The consumer finance landscape in Vietnam has entered a phase of intense saturation. With a significant portion of the urban population holding at least one credit card, financial institutions are often competing for the exact same audience. In such an environment, aggressive competition leads to rising acquisition costs, and frequent retargeting runs the risk of audience fatigue rather than engagement.
This was precisely the challenge facing our partner, VPBank. As the company prepared to launch the YoJo Visa Platinum card — a collaborative product with Vietjet and Visa — the team recognized that standard performance tactics would not suffice.
To introduce a new product in a crowded sector successfully, the strategic objective, therefore, had to shift from simple lead generation to securing awareness. VPBank needed to ensure their brand was not only seen but also remembered and trusted by consumers before a purchase decision was even made.
The Strategy – Why Open Web?
Finding the Right Environment
As the market continued to become more and more saturated, the strategy required VPBank to consider environments beyond the usual "walled gardens" of social media. While social platforms offer significant scale, they often target the same high-frequency users repeatedly, optimizing for short-term clicks rather than lasting impressions.
What VPBank needed was incremental reach. The goal was to connect with potential customers outside of the rapid-scroll environment of social feeds.
The Power of Context
By utilizing MGID's open web platform and premium local publishers like Vnexpress and Tuoitre, the campaign could reach audiences when they are relaxed and open, for example when they are reading the news or browsing lifestyle content. In these moments, users are naturally more receptive to new information, and for a considered purchase like a credit card, appearing next to relevant financial or lifestyle articles creates a stronger cognitive association than a fleeting social media post. This approach allowed the brand message to land effectively without feeling intrusive.
The Execution – Technology & Creative
Seamless Brand Lift Measurement
Validating the effectiveness of the campaign was crucial. Typically, measuring brand lift involves third-party vendors, complex pixel integration and significant costs. VPBank, however, utilized an in-house Brand Lift solution deployed directly through the MGID platform.
Because the survey tool was native to the ecosystem, it required no heavy code or external SDKs, which allowed the survey to launch in just five days. Crucially, the survey experience was designed to be seamless: questions appeared within the ad unit space rather than blocking content or interrupting the user’s reading flow. This ensured that the measurement process did not negatively impact the user experience.
High-Impact Formats
To ensure the ads were actually seen, the campaign moved away from static imagery in favor of the highly engaging and interactive Rich Media format. Human vision is naturally wired to pay attention to motion, and utilizing this format helped to break through standard banner blindness.
Unlike static display ads, which are often scanned in milliseconds, employing Rich Media ads extended the time users spent with the creative. This additional duration allowed VPBank to communicate their value proposition of discounts on dining and spending more effectively, ensuring users retained the brand’s intended message.
The Results & Moving Forward
Measuring Impact
The combination of high-impact formats and precise targeting delivered clear, quantifiable results. Comparing VPBank’s campaign results against a control group, MGID’s study confirmed a 74.8% uplift in Ad Recall, a figure that significantly exceeds standard benchmarks for high-engagement campaigns.
More importantly, the campaign succeeded in shifting perception. VPBank saw a 20-point shift in brand association, effectively securing the top spot in consumers' minds when thinking of credit cards with attractive offers. The message itself, which focused on discounts for dining and spending, also landed effectively, with over 55% of the exposed audience correctly identifying the core value proposition.
Conclusion
For advertisers in high-consideration sectors like finance, automotive or real estate, this case demonstrates that brand building on the Open Web is both viable and measurable.
By moving beyond simple metrics and utilizing native lift studies, brands can bridge the gap between upper-funnel awareness and mid-funnel consideration. With MGID, VPBank achieved reach, clarity and retention in a crowded market, proving that the right creative in the right environment still cuts through the noise.
