The year-end festive season is not only a peak shopping period, but also a highly competitive time for Banking & Finance brands seeking to drive transactions. As consumers have more choices across banks, e-wallets, and payment methods, attractive promotions are no longer the only factor determining which brand they choose.
Holiday Consumer Journey in Banking & Finance: What Touchpoints Do Consumers Encounter Before Making Year-End Spending Decisions in 2026?
Against this backdrop, Novaon Digital introduces the report “Holiday Consumer Journey in Banking & Finance”, focusing on the festive-season spending journey and the role of communication touchpoints in guiding consumers from awareness to transaction and continued usage.
1. FESTIVE SEASON 2026: FROM COMPETING ON PROMOTIONS TO COMPETING FOR EACH TRANSACTION DECISION
Extended shopping demand, increasing complex payment decision journeys
Vietnam’s financial market is witnessing the increasingly widespread adoption of digital payments. According to data compiled from Banking Review, 87% of Vietnamese adults have a bank account. In 2025, the number of cashless transactions increased by 42.2%, while QR transactions grew by 51%.
This development creates opportunities to drive more transactions, but at the same time intensifies competition among financial brands. As digital payments become a familiar consumer behavior, cashback programs, discounts, and card promotions are no longer sufficient to create long-term differentiation.
In particular, the festive season stretches from 9.9, 10.10, 11.11, and 12.12 through Christmas, New Year, and Lunar New Year, continuously generating new spending needs. Consumers proactively plan their purchases, search for promotions across multiple platforms, and change their payment choices depending on the benefits available at the moment of transaction.
One notable point is that every spending decision can involve two parallel choices: What should I spend on, and how should I pay? A consumer may use one bank as their primary account, while choosing another card or application to take advantage of a promotion at the point of transaction.
This shows that the growth challenge for Banking & Finance brands is not only about acquiring more customers, but also about appearing at the right moment, delivering relevant benefits, and becoming the preferred choice in each transaction.
2. BANKING & FINANCE BRAND REPORT: FROM MULTI-CHANNEL PRESENCE TO GUIDING THE ENTIRE SPENDING JOURNEY
What touchpoints do consumers encounter before making spending decisions?
In the traditional approach, financial brands often deploy separate activities to increase awareness, promote offers, or drive transactions. However, consumers do not receive information through isolated channels. Before making a payment, they may see an advertisement on social media, search for a promotion, check benefits in an app, and continue evaluating their options at the point of sale.
From this perspective, Novaon Digital’s report analyzes the Holiday Consumer Journey across five stages: Awareness – Consideration – Engagement – Transaction – Loyalty.
At each stage, consumer behavior and needs change. From becoming aware of a spending need and searching for and comparing benefits, consumers gradually move toward interaction, transaction, and consideration of continued service usage. This requires brands to clearly define the role of each touchpoint across the entire journey.
The report focuses on six key touchpoint groups: Social, Digital, OOH/DOOH, App, Activation, and POSM, illustrated through real-world case studies.
Home Credit leveraged emotional Tet content on Social; Viettel Money combined Digital platforms to expand reach and encourage app downloads; Monzo used OOH/DOOH to connect its messaging with year-end financial needs. Meanwhile, PicPay, MB Bank, and OCB demonstrated different approaches through App, Activation, and POSM.
These case studies show that each channel can play a distinct role in the customer journey. However, effectiveness does not come only from being present across multiple platforms, but also from the ability to connect touchpoints into one consistent experience.
Based on this, the report introduces two key strategic directions: Full-funnel Communication Strategy, which helps define communication tasks at each stage, and Connected Touchpoint Strategy, which focuses on connecting interactions to guide the customer journey.
This also represents a shift from multi-channel coverage to journey orchestration, from competing through promotions to competing through experience and the ability to generate subsequent transactions.
3. CONCLUSION
Stategic shifts proposed by Novaon
The 2026 year-end festive season creates new requirements for communication strategies in the Banking & Finance sector. As consumers have more choices and continuously move across touchpoints, competitive advantage no longer comes solely from the level of promotion, but also from the ability to appear at the right need state, at the right moment, and deliver a convenient experience throughout the journey.
Connecting communication, applications, partner ecosystems, and customer data can open up opportunities to drive transactions, increase usage frequency, and maintain value after each payment.
This is also the overarching strategic perspective Novaon brings to the “Holiday Consumer Journey in Banking & Finance” report, built on its proprietary Strategy – Creative – Technology (SCT) framework. By integrating strategic thinking, creativity, and technology, this approach connects communication touchpoints with brand experiences, creates a seamless customer journey, and drives growth throughout the festive season.
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