OMD will handle planning and buying for the bank’s key dual-currency credit cards, its Liu Xiang Visa card and several other joint cards. The agency has been tasked with creating a strategy which will differentiate the brand from its competitors, leveraging new products which mostly launched last year.
“A differentiated strategy, both in message and media, will help grow card acquisitions, along with increasing card penetration and usage,” said Winnie Lee, deputy MD, OMD China.
“As BoCom has so many cards, products and segments, each campaign has to be tailormade to ensure we connect with consumers effectively.”
According to Lee, the category jumped 25 per cent last year in terms of expenditure and has seen fierce competition from banks eager to capitalise on China’s growing middle- and upper-classes.
She said one of the key challenges over the next 12 to 18 months would be that ensuring media inflation — rising as a result of the Olympics — does not have an adverse impact on the brand’s communications strategy.
