largest Portuguese application, thanks to the successful communication strategy and the continuous optimization of strategy and investment.
A market oriented strategy
From that insight we built a unique strategy for each market, with different value propositions, materials, and communication platforms. In some countries, we focused on Twitter, while in others, we prioritised Google, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, or any other platform that was aligned with the country’s tendencies. The key was to measure every step of the candidate’s journey and understand which source delivered a more competitive lead with better conversion rates, keeping in mind that what works in one market might not work in the other.
