ATMs are not allowed to display and cover advertisements are even more taboo! Deciphering the "unconventional marketing" that doubled Cathay United Bank's CUBE activity

Cathay United Bank's CUBE App can be said to be one of the most popular financial apps in Taiwan in 2024. According to data shared by Chen Guanxue, deputy general manager of Cathay Financial Holdings and Cathay United Bank, at the "2024 MarTech Marketing Technology Summit", the number of monthly logins to the CUBE App has increased by 3.5 times, and user satisfaction has also increased by 35% from 2019 to 2023.

The key to success in various data indicators is Cathay Financial Holdings's marketing technology (MarTech) strategy with "user experience" as its core. Cathay Financial Holdings integrates huge first-party data resources to establish a solid foundation for digital transformation. Data sources cover online to offline channels, including 10 million customers, more than 5,200 ATMs, 6 million customer service calls per year, and monthly 45 million digital channel logins, covering Web, App, official website and other channels.

These data not only support the growth of CUBE App, but also lay the foundation for future AI applications and precision marketing. It can be said to be Cathay's "sweet burden" in promoting digitalization and intelligence.

Cathay Financial Holdings AI empowers customer service and sales experience, improving operational efficiency and satisfaction

In recent years, as AI application scenarios and costs have become more approachable, Cathay Financial Holdings has used AI to empower customer service and unstructured data operations to improve efficiency and service quality. Specific usage scenarios have the following two aspects:

1. Pain point scenario: Customer service calls are heavy and the pressure is high to solve customer problems quickly and accurately.
   
   Solution: Use AI to increase the scope of defense and digitally assist customers in finding information. Train AI to answer customers' complex and diverse questions and provide accurate answers.


2. Pain point scenario: It is difficult to control the quality of salespersons and customer service, and it is impossible to ensure a good service experience.
   
   Solution: Cathay Financial Holdings uses LLM technology to convert call voice content into data to monitor the quality of voice services. For example, if the words "guaranteed profit" are detected, there may be violations. Helps identify potential problems immediately, ensures sales compliance and improves service experience. Not only does it improve service efficiency, it also helps the business explore more potential sales opportunities.

In addition, Cathay Financial Holdings has also built its own core marketing engine in recent years to simplify processes and achieve large-scale marketing. Chen Guanxue pointed out that in the past, marketing PMs had to go through at least five procedures before sending a message, such as multiple logins to different systems, material review, internal and external coordination, etc., which resulted in inefficient processes. Today, Cathay Financial Holdings has solved the contradiction between cost and efficiency in large-scale personalized marketing by integrating the operations of more than 15 departments through building its own core marketing system. The system supports more than 10 channels and performs targeted marketing for 85 customer groups, reducing marketing operation time, improving efficiency, and assisting the implementation of large-scale personalized experiences.

For the sake of user experience, Cathay Financial Holdings ATMs do not display advertisements, and LINE cover advertisements are even more taboo.

Although the system improves the work efficiency of marketers, it also allows users to experience more personalized marketing. But unlike what most people imagine, Cathay's internal "marketing regulations" may be more numerous than what the outside world thinks. The reason behind this is Chen Guanxue's emphasis on user experience.

In order not to lose the user experience, Chen Guanxue admitted that Cathay King has set up strict advertising controls internally to ensure that all marketing activities prioritize user experience. Like:

• ATM advertising ban:
  
  Cathay United Bank has more than 5,200 ATMs and is one of the few banks in Taiwan that does not place advertisements on its ATMs. This move shows that Cathay is committed to maintaining user experience and avoiding disturbing users in important service scenarios.


• LINE ad screening is strict:
  
  In LINE-bound accounts, Cathay Financial Holdings has set strict filtering standards for advertising content to ensure that the information provided must be highly relevant to user needs and avoid frequent or unnecessary message interference.


• Cover advertising and inappropriate click behavior are prohibited:
  
  Chen Guanxue pointed out that cover advertising (advertising that takes up the entire screen) and misleading users to click are "big taboos" in Cathay Financial Holdings's marketing strategy. Although these advertisements may increase exposure in the short term, they have a negative impact on user experience, which is contrary to Cathay Financial Holdings's philosophy of attaching great importance to long-term customer relationship management.

Through AI + labeling to achieve personalized marketing, CUBE App advertising exposure and clicks both increased

In addition, Cathay Financial Holdings also uses AI technology to promote personalized marketing of CUBE cards. Chen Guanxue pointed out that users are different individuals, and it is crucial to recommend financial products and digital services based on label appearance. The company has used AI labeling to automatically generate personalized marketing copy internally.

For example, after different users log in to the APP, they can see personalized marketing copy with different tones and appeals in the designated advertising space. According to different user characteristics (such as identity, age group, whether to use CUBE cards and label preferences, etc.), they can automatically Generate exclusive recommended content.

For example, online shoppers aged 18-25 may see the copy "Streaming online shopping will give you rewards, let's go on a romantic date!", while customers who are labeled as VIP department store shoppers may see the copy "Anniversary Shopping" Celebrate the joy of shopping and visit the department stores once."

Through AI recommendation and advertising, the accuracy of advertising has been improved. The advertising exposure YoY of Cathay United Bank's CUBE App has increased by 1.2 times, and the APP advertising CTR YoY has increased by 4.3 times.