Mobile Ecosystem

& Sizing Report

Vietnam 2017/8

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Foreword As in many countries around the world, media
consumption in Vietnam has changed radically, and
the influence of mobile and digital consumers cannot
be denied. The consumers are forcing digital
transformation with the use of mobile devices and with
the demand for personal mobile experiences.
Consequently, brands need to reinvent mobile
marketing that will help serve the expectations of an
increasingly mobile first population via this
transformation.
For marketers, mobile is the biggest opportunity of our
time to give consumers the exceptional discovery,
engagement and purchasing experiences they
demand – all while gaining a competitive edge. For
publishers and technology providers, mobile is the great
enabler, allowing brands and agencies to reach and
target their consumers and build profiles and data
points to ensure their mobile marketing works
effectively.
Smartphone is the singular device which helps rural
areas of Vietnam to access the internet; this will drive
mobile ad spend growth in sectors like FMCG, e-
commerce, auto and mobile wallets to tap the new
consumers coming on board. The growth of data-led
smartphones is also likely to lead to an inclusive
economy in rural parts of the country, where
smartphones will act like a bank, a school, a shop and
much more for people.
With this unprecedented mobile growth, we also see
dramatic lifestyle changes. It’s hard to imagine a day
without uploading/sharing a photo with friends/family,
navigating the streets without a mobile map, watching
your favorite shows at the time and place that you
want. And this change in lifestyle is making brands and
advertisers in Vietnam create immersive experiences for
their consumers on mobile using several technologies
(Programmatic, location data, audio beacon
technology, video, re-targeting, analytics and much
more.)
With so much action, it’s sometimes hard for marketers
to keep pace and comprehend the possibilities of
mobile as a marketing medium. Through this report, our
attempt is to create the first single source of the mobile
marketing ecosystem in Vietnam that can help
marketers, students, tech enthusiasts and journalists to
gain meaningful insights on the entire ecosystem that
drives the mobile story in Vietnam.
Hope you enjoy the read!
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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Key Trends and Insights Page 4

Part I: Introduction to Mobile Marketing in Vietnam Page 5

Part II: Reach of mobile among consumers in Vietnam Page 19

Part III: Mobile adspends in Vietnam Page 25

Part IV: Optimizing advertising creative for mobile Page 29

Part V: Mobile phone consumer behavior and persona in Vietnam Page 34

Part VI: Mobile App ecosystem in Vietnam Page 39

Annexure Page 47

Acknowledgement Page 65

Disclaimer Page 66
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 Key Trends Growing penetration and data usage in both urban and
rural is fueling significant growth in mobile ad spend:
and Insights
With the dominant role of mobile in digital media
consumption in Vietnam, a high and still growing
smartphone penetration in both urban (>80%) and rural
areas (>60%), and with 4G coming into real service in
2017 (with about 3.5 million users so far and continuing
to grow), there has been a significant growth in mobile
ad spend volume. The proportion of mobile spend as a
% of total digital spend for clients is as high as 50-60%,
even up to 80% for some specific clients/brands which
have a target audience who are mobile heavy users.
This shows an impressive growth (almost double) vs last
year where mobile ad spend often accounted for
about 20-40% of total digital spend of each
client/brand. This growing trend is expected to
continue in the coming years.
Increase in 3G/4G penetration in Vietnam will help to
enrich user’s content consumption on mobile, and
accordingly, will continue potential growth for diverse
mobile ad solutions:
High smartphone penetration in both urban (>80%) and
rural areas (>60%), and the launch of 4G in 2017 also
mean users are having a better chance to consume
richer and more diverse content on mobile.
Accordingly, there is a significant potential of higher
consumption for video, audio and streaming content
on mobile and the mobile content platforms
(e.g. local Zing) will certainly grow, as well as social
platforms that provide video, audio and streaming
content like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, etc and
huge potential growth for diverse mobile ad solutions
(mobile video, native advertising) follows.
Mobile app usage in Vietnam will continue to grow,
especially with a developing e-commerce landscape
and more active online payment market joining by
Alipay and Samsung Pay in 2017:
Growing and more engaged app usage backed by
burgeoning smartphone and mobile internet
penetration, is leading to a growing community who
are favouring a mobile app economy in Vietnam.
Whilst music, games, chat/instant messengers, social
networks and photography are noted as the most
popular app categories installed by Vietnamese users,
currently about 30% of Vietnamese online shopping
users shop through mobile apps. There is high potential
growth for online shopping apps with the current
increasing attention for e-commerce development in
the market among industry players and especially the
arrival of Alipay and Samsung Pay 2017 to enrich the
digital payment options in the market.
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 Part I: Objective of the Research
Introduction 2017 has been a very exciting time for mobile marketing in Vietnam and 2018 looks set to continue that
and journey for the industry. We have seen a surge across various dimensions of the mobile ecosystem – be
definition of it smartphones, mobile subscribers, mobile data penetration, native advertising on mobile, advertising
Mobile spends on mobile, video content and much more. There have been several reports written to date
that talk about mobile marketing in Vietnam. However, we felt there has been no single report which
Marketing in comprehensively covers the mobile marketing ecosystem in Vietnam and provides insights to
Vietnam marketers to help them better understand the medium. This report by MMA Vietnam in collaboration
with GroupM, Google, Facebook, Kantar Media, Gameloft and Zalo Group is our attempt to address
this gap.

Our objective through this report is to give readers a comprehensive view of the mobile marketing
ecosystem in Vietnam and the various factors that influence its growth in recent years such as the rise
of mobile and smartphone users, mobile internet users, mobile app users, the development of mobile
internet infrastructure like 4G service introduction, the increasingly diverse mobile marketing channels
and solutions, etc.

