Brand Strategy & Creative Direction

Redefining
BTN's Brand
in a Competitive
Landscape

A data-led brand strategy and campaign architecture for Bank Tabungan Negara — Indonesia's leading state-owned mortgage bank — navigating a critical inflection point in its brand equity journey.

Client
Bank BTN
Year
2021–2022
Role
Brand Strategist & Creative Lead
Data Source
Nielsen BRRM 2021
#6
Bankwide spontaneous awareness ranking
#1
KPR mortgage brand awareness — held 4 consecutive periods
56%
Brand awareness reached in Q4 2021, up from 54%
92%
KPR spontaneous brand awareness among holders

Bank BTN had successfully held its rank 6 bankwide position for four consecutive periods — no small feat in Indonesia's fiercely contested banking sector. But beneath the stable headline number, the cracks were showing.

At the product level, both savings (BTN Batara) and mobile banking (BTN Mobile) were experiencing declining awareness trends, even as competitors aggressively ramped up their own product-level spending. CIMB Niaga was closing the gap with just a 1% margin, and digital-first challengers like Jenius and Blu by BCA were quietly climbing the ranks.

The bank's ad spending pattern was front-loaded — heavy in the first half of the year and tapering off into H2. This created a structural awareness dip precisely when competitors were maintaining or increasing their presence.

Meanwhile, customer perception revealed a paradox: BTN was uniquely associated with "easy access to loans" — a powerful differentiator tied to its KPR dominance — yet this strength hadn't been fully translated into broader brand equity metrics like intention and recommendation.

📉
Product Awareness Declining
Savings and mobile banking awareness dropping despite stable bankwide rank
⚔️
Competition Closing In
CIMB Niaga only 1% behind; digital challengers gaining ground at product level
📅
Uneven Ad Spend Sequencing
Heavy H1 spending with drop-off in H2 creating awareness gaps
🔗
Untapped Brand Strength
KPR dominance not yet translating into broader brand equity uplift

What the data revealed

Nielsen's Brand, Relationship, and Reputation Monitor (BRRM) across 9 cities — combined with 5-city tracking data — provided a granular view of BTN's brand health, contact point contribution, and competitive positioning. Four critical insights shaped the strategy.

INSIGHT 01
KPR Is BTN's Untouchable Fortress
BTN dominated KPR spontaneous awareness at 92–93% — far ahead of all competitors. The KPR Gaess program showed strong recall growth, particularly on social media (creative score 82%) and TV (impact score 67%). This strength was the clearest leverage point for brand building beyond mortgage.
INSIGHT 02
Loan Accessibility Is the Differentiator
In competitive strength mapping, "easy access to loan packages" (Mudah mendapatkan paket pinjaman) emerged as BTN's single leverageable strength index above 110 vs. 2nd tier banks — outperforming all peers. This perception needed to be weaponized across all brand touchpoints.
INSIGHT 03
Physical Presence Still Anchors Awareness
Contact point analysis showed OOH, physical presence (branches/ATMs), and Above-The-Line advertising as the top contributors to brand awareness — consistently outperforming digital in contribution score. Digital channels, however, were growing as medium-impact contributors and showed rising importance for the Emerging Affluent segment.
INSIGHT 04
Buzz Outperforms Peers at 2nd Tier Level
BTN's word-of-mouth (Buzz) index reached 118 vs. 2nd tier bank average — the only category where BTN significantly outperformed. This organic amplification potential was underutilized in formal campaign architecture and needed to be activated deliberately.
Contact Point Contribution to Brand Awareness — BTN Bankwide
OOH (Billboard/Banner)
Billboard, MRT, Airport
High
Physical Presence
Branch / ATM / EDC
High
Above The Line
TV, Print, Radio
High
Merchant Activation
Online / Offline promo
Medium
Digital Media
Social, YouTube, News portals
Medium
Brand Activation
Sponsored events, booths
Medium
Buzz / Word-of-Mouth
Index 118 vs. 2nd tier
Low→↑
Direct Marketing
Brochures, sales staff
Low

Three pillars to stabilize,
differentiate,
and grow

Pillar One
Maintain Product-Level Awareness
Bankwide awareness had improved, but product awareness (savings, m-banking) remained stagnant or declining. The fix required consistent, year-round communication — not just front-loaded H1 bursts.
  • Increase savings & m-banking product communication frequency
  • Even out ad spend across H1 and H2 for sustained presence
  • Ensure product-level KVs are consistently refreshed quarterly
Pillar Two
Activate the Right Contact Points
As pandemic conditions eased and mobility recovered, the data was clear: OOH and physical presence needed to return as primary brand awareness drivers. Digital needed to be elevated — especially social and YouTube.
  • Prioritize OOH & LED signage comeback in 2022
  • Maintain TV & print presence consistently throughout the year
  • Increase social media & YouTube presence beyond awareness — drive engagement
  • Leverage BTN website as a key digital touchpoint for KPR
Pillar Three
Sharpen BTN's Unique Value Proposition
BTN's single clearest differentiator vs. all 2nd tier competitors was loan accessibility. The strategy demanded that this UVP be sharpened and amplified — while using KPR's dominance to halo the broader brand.
  • Lead with "easy access to loan packages" as core brand message
  • Use KPR Gaess strength to reinforce youthful, accessible positioning
  • Strengthen perception around: mobile banking reliability, fast service, innovative products
  • Differentiate from BCA/BRI on KPR non-subsidi; from BRI on KPR subsidi

From strategy to execution

The 2022 marketing architecture was built around the three strategic pillars — with campaign planning, channel ecosystems, and creative evaluation all rooted in the brand data.

