SINGAPORE — UOB credit card applications jumped in June as fans of pop star Taylor Swift across the region rushed for the chance to buy tickets for her Singapore concerts in an upcoming pre-sale on Wednesday (July 5) — two days before sales open to the public.
The pre-sale for the mega star's concerts in March 2024 — with Singapore the only stop in her Eras Tour in South-east Asia — is available exclusively to UOB card holders.
The bank said new credit card applications from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam rose by an average of 45 per cent daily from June 21 to 27 — the week Swift announced her concert dates — compared with earlier weeks in the month.
Debit card applications in Singapore and Vietnam more than doubled, up nearly 130 per cent for the same period.
Those aged between 30 and 40 years old formed the largest group of applicants, making up more than a third of total applications. Coming in a near second were those between 20 and 30 years old, at under 32 per cent.
By gender, women formed more than half of the card applicants, at 52 per cent.
In Singapore, there was also a visible shift in the make-up of new card applicants that week. The proportion of 25- to 29-year-olds rose to 27 per cent, up from 22 per cent previously, while the proportion of women jumped almost 10 per cent in comparison with an almost equal mix of men and women earlier in the month.
UOB head of group personal financial services Jacquelyn Tan said: "We had anticipated the surge in card applications and had taken proactive steps to handle the uptick in volume, such as increasing the capacity of the relevant business units handling these applications."
Last week, Swift added three more shows in Singapore due to "overwhelming response". That makes for a total of six performances, matching those of British rock group Coldplay's Singapore run in January 2024 as part of its Music Of The Spheres World Tour.
Taylor Swift concert tickets range from $108 to $348, while VIP packages can cost up to $1,228 and will include a set of prints, a tote bag, a pin, a sticker and postcard set, and a souvenir ticket, as well as a laminate and matching lanyard.
In a Bloomberg report, the American singer-songwriter's ticket sales for this tour were estimated to hit more than US$13 million (S$17.5 million) a night — which would be the highest-grossing in music history.
While most of this goes towards covering the cost of production, it does not include earnings generated by merchandise sales.
Maybank Securities equity research head Thilan Wickramasinghe said the surge in UOB card applications is unsurprising because "Taylor Swift is one of the most sought-after acts globally".
But this is unlikely to translate into a meaningful bump in earnings for the bank in the near term "as customers may use these cards more as a means for ticket access rather than unsecured credit", he said.
CGS-CIMB Securities analyst Andrea Choong agreed, but said a portion of these applicants is expected to remain customers, "given that UOB does offer attractive value propositions on its credit cards".
Over the longer term, however, Mr Wickramasinghe expects UOB to accrue certain benefits because "such promotions enable lenders to target specific, desirable market segments".
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"In this instance, UOB successfully gained access to younger, more affluent demographics," he said, adding that the bank could now cross-sell other products, even if the newly acquired customers do not run up credit balances.
With UOB investing heavily in its digital capabilities, "we believe that such targeted cross-selling may be carried out more cost-effectively than before", he said.
Looking across the broader market, other lenders have carried out similar promotions in the past.
"We expect to see more partnerships to be introduced in the future as banks try to win market share in specific segments to raise customer yields through targeted, multi-product strategies," said Mr Wickramasinghe.
Ms Choong said that while this strategy is replicable, for the bank to reap longer-term benefits, it has to be mindful of several caveats.
"First, the lender must devote sufficient resources to cope with the surge in application volumes and, second, the product on promotion has to hold a strong value proposition as customers are becoming increasingly discerning."
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