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A bird’s eye view of Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, MMA Asia Pacific
what’s instore for
"
The future of advertising in Vietnam is taking shape with mobile at the centre of
our readers this growth. Today, Vietnam is one of the strongest growth markets for mobile ad
spending in the region, and is set to double mobile ad spend due to heavy
smartphone adoption.
I'm heartened that this is the first time the industry is coming together in Vietnam to
pull together this report, and I believe it will set the benchmark for upcoming
developments in the industry.
MMA remains highly committed to this market, and we look forward to building a
stronger and bigger MMA in Vietnam. The efforts and collective stewardship of our
members are commendable, and I would like to thank all business leaders and
especially the co-chairs for advancing Vietnam's mobile agenda.

" Ed Thesiger, Co-Chair MMA Vietnam and CEO GroupM Vietnam & Indonesia

Due to the extraordinary pace of change impacting the industry at present, and in order
to remain relevant, this Mobile Ecosystem and Sizing Report will by definition be a
constantly evolving reference guide. In this first edition of the report, multiple data
sources have been utilized in addition to commentary from key stakeholders from across
the mobile ecosystem in Vietnam. The picture painted depicts mobile as a vibrant,
dynamic and rapidly evolving communications tool, yet at the same time also highlights
many of the challenges, such as 3rd party measurement and brand safety, that still need
to be overcome if it is to truly fulfill it’s potential.

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Methodology of the The report is based upon both primary and secondary data and information sourced from its key
contributors: GroupM, MMA, Kantar Media, Google, Facebook, Gameloft and Zalo Group. Below is the
Research list of all reports that have been referred to:

1. Vietnam Telecommunications Authority reports 2016-2017

2. Ministry of Information and Communication reports 2016-2017
3. GroupM TYNY (This Year Next Year) report 2017
4. GroupM 3D research 2013-2017
5. Ericsson Mobility Report 2017
6. GSMA Intelligence Report 2017
7. eMarketer
- Mobile Ad Spending Share of Digital Ad Spending Worldwide, 2016-2021
- Ad Spending in South East Asia, new forecast for an emerging digital region, 2017
8. Kantar Media VN National MHS 2104, 2016
9. Kantar Media Vietnam TGI Q12017
10. Ericsson Consumer Lab Analytical Platform – 2016
11. Global Web Index 2016
12. TNS/Google Smartphone Apps Research Vietnam
13. Millward Brown Ad Reaction Study
14. Newzoo 2017
15. DI Marketing 2016
16. W&S Group, May 2016
17. Adtima Audience Insight and Appota 2017
18. Google Barometer 2017

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Channels that SMS
define Mobile A standard for telephony messaging systems that
allow sending messages between mobile devices
Marketing/ that consists of short messages, normally with text
Advertising only content.

Benefits:
1. Crisp – Explains purpose & user response
expectation in 160 characters
2. Economical - Cheaper than many other digital
media vehicles
3. Ease of use – All mobile users are aware of how
SMS works
4. Mass reach – 100% of mobile phone users can be
reached via this medium
5. Save for later – An SMS gets stored in phone for
later reference
Limitations:
1. Linguistic challenge: There are challenges in
delivering customized language (script) messages
2. Targeting: Third party databases are not a reliable
source for reaching a specified TG
3. Passive communication: Requires user involvement
for a CTA fulfilment
4. User Pays : Cost implication for end user
P/S Anti Cavity – Helping Vietnamese Rural change
brushing habit to prevent cavity
• Focus on rural area applying “micro-targeting at scale” in
sms
• Reached 50% total TA in Mekong delta and South East
across mobile advertising network (1.3 million users)
• CTR of 3% with 30 times higher performance
(engagement and response rates) vs industry average
benchmarks.
• Brand equity score of +300bpt or +3% on the attribute of
“helping families improve their brushing habits” and
+100bpt or +1% towards “preventing cavities” as
compared to 2016.
• Rural uplift of +240bpt i.e. +2.4%.

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Mobile App
Software solutions that power the business logic for
mobile marketing initiative(s).

Benefits:
1. Seamless user experience
2. Can serve utility or innovative/experiential
engagement
3. Long sustaining customer relationship and
sustenance via offers and content
4. High TOM - Users download app for a specific
purpose therefore their top of mind recall for the
app is high
PEPSI - SING YOUR OWN MUSIC MOMENT WITH REAL LIFE
Limitations: TARGETING
1. Multiple Operating Systems
2. Costly application development • Reach 60% Pepsi-ers.
3. Driving traffic and downloads requires additional • Top 1 social buzz.
marketing budgets • ~ 200,000 app installs (45% achieved organically)
• Nearly 100,000 contestants join Karaoke Idols challenge
• +6 points TOM, + 4points brand love vs year ago.
• +4 points Refreshing
• +7 points MUSIC ASSOCIATION

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Mobile Video
Video as a creative type overcomes one of the
biggest objections to mobile ads: using sight, sound,
and motion to tell a brand’s story overcomes the
limitations of screen size. Moreover, it builds a
dynamic, immersive, rich media ad that works across
the fragmented mobile interactive landscape.

Benefits:
A stunning and captivating way for publishers and
content creators to share immersive stories
1. Increased share-ability
2. Marketers can take a deep dive into analytics
3. Share, views, complete views, likes and other
Masan Utilizes Video Content via Chuyện Kể Bé Nghe
social interaction all metrics that marketers love to
know about
Utilize mobile friendly content to reach the centrepiece of
4. With vertical video now rising, more and more
every family (the kids!)
people will consume videos on mobile as they
• 8.3 million views
usually use mobile without tilting the screen
• Reach over 1.5 million viewers
horizontally
• 1 million minutes has been spent per episode
• ~ 60% of all minutes watched on mobile devices (39%
Limitations:
mobile + 20% on tablets).
Viewer has an option to skip the video ads
1. Non skippable video ads may make the user hop
onto another video
2. Many ads are inserted in single video so there is a
lot of competition. Therefore, marketers have to
go that extra mile to create great content

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Native Advertising
Native ads give you the control to design the perfect
ad units for any channel (across social, video, audio,
search, text and is not limited to a platform). With our
Native Ad API, you can determine the look and feel,
size and location of your ads. Because you decide
how the ads are formatted, ads can fit seamlessly in
your application.