Campaign Architecture
12-Month Marketing Campaign Plan
Structured around max 2 focused Above-the-Line messages per month for broad audiences, with paid media, owned assets, and direct communication channels running in parallel.
HUT BTN 72 — Special offers
Ramadan — Groceries, fashion, travel
Moto GP Mandalika — Brand moment
Independence Day — Thematic 77
Harbolnas — E-commerce activation
HUT KPR — Special offers thematic
KPR Creative Evaluation
KPR BTN Gaess — Ad Performance Analysis
Nielsen ad evaluation showed BTN's social media placements significantly outperforming industry norms. TV and Billboard creative needed uplift, particularly in reach and call-to-action clarity.
Social: Creative Score 82% (norm: 59%)
Social: Impact Score 80% (norm: 66%)
TV: Creative Score 75% (norm: 72%)
Billboard: Reach needs improvement
Digital Channel Ecosystem
Digital & Mortgage Ecosystem Architecture
Built the communication and launch roadmap for BTN's digital product suite — from New Mobile Banking and Internet Banking Business, to the BTN Properti app ecosystem with integrations across Rumah123, Blibli, Tokopedia, and QRIS payment infrastructure.
🏠
BTN Properti App
📱
New Mobile Banking
💳
QRIS Merchant
🏦
Internet Banking Biz
E-Channel & Merchant Promo
Year-Round Merchant Activation Calendar
Managed a full-year promo ecosystem across 10+ merchant and e-commerce partners — including Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Gopay, OVO, Indosat, Telkomsel, and Pertamina Retail — mapped to seasonal campaigns and BTN's key moments calendar.
Tokopedia / Bukalapak — Year-round
Gopay / OVO — Festival activations
Pertamina Retail — Q2 integration
CGV / M-tix — Libur Telah Tiba campaign
KPR Product Communication — Key Visual & TVC
Full KPR Communication Suite: Non-Subsidi, Subsidi, KAR, Milenial
Developed the communication architecture for BTN's complete KPR portfolio — spanning 4 product lines, each with tailored Key Visual, thematic seasonal KVs, and TVC scripts. The millennial KPR (KPR Gaess) was positioned as the growth engine, with messaging centered on flexible down payment, competitive interest, and digital-first application journey. KPR Subsidi messaging prioritized developer/broker touchpoints as primary contact points, while digital channels were elevated for KPR Non-Subsidi to compete with BCA and Mandiri.

Measurable outcomes from the data

#5
Brand awareness rank by 2023 — climbed from #7 in 2020 through consistent brand investment
83%
Unaided awareness for Millennial KPR — up from 73%, with KPR BTN Gaess recall rising to 64%
21.5%
CASA growth by 2021 — accelerated from just 7% in 2019, a major low-cost funding win
6.9T
IDR in new millennial mortgages disbursed in 2021 alone — validating the repositioning strategy
Digital Channel Explosion
The 71st anniversary campaign added 300,000 new users to BTN's digital channels within three months — a direct result of repositioning BTN as a forward-looking, tech-capable bank for millennials.
CASA Growth Acceleration
Low-cost funding (CASA) grew from 7% in 2019 to 21.5% in 2021 — a critical financial health indicator, enabled by growing trust among younger savers attracted by the new brand positioning.
Millennial Mortgage Market Captured
IDR 6.9 trillion in new millennial mortgages disbursed in 2021. KPR BTN Gaess recall rose from 55% to 64%, while unaided Millennial KPR awareness climbed from 73% to 83% — cementing BTN's lead in the first-home category.
Brand Rank Climb
BTN moved from #7 to #5 in Nielsen brand awareness rankings between 2020 and 2023 — a remarkable climb in a market where tier-2 banks were broadly experiencing awareness decline.
06 — Reflection
"The best brand strategies don't invent strengths — they excavate the ones already buried in the data."
Working on BTN reinforced a core belief: brand strategy is most powerful when it's grounded in evidence, not instinct alone. The Nielsen data didn't just tell us where BTN stood — it told us what customers were already responding to, what contact points were doing the heavy lifting, and where the gap between perception and reality was widest.

The tension between maintaining a bankwide brand and growing product-level awareness is a challenge many large institutions face — and the answer isn't more budget, it's smarter sequencing and message discipline. BTN's KPR fortress was the clearest strategic asset, but the work was in creating a coherent narrative that extended that dominance into broader brand equity.

This project also sharpened my conviction that creative decisions and media strategy must be inseparable from the data layer. The KPR Gaess social performance wasn't accidental — it was the result of aligning message, channel, and audience in a way the research clearly pointed toward.