MMSU

MARIANO MARCOS
STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business,
Economics and Accountancy

Submitted by: RACQUEL B. MACALMA

Course & Section: BSBA-HRM II-A
Submitted to: Dr. Leah Ballesteros

DIGITAL MARKETING IN VIETNAM

Vietnam is a country of incredible beauty located in Southeast Asia. Described by

Lonely Planet as “exotic and compelling”, this picturesque country has drastically improved
in terms of social media and digital marketing landscape. The country’s only official language
is Vietnamese (tiếng Việt).

The World Bank estimates that Vietnam’s US$200 billion economy is likely to rise to a
trillion dollars by 2035. Over half of its population, compared with only 11% today, is
anticipated to join the ranks of the global middle class with daily consumption of US$15 or
more. As reported in a forecast, about 30% of the population will be purchasing goods and
services over the internet in 2020, with each consumer spending an average of US$350 per
year.

As one of Asia’s rapidly developing economies and youngest populations, Vietnam is

a fascinating market. This young and dynamic country offers enormous commercial
opportunities for both small and big brands, marketers and investors. This can be attributed
to the digital trends in Vietnam that are emerging quickly in every notable sector.

This article will discuss Vietnam’s digital marketing environment, industry challenges
and opportunities, successful campaigns, as well as the best possible ways on how to reach
the Vietnamese audience.

Vietnam’s Digital Marketing Landscape

According to the 2019 Global Digital suite of reports from We Are Social and Hootsuite,
Vietnam has a total population of about 96.96 million with a remarkable internet penetration
rate of 66%. This accounts for 64 million Vietnamese that are online.

Among this number, 55 million of them are active social media users, which equates
to a penetration rate of 57%. In 2017, Vietnam rose into 7th place for the number of Facebook
users worldwide, beating Thailand and Turkey.

The average amount of time that Vietnamese spend online daily is nearly seven hours,
including two and a half hours on social media. In addition, 94% of Vietnamese access the
Internet every day, and 99% watch videos online, proving the significance of using videos as
a form of digital marketing.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that most Vietnamese get their news from the
Internet, including social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and others.

According to the World Bank, these figures can be attributed to Vietnam’s high literacy
rate in comparison to any country in a similar stage of development. Another reason is the
widespread Internet access via 3G and Wi-Fi, as well the increasing number of 4G networks
which are also reasonably priced. Lastly, Vietnamese are passionate readers of all kinds of
news, both online and offline.

Furthermore, there’s a great desire to be online via mobile; recent research conducted
by Reaching Vietnam found that Vietnamese often own several phones in order to take
advantage of the best deals with competing providers. Regardless of this fact, smartphone
penetration is still only around 72%, leaving plenty of room for growth.

Biggest channels

As mentioned earlier, 94% of Vietnamese people have internet connection access and
99% of the time, they watch online videos. In addition, YouTube is now the most popular
social media platform with an average of 96% of internet users who use the
platform. Facebook follows after, with 95% of internet users using it.

Online videos are used by 85% of brands, making it one of the most prevalent digital
marketing activities in Vietnam. The two most widely used online video platforms in the
country are YouTube and Facebook. Although YouTube is more popular in terms of media,
Facebook ads are used more often by brands when running advertisements.

It’s also interesting to see Zalo – Vietnam’s domestic social media network – closely
following behind Facebook in terms of the number of users. Its popularity can be attributed
to how tailored it is to the Vietnamese user’s needs — it offers chat and voice call services,
and also lets users search for administrative information.

Trends and Opportunities

Influencer Marketing

The use of social media has now become a norm across the globe. This has resulted in
changes in consumer behavior, where customers look at fellow customers in order to have
informed purchasing decisions. Instead of referring to companies as they have done in the
past, consumers now look at each other and at their favorite personalities who have a huge
following on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms. Due to these reasons, many
digital marketers believe that influencer marketing will be the next big thing in advertising.
 The rise of social media influencers opens many new opportunities. It offers a new
channel for brands to communicate with consumers more directly, more organically, and at
scale. By creating branded content with social media influencers, brands can amplify their
message while appealing to their target market.

Big data and artificial intelligence

Big data and artificial intelligence play a vital role in marketing and advertising. New
technologies recently invented can understand the deep insights of every single person and
predict his/her behavior and actions by structuring collected data. Thus with insights about
their audience, today’s marketers can design the most effective customer journey, which can
engage customers with the best fitting brand experiences.

Companies can build a great database of their audience’s likes and dislikes, emotions,
hobbies, interests, and even their relative connections on the Internet. These data will help
precisely and accurately target a small segmented audience, and, at an even higher level,
specific individuals. This strategy is also called personalized marketing.

A data-driven marketing strategy can help brands learn more about their audience as
well as improve their tactics and future campaigns. In particular, it can help companies
improve customer experience with the use of personalization and create more effective ads
to reach the right audience.

Social Media Marketing

At present, there are 3.484 billion social media users across the globe, which equates
to 45% market penetration. With that kind of figure, social media’s significance to society
should be taken into consideration especially in the marketing world.

Social media has become part of almost everyone’s daily life. Thus, having insights and
understanding of the changes and trends implemented in social networks are essential for
businesses. The social media landscape changes a lot. Currently, the most popular social
trends are video, automation, and influencers, but there will be more soon.

Most importantly, marketers should realize that dominating a single platform is no

longer enough. Some leads on Facebook are not on YouTube, and those on YouTube are
different from those reading website content. As such, the key to success is to tailor content
across multiple, relevant platforms.

Video Marketing

Video consumption is expected to rise in the coming years. As more social networks
enter into channeling video content, marketers are investing in video to engage their
audience. However, producing videos with no clear objectives is futile. Marketers need to
start spending more time on evaluating the best types of videos that work for their audience.
Bite-sized videos may work on social media; however, there are also audiences that are more
interested in watching longer videos. For instance, Instagram will invest more on IGTV to
establish it as a new platform for longer videos. Even though the feature is still at an early
stage, it has a great opportunity to beat the competition.

Video advertisements are also another trend to explore, either to increase awareness
or drive conversions. According to Animoto, video ads are the primary way where customers
can discover a brand or product before making a purchase. Furthermore, videos need to be
optimized for mobile, while their call-to-action needs to be clear but not off-putting.
Marketers need to focus on creating interesting videos that engage the viewers to keep on
watching.

Summary

Digital technologies and online connectivity have the potential to be the key driving
forces in the growth and transformation of the Vietnamese economy over the coming years.
Thus, it is important for those wishing to enter the Vietnamese market to consider digital
channels in their marketing campaigns. Several digital marketing strategies such as influencer
marketing, big data and artificial intelligence, social media, and online videos are continuously
rising in popularity within the country. Using these strategies can help brands achieve success.