Benefits:
Native advertising benefits publishers, advertisers and
the audience
1. Allows for advertisements to be unobtrusive
2. Higher audience engagement leading to better
CTRs
Limitations:
1. Native is a new advertising format and therefore
marketers don’t know how to read its
performance and where to benchmark it
2. Higher spends on creating good content
Samsung Galaxy S8 - Time To Move On
• Reached 13 million of TA in 4 weeks.
• > 850,000 people engaged with the platform (90% from
mobile).
• > 10,000 users created their personalized videos. 23% of
them decided to move on. 6.5 times return on ads spend.
• Generated 2,197,511 buzz, Galaxy S8 among the Top 3
campaigns in Vietnam in April, June and July.

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Rich Media
Rich media is a digital advertising term for an ad that
includes advanced features like video, audio, or
other elements that encourage viewers to interact
and engage with the content.

Benefits:
Interactive & Dynamic capability: High on interaction
catering to audio, video, animation.
1. Play me: The RM banner can be a playable
format with a gratification fulfilment
2. Powerful branding: Even if the ad isn’t clicked on,
viewers are still more likely to see and remember
the ad than traditional display advertising Bring your LUCK this TET with CASTROL

Limitations: • Viral clip: total 66 MILLION VIEWs in 6 weeks, equated to

1. Size heavy: Takes time to load, need good
internet connection to work seamlessly
2. High risk on ad blockage
$160,000 earned media value.
Cost per View: $0.0054 vs. $0.0091 of benchmark.
• Facebook REACH totaled 49% of our total Vietnamese
population, engagement ratio of 1.85% (vs. benchmark
of 1.5%).
• One of top 6 Ads on social media with budget of only
25% of the big spenders in the list.
• Positive Audience response at 95%

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Loyalty Program
A loyalty program is a rewards program offered by a
company to customers who frequently make
purchases in this case purchased on the mobile app.
A loyalty program may give a customer advanced
access to new products, special sales coupons or
free merchandise.

Benefits:
1. Brand love: Caters to loyal users who want to be a
part of the brand platform
2. Stickyness: Increases repeat usage with engaging
content and useful info
3. Gold class: Increase customer loyalty and future
sales, helps in up-selling
4. VIP feel good:No problems of carrying cards and
coupons they are present in your app virtually
Limitations:
Notional value: Many coupons are available only if
you make a bigger purchase, the consumer may feel
cheated and hence uninstall your app
Manage your FE CREDIT loan using Zalo chat app
Create Zalo Official Account of FE CREDIT with the
Interactive Customer Care Solution to provide a smart,
timely and automatic dialogue with the customers.
• In the first 2 months, 50% conversion rate of a million
customer being invited into followers
• > 150,000 customers actively registered to receive
personalized communication and frequently engage
with FE CREDIT Official Account.
• > 100,000 daily user interactions, equivalent to 20%
interaction rate (2x higher vs average).
• FE CREDIT saved over 5% of their SMS budget to more
dynamic interactions

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Location Based
In Location targeting section, you can select the
name of one or more countries, states, provinces,
cities, congressional districts, zip codes (US only) or
post codes (internationally) to show your ads to
people in those locations. You can also choose a
radius within which the ads should be displayed.

Benefits:
1. Sharp targeting: Targets the customer when near
the store helps increase customer’s intention of a
buy
2. Share of competition: Marketers can target their
competition’s locations and try and get their
customers as well Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro - Put The Lights On Rural
3. Here i am: Improves your businesses search results
as well • Reached 15 million unique people.
8% engaged with “Own the Night” platform.
Limitations: • > 600,000 played with the geo targeted filters in rural
1. Limited reach: Area to which you can target your towns, > 19,000 shared publicly, spreading town pride
consumers is restricted vibe
2. Data usage: Needs strong mobile data to use • > 1 million social buzz and 85% share of voice
maps • 6.3 times higher sales growth in rural areas vs urban
3. Limited market landscape: Not vastly available • Samsung Galaxy J7Pro ranked #1 fastest selling
everywhere smartphone across all categories for 10 consecutive
weeks.
Note: Please refer to annexure for more channels
and definitions

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Mobile Scape in Vietnam

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 Mobile ecosystem Currently the landscape is divided into three major clusters, which at times overlap and supplement each other
1. The client facing industry
development in 2. The ad-tech industry
Vietnam 3. The last mile connectors
The client facing industry, primarily consists of agencies and their technology partners. They focus on delivering the Best
KPI on advertising spends of brands.
The ad tech industry majorly consists of the two type of players, the one that work on top of operator delivery pipes –
SMS, IVR and OBDs and the segment that relies on mobile internet connections to reach out to publishers.
The last mile connectors are the ones which are used by end users for accessing any of the digital content or services.

Definitions of the terms used in the Mobile Scape:

Media Agencies – An agency works with brand owners to identify a
brand’s position, messaging and creative communication.
DSPs – Demand Side Platforms which focus on buying media for clients
with an aim to increase the return on spends. They generally comprised of
a manual trading desk as well as a programmatic buying channel called
real time bidding platform.
Ad networks – Advertising networks were the purest form of networks,
where a single network would interact on both sides the brands and
publishers and would then match the demand to supply. The DSP, SSP and
trading desks are the evolved versions of the ad-networks.
Exchanges – Exchanges are the platforms which are connected to several
DSPs and SSPs. They are generally used for increasing the reach on either
the demand or supply side.
DMPs – Data Management Platforms are platforms that aggregate
user level data and help DSPs as well as SSPs in making bid level
decisions of pricing, biding, bid winning probabilities as well as the
conversion probabilities at each impression level.
SSPs – Supply side platforms are the counter parts of the DSPs. They
are the media selling platforms, with a focus on increasing the
publisher revenue. They generally comprised of a manual trading
desk as well as a programmatic selling channel called real time
auction platforms.
Social Media and Instant Messaging platforms – a dedicated website
or other application which enables users to communicate with each
other by posting information, comments, messages, images, etc.
Content Aggregators: A content aggregator is an app or a web
service that gathers content from different sources for reuse or re-
monetization.

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Definitions continued:

Mobile Gaming – A video game played on mobile phone, tablet or portable media player

Mobile Browsers – A mobile browser is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are
optimized so as to display Web content most effectively for small screens on portable devices.

Rich media platforms – they are the creative suits required to create, host and manage the delivery of the specialized ad units. The rich media ad
units allow a user to interact with the elements of the creative.

Location Tech – ad technology platforms used for enriching the targeting and decision making part of the ad serving using location data of the
users.

Measurement and Analytics platforms – Third party measurement and attribution platforms which act as an unbiased delivery measurement tools.

Carriers/ISPs – Wireless communication service providers which owns or controls all elements necessary to sell and deliver services to the end user.

Devices – Manufacturers or marketers of portable computing devices like smartphones and tablets.

Operating System – Software specifically designed to run on mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, tablets.

App Stores – Digital distribution platform for mobile apps.

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Mobile Scape 2017 Content Consumption on Mobile
With high smartphone penetration in both urban
Development (>80%) and rural areas (>60%), and that 4G comes
into real service in 2017 (with about 3.5 million users so
far and will continue to grow), users are having a
better chance to consume more rich content pieces
on mobile. Accordingly, there is a big potential of
higher consumption for video, audio and streaming
content on mobile and the mobile content platforms
(e.g. local Zing) will certainly grow, as well as social
platforms that provide video, audio and streaming
content like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram,etc.
Measurement, Analytics & Data Driven Approach
While the share of mobile spends in clients’ media
budget is increasing, there is a need to push for more
effectiveness in media buying operations as well as
post-delivery analysis. In addition, Youtube’s issue
early in 2017 with the ad served in non-brandsafe
video content was a big hit on Advertiser’s awareness
and require the industry players to make brandsafety
and third party tracking/verification a high priority in
their offerings. There is certainly a high potential for
measurement, ad tracking/verification, analytics and
data collection platforms to address this need of the
market which is getting more sophisticated and
clients are getting more critical in digital marketing
budget consideration.
Programmatic Media Buying
Players in programmatic media buying (DSPs, SSPs,
DMPs, Exchanges, Ad network, Ad servers, etc.) will
continue to grow given the current adoption of the
market for programmatic buying with data-driven
approach for more effective and efficient media
buying. The key benefit of choosing programmatic is
reaching the right audience for advertiser, using data
to help define its audience and reaching a broad
audience across sites or channels and optimizing
campaign real-time at scale, accordingly reduce
wastage of media buy. Data (demographic, interest,
stage of purchase cycle, time or context) is critical and
is the key to ensuring this works. Therefore, collecting
data about their audience will help advertisers to have
better control over their targeting, re-targeting, better
actionable insights and build their audience profile to
use for any next campaigns. Advertisers will also be
able to derive insights from their programmatic
campaigns to see what’s working and what’s not for
their media campaigns as well as other areas of
marketing. This isn’t just about media effectiveness but
also creative effectiveness – what are the right
messages for different audiences? How advertiser can
take those learnings and apply them to the other parts
of their marketing strategy? And with performance
marketing, marketers can have their media budgets
paid upon sales results.
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 Part II: In the history of the human race no technology has ever surpassed the number of people in the world, not even
watches which are said to be omnipresent. However, mobile has been the only phenomena to have created such an
Reach of effect. By the end of 2014, the global mobile connections surpassed the global human population, where the total
mobile mobile connections were at 7.4 billion which was 1.8% more than the global human population at 7.2 billion. This is
expected to grow further in future, where it is estimated that the global mobile connections will increase by almost 30%
among to 9.1 billion by 2021.
consumers in
Vietnam

Source: World Bank (2014)

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1 billion mobile connections and counting; mobile emerging as
the gateway to the connected world:
India and China, the world’s most populous countries, with over a
billion people each have crossed the landmark of 1 billion mobile
connections. China reached this benchmark in 2012, while India
crossed the 1 billion mark by the end of 2015.
urban and rural areas.
Mobile phone ownership - Base Population 15-54 years old:
Source: Kantar Media Vietnam National MHS 2014, 2016
It is reported that mobile subscription in Vietnam is 124.7 million by
Telco operators versus a 92.7 million population by GSO in
Vietnam.
According to the National Media Habits Survey conducted by
Kantar Media in 2016, almost every home has at least a mobile
phone. Individually, 95% of population in the age of 15-54 years old
across the country owns a mobile phone. The majority (88%) use
pre-paid services. Smartphone ownership bypasses the feature
phone numbers both in urban and rural areas.
Phones ownership by phone types - Base Population
15-54 years old
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Though smartphone ownership has increased dramatically from Mobile connections by type – base on the number of
34% in 2014 to 60% in 2016, 3G services subscription is limited to connections/subscriptions
33% nationwide, with Hanoi the exception where 53% of
Hanoians use 3G services.

3G services subscription – Base Population 15-54 years old:

Source: Gameloft

Tran Thi Thanh Mai, CEO Kantar Media

Vietnam & Cambodia

" It is fascinating to see how fast mobile

phones have penetrated across the country.
I could hardly believe that 99% of homes in
Source: Kantar Media Vietnam National MHS 2016
Vietnam has at least one mobile phone.

21
 Hoang Dat, Regional Business Director Gameloft

"
Vietnam is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the
world; Smartphones penetration increases surprisingly; 90% of
Most mobile users use pre-paid services and when asked what is smartphones shipments is Android while Apple represent 8%
the major factor affecting their choice of service provider, 58% Thanks to 4G technology, the quality in terms of connectivity
responded “Network signal”. According to GSMA Intelligence is much better. Vietnamese spends more than 2 ½ hours a
Assessment of the country’s key enablers and drivers of mobile day for Internet via Mobile devices. Top activity on
connectivity as illustrated in Graph 5, the consumer readiness is Smartphone are Social network (95%), Game (82%),
quite high at almost 73% whilst the mobile network infra structure Watching Movie, Clip (80.6%). Vietnam’s mobile market will
represents a lagging stage at 39.72% only. It is more a question keep growing and there is no doubt that its mobile
for network improvement, not consumer devices. marketing will boom soon!
Going beyond the phone calls:
GSMA Mobile Connectivity Index
In Vietnam, the percentage of smartphone users involved in
internet browsing, social networking, internet voice/video calls,
playing mobile games, watching short and full-length videos and
streaming music online on a smartphone is higher than the global
average.
Services used on smart phone on a weekly basis – base internet
users who use smart phones age 15 – 69

Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical Platform-2016,

Vietnam

22
Mobile has become a game changer in the media and
communication field. Out of 115.3 minutes spent by an average
Vietnamese on line by various devices, 80.6 minutes are
accounted to mobile phones. This trend is observed stronger in
the key urban cities like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City
Average number of minutes spent using media per person per
day, 2014-2016. Base - Population 15-54 years
Source: Kantar Media Vietnam National MHS 2014, 2016
Watching on line video is the most sought activity by mobile
surfers followed by social networking and music sites.
Online Activities by Mobile phone surfer – base internet users in
Hanoi, Danang, HCMC and Can Tho
Source: Kantar Media Vietnam TGI – Q12017
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 Le Thi Thanh Huyen
Head of Media, Unilever Vietnam

" With Mobile now being the primary access

gateway to internet, if not the only medium
for many rural consumers, marketers are
urged to rethink their content creation
process. How to get audience attention in
their “me time” when they are totally in
control of what to see? Does it start with TV
and end with Digital or should we think
Anand Krishnan, MD Mediacom Vietnam
Mobile First? Is Content being viewable on
mobile good enough or should it be really
Democratization of the mobile phone has

"
designed for mobile? All these bring a unique
been the single biggest disruption in the 21st
challenge for e-marketers to stay relevant in
century. Even as consumers continue to
today’s fast-paced digital world.
spend more time with the device,
threatening the efficacy of traditional
touchpoints, the opportunities presented are
immense. Today mobile phones are
unparalleled on parameters - ability to reach
across demographics (there is something for
everyone) and ability to impact every stage
of the P2P. Mobile’s role as a
Reach/Awareness driver is now fairly
established and in the coming years we will
see heightened usage of transaction led
marketing with the device.

24
 Part III: An Industry Perspective
Mobile
FMCG sector continues to be the largest contributor to
Adspends in In 2017, there had been a significant growth in the rate of
mobile spend vs digital spend for clients, the number this growth.
Vietnam mentioned most by key industry players interviewed for our In terms of volume, eMarketer estimates a total volume
report is 50-60%, or even 80% for some specific of US$77.1 million for mobile adspend for the whole
clients/brands which have their target audience who are market in 2017, double the number of 2016 (US$38.5
mobile heavy users. This shows an impressive growth million).
(almost double) vs last year where mobile ad spend often
accounted for about 20-40% of total digital spend of
each client/brand.
Vietnam Mobile Ad Spending (US$ million)
250
231.7
215.5
194.2
200

150 138.7

100
77.1
Source: eMarketer, October 2017 (Note:
50 38.5 Includes display (banners, video and rich
media) and search; excludes SMS, MMS
and P2P messaging-based advertising;
0 includes ad spending on tablets)
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

25
The growth in mobile adspend is driven by the growth of digital
spend in general (accounting for around 24% total media spend
in 2017 compared to 16% in 2016, according to GroupM’s 2017
This Year Next Year report). Significant opportunities derive from
the increasingly dominant role of mobile in digital media
consumption in Vietnam with mobile internet penetration as high
as 80% in urban areas. Mobile is considered very important in
helping brands to penetrate or expand their penetration and
sales into rural areas where untapped sales potentials are
available, given the fact that rural accounts for 65% of Vietnam’s
total population.
According to GroupM’s Vietnam Touchpoint Research in 2017,
which studies media and product consumption across 30
cities/provinces in Vietnam, mobile internet penetration for rural is
64% and people spend more than 80 minutes on a typical day for
mobile internet (compared to 90 minutes for internet in general
and more than 100 minutes for TV), with top 5 most popular
activities being social networking, reading news online, instant
messaging, listening to music and watching TV/video online. With
this high consumption on mobile device, how to best leverage
effectively mobile ad spend investment in rural is certainly one
focus that most agencies and marketers are striving to unlock.
However, the growth of mobile ad spend in Vietnam does not
occur without challenges. Mobile ad measurement is still a
challenge in the market. Some clients are also still
conservative when making decisions on mobile media
investment with the issues of transparency, viewability, brand
safety still critical in digital advertising in genera,l and
especially more critical in mobile advertising.
There are also issues of mobile inventory (both quantity and
quality) and performance. Another challenge often being
questioned by clients and industry players is how to maximize
its effectiveness/ROI and justify business results driven by
mobile advertising.
" Hung Vo, VP Marketing Biti’s Vietnam
The topline numbers from this report reconfirms our
belief in shifting our marketing agenda into mobile in
such a much more connected country as Vietnam
nowadays. The significantly changing sophistication
in the connectivity & mobile behavior of consumers
definitely adds more challenges to our job but it’s
also more exciting.
26
 Animesh Kumar, Head of Digital, Mindshare Vietnam
Mobile is the lead platform fueling the digital growth and
the content consumption in Vietnam. As per TNS
" Connected world, 92% use mobile to access digital in
Vietnam as compared to the global benchmark of 82%.
Most of the brands would want to penetrate into rural
and expand their reach and mobile definitely would
help this. New users on digital are coming onboard
through mobile and hence it would be fair say that
Vietnam is a mobile first nation. There are different
behaviors being exhibited by the consumers on mobile
like use of chat applications (50% of total digital time
spent are on chat), playing games (huge audience pool
across the target audience including mothers, teens etc
play games and are highly engaged there), watching
videos and entertaining themselves (300+ videos are
watched on an average by Vietnamese online per
month) and almost 90% of the digital population access
social network on mobile in Vietnam. All these open
huge opportunities for brands to engage with their
consumers on the respective platform customized to
behavior on each of these platforms.
The diverse variety of the behavior of the consumers
offers huge opportunity but at the same time huge
challenges as well. The content served to the consumers
on the respective platform has to be relevant to their
behavior on the platform. E.g. serving TVC on social may
not be a good idea as consumers are less likely to view
but at the same time short and simple messages on
social could work well for the brand recall or top of mind
or even for leading to specific call to action like lead
generation, sampling or e-com sales.
Measurement on mobile is another big challenge which we
all are trying to sort out. While technology players like
Comscore have mastered the desktop and measurements
are more or less accurate, there is still a long way to go for
measurement on mobile.
The biggest challenge however is of transparency, brand
safety and validation or the delivery through third party
tracking tools. Viewability is the biggest issue when it comes to
mobile and large publishers need to cooperate and allow
third party tracking to ensure more trust in the medium. Brand
safety, such as ensuring only the safe content, legal music
with copyright etc. are distributed by the publishers and allow
the brands to associate with right content and in safer
environment.
The content consumption has led to the increase in spends
on mobile. We have grown 100% of our spends on mobile
compared to the last 2 years of spend. For campaigns with
predominantly reach based objectives, mobile has been the
hero and attracting more than 60% spends on mobile, while
for the direct response led activity, desktop and mobile has
even contribution. From a messaging point of view, longer
duration video messages desktop plays important role while
mobile is a great medium for delivering short messages.
From cookie based measurement to mobile device id based
tracking there is a challenge currently in having one universal
ID to track and serve ads to understand the effective reach in
unduplicated ways. GroupM is already taking a lead and
have developed mPlatform which aggregates different
technology partners to put together a platform which helps
bridge the current gap to great extent. The same investment
from the publisher’s side on technology is much required.
27

Dung Nguyen, Head of Digital –
Wavemaker Vietnam
" Our mobile adspend rate vs digital spend
has risen nearly 2 times from 2016 to 2017,
"
mainly because of increases in social and
messaging platforms. Unlike e-com or
game industry, the majority of clients still
consider mobile as a channel to build
awareness and simple interaction
(campaign activities, promotion, etc.). It
will make tough task for agency next year
with more brands budget plus more
mobile content making mobile markting
become very cluttered.
Wavemaker considers mobile platform as
edge for brand to understand netizen
behavior as well as connect brand
experience with consumer. Remember
that mobile behavior is unique and totally
different with PC, it varies by audience
segments as well as platform (social,
messaging, news, video, etc.);
understand this pattern not only valuable
for media but also brand to unlock new
way to connect… to operate on mobile
we always search for mobile receptive
moments, it can be either opportunity for
brand to raise awareness or drive deep
engagement.”
Gurpreet Wadhwa, Head of Digital – Wavemaker Vietnam
Growth in digital spends for our clients enable us to grow
mobile ad spend accordingly. We have decent pace of
double digit YOY growth in digital spends and mobile screen
being first port of touch for large chunk of consumers in
Vietnam there is huge untapped potential for this media to
grow and yet to leverage fully it as a real marketing channel.
In addition, high time spent across demographics and
increasing penetration of mobile devices in rural areas
consumers in Vietnam is building a positive sentiment among
our clients to try/ test this media for their future campaigns.
However there are three challenges for increasing mobile ad
spend that we can identify.
First is lack of trust in mobile universe beyond giants. Our
mobile spends are skewed towards Facebook and Google. It
is mostly because of platform priority than device priority.
Clients still have low trust in other mobile networks because of
various reasons like - high proliferation of mobile ad networks
with no real differentiation, lack of attribution transparency,
lack of analytical tools, low conversion on mobile etc…
Second, is the small size of screen : It is perceived to be least
effective screen for advertising because of its small size in
comparison to other channels which brings in reluctance
towards this media. Third, is that creative agencies are not
ready – most of the traditional creative agencies are still not
ready with mobile first creative approach. They still continue
to adapt TV/ print creatives to mobile campaigns.
I believe there is lot to do to win client’s trust by addressing the
challenges as mentioned above and need to unlock the real
potential of mobile as a pragmatic marketing channel.
28
Part IV: William Nguyen, Business Development Manager,
Mobile consumption is non-linear. If
you are reading a magazine, or

"
Facebook
watching a TV show, you will see the
Optimizing contents from top to bottom, from
For better mobile campaign effectiveness, there is a
advertising necessity to optimize clients/brands’ advertisements
beginning to end. For mobile,
people have the tendency of
creative for for mobile and to create mobile-friendly ads that
shifting constantly between
drive performance and branding results for
mobile clients/brands. Mobile creative optimization is very
contents. For example, they are
spending on average only 1.7
important.
seconds for each story seen on
The rapid rise of mobile as an advertising medium
Facebook’s Mobile News Feed.
has challenged everything we have learned about
how to capture attention and tell stories. Advertisers
The implication of this, is that we
had decades to get familiar with and proficient on
need to rethink our way of creating
traditional mediums like TV, but mobile is presenting a
media for mobile. The traditional
whole new set of opportunities and challenges.
“best practices” are no longer best.

29
One key paradigm shift that mobile brings about is in the way stories are told in
videos. For a traditional TV commercial, a video starts out slowly – then
gradually, the story builds up, and finally, the peak occurs with the main brand
message and product placement. However, given the short time span that
people spend on a piece of content on mobile, it is vital that the key
message, brand, and product come first and foremost, and the subsequent
scenes further the initial idea.

Traditional story telling in TVC video Modern story telling in mobile video

Various platforms, both international and domestic, have realized this

movement towards mobile and have designed placements that are specific
for mobile. From Facebook, Google to local ad networks and publishers, you
can see a significant amount of ad formats that are more native to the mobile
environment: images and videos optimized for the vertical phone screen,
more immersive graphics, and designed for a sound-off environment

30
 Nguyen Quoc Tuan, CO-founder and CMO, JUNO

"
At JUNO, we have noticed the consistent increase
of the mobile part of our traffic. Today, mobile
makes up 80% of visits and more than half of our
website purchases.
It is only natural that we should optimize the
entrance of our websites and apps, which is
advertisements [….] We have noticed a number of
companies in other categories that are moving fast
in improving their creatives to optimize their mobile: A sub-optimal frame can harm the ad campaign in multiple
California Fitness, Mobile World, Topica among ways. An example is the Red Bull ad on Facebook on the right.
others. It is not maximizing the full vertical real estate of the screen, and
risk losing viewability to the story immediately below it.
JUNO is looking to follow their footsteps and optimize our
creatives for mobile, starting with adding more subtitles to
our videos and design them for the sound-off mobile video
environment.

How to optimize your creatives for mobile

The mobile screen is vertical, unlike the horizontal TV screen –
therefore, putting your usual 16:9 TVC or poster on it will not be
optimal. Instead, you can consider remixing your video or
editing your images to fully capture the available real estate.
Images and videos with 1:1 and 4:5 are best for the vertical
environment and is supported by Facebook, Google and local
ad networks.

31
Another fundamental element of a mobile-optimized ad is in its ability to capture people’s attention quickly when
looking at it. With the short time that users spend on each story (remember, they spend only 1.7 seconds on each piece
of content!), it is highly recommended that you bring the key elements of the ad campaigns front and center: be it
your key message, your brand or your products. That way, even if users choose to skip after the first few seconds, they
would still be exposed to the core spirit of the ad.

Another corollary of the short mobile attention span is video length: shorter videos formats like 6-second and 15-
second tends to generate higher completion rates, ensuring that the whole message gets through to viewers.
We also recommend you to think about how to express the creativity of your ads via the canvases that mobile ad
platform provides.

Introduced for the first time to the mass audience by Facebook in 2013, silent autoplay videos are gaining popularity
with local publishers, including giant media corporations like VCCorp, FPT Media, 24H. Yet, according to an internal
Facebook research, 76% of video advertisements currently are not optimized for a sound-off environment. Such sub-
optimal videos are likely to lose people’s attention quickly, given the short amount of time people spend on each
piece of content.

The simplest first step you can take towards the right direction is adding subtitles to your video ads. From there, you
can tale it a step further, and incorporating text as part of your video creative – ie telling your story in a visual way.

Finally, when the content is complete, do a final creative review and ask yourself: Can you catch the key message
without turning sound on?

32
 Duong Ngoc Dung, Head of marketing &
communications, VIB Bank
Mobile World Vietnam example:
We all need to change and adapt to the The retailer shortened its original 4-part TV commercial into a 15-

"
new mobile-first world: from redesigning second video featuring fast-paced cuts of key frames to capture
our website to be mobile friendly, to viewers’ attention. For another recut video, Mobile World Vietnam
changing our creative assets to cater to used Facebook's carousel ads to creatively display 4 story arcs in the
the longer mobile screen. ad.
Optimizing creatives for mobile has made Using mobile-optimised video on Facebook, Mobile World Vietnam
a big impact on VIB. Just about 6 months launched a new 4G plan that delivered a significant uplift in ad
ago, we are seeing engagement on our recall and sales. Mobile is today the new normal for Vietnamese
Facebook page flat-lining, and desktop consumers, and we successfully optimised our TV commercial for the
still accounts for more than half of all web small screen by appealing to their viewing habits.
traffic. Along with our agencies, we
decided to change our approach:
moving from the traditional horizontal 16:9
frame to square and vertical frames, and
focus on bringing the main points in the
videos forward.
The new approach has paid off - mobile
traffic surged by 1.5X to surpass desktop
traffic consistently. Mobile is now more
than 60% of all web visits that we have in
the last 30 days. Best of all, people are
more engaged with the new format -
Facebook engagement and reach have
increased by 40% compared to before.
We are very happy with the results, and
moving forward, we are requiring that all
of our current and new agencies support
this new, mobile optimized creative
approach.

33
 Part V: Vietnam is going from Mobile first to Smartphone first. By
Mobile the end of 2017, nearly 65% of the population of
Vietnamese owned a mobile phone. In 2015, half the
phone mobile phones in Vietnam were feature phones. By
consumer early 2018, 70% are smartphones. This is higher than
global and APAC averages - which are 53% and 50%
behavior respectively. Vietnam will have about 45M people with
and persona powerful computers in their hands (source - eMarketer).
in Vietnam Smartphones are the gateway to the internet. 85% of
internet users used smartphones to get online. The
pace of change is staggering. In 2013, only 13% of
internet users got online on their mobile phones.
Conversely, in 2013, 66% of users used a Desktop
computer to get online. This number is down to 19%
(source - GroupM 3D research 2013-2016).
They are everywhere. Smartphones are no longer just
an urban phenomenon. 44% of all smartphones in the
country are in rural areas. This means that every 3rd
person in rural areas now has a smartphone and this is
the source of a bulk of smartphone penetration growth
in the country.
Smartphones are sticky. On an average, Vietnamese
users are spending 2.5 hours on their mobile phones
everyday (source: Global Web Index 2016). 80% of this
time is spent online and is roughly evenly split between
Mobile Web (browser) and Mobile Apps (source: TNS /
Google Smartphone Apps Research Vietnam). In urban
Vietnam, prime time for Smartphone usage to access
the internet starts at 5pm and peaks between 8pm
and midnight (source - GroupM 3D research 2016).
In terms of frequency of access, ~70% of mobile
internet users access daily. This generally does not vary
across gender or younger age groups but does tail off
among the 35+ age group (source - GroupM 3D
research 2016).
Online video, shopping, gaming, messaging and social
are the main activities that Vietnamese users engage
in on their mobile phones.
34
Online Video. Vietnamese love watching video
content online. Vietnam consumes more online video
content as a proportion to offline video / TV content
than any other country in the world (source: Millward
Brown Ad Reaction Study). And they love watching this
video content on their mobile. ~70% of YouTube
watchtime in Vietnam is on mobile phones (source -
Google internal data). This is helped along by excellent
infrastructure in fast and reliable 3G/4G networks, a
pervasive free WiFi ecosystem and a seismic shift
towards on-demand viewing, away from appointment
viewing.
Shopping. With eCommerce players and multi-channel
retailers building better, faster and more secure mobile
experiences for users, almost half of Vietnam’s online
shoppers shop as often on their mobile phones as they
would on their desktops. In 2013, only 6% of online
shoppers in Vietnam did this. 71% of online shoppers
actually prefer to use their smartphones to shop online
(source - GroupM 3D research 2016).
Gaming. Smartphones are overwhelmingly the device
of choice when it comes to gaming with 72% of online
gamers in urban Vietnam preferring to play on their
phones over any other device (source - GroupM 3D
research 2016). 60% of smartphone users have 2-4
games installed on their phones preferring Action /
Adventure or Casino games (source - DI Marketing
2016) and 52% of users play 5 times a week or more
(source - Newzoo, 2017).
Messaging. 74% of smrtphone users in Vietnam users
use a messaging service more than once a week (GfK,
Jun 2016). Zalo and Facebook messenger are the most
installed apps featuring on 80% and 74% of all
smartphones in Vietnam respectively (DI Marketing, Jun
2016). Messaging is increasingly starting to play a role in
social commerce as well.
Social. Approximately 40M Vietnamese use social
media (eMarketer, Sep 2016) and it is one of the most
popular things to do on the internet (Kantar Media
Vietnam, May 2016). Smartphones play a critical role
here. 84% of users open a social media app daily (W&S
Group, May 2016).
35
Social media and messaging have highest usage and time spent, gaming and video also engaging

36
Profile of Smartphone users in Vietnam

37
" Nitin Gajria, Country Manager, Google
Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos
Vietnam is seeing nearly 5M new internet
users every year. For most of these users,
mobile internet is the only internet they are
experiencing. Furthermore, with the
fantastic coverage and speed of 3G/4G
"
networks all over Vietnam, with near-
ubiquitous access to free and fast internet
in restaurants, coffee shops and retail
outlets, mobile internet will continue to be
the medium that advertisers will have to
understand and build for in the future.
Andrew Stephens, CEO Ambient Digital
APAC
Smartphone usage in Vietnam continues its
trajectory toward total domination. In the
last 2 years we have seen handset
purchase patterns shift dramatically away
from feature phones toward far more
advanced smartphones. This has been
driven by a combination of a burgeoning
middle class with more access to
disposable income to spend on advanced
smartphones as well as local and regional
handset manufactures introducing a
dizzying supply of cheap but powerful
smartphones at price points for almost
every other income level. The time for
talking about the mobile advertising
revolution in Vietnam is over. It’s well and
truly here.
38
 Part VI:
Mobile App
Burgeoning smartphone and mobile internet usage, a
Ecosystem in growing developer community and the potential for
Vietnam regional/localized and local apps are favouring a
mobile app economy growth in Vietnam.
According to TNS/Google Mobile App Marketing
Insights Report 2016, smartphone users in VN spend
nearly equal time on apps and websites in 2016
(around 50 minutes per day).
Vietnamese users install on average 33 apps on their
smartphones, on par with other developing countries in
the region (Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia), but
fewer than other developed countries (for example
Korea: 53 apps, Singapore: 44 apps, China: 38 apps).
25% of the apps are used on a daily basis. While there is
uninstalling behavior for apps unused, but Vietnamese
users tend to install more apps than the number of the
apps they uninstall on average.
Music, games, chat/instant messengers, social
networks, photography are most popular apps
category installed by Vietnamese users, according to
GroupM’s 3D and Vietnam Touchpoint 2017 research.
For instant messaging, Facebook is the most popular
apps, followed by local Zalo, then Viber.
Also, according to TNS/Google Mobile App Marketing
Insights report in 2016, more than half of users in
Vietnam are comfortable with spending money on
apps, with 65% have made payments for Apps or In-
Apps with their Google Play store or iTunes App Store
Accounts at least once.
Around 20% pay subscriptions or make one-off
payments for digital media/entertainment content.
Around 80% users have bought a product or service
within an app (e.g. shoes, flight tickets, cabs, etc.) at
least once. About 30% of Vietnamese online shopping
users shop through mobile apps.
39
Below is the top B2C/B2B2C Apps list for Apple iOS &
Google Play in Q3 2017 by SimilarWeb as cited by
ecommerceIQ, where the new player Shopee app
surpassed Lazada to rank the number one in Q3
2017.
Together with the growth in online shopping, the
launch of Alipay and Samsung Pay app in Vietnam
in 2017 to join current digital payment market
leaders Payoo, MoMo, VNPT Pay, OnePay, and
ZaloPay will promise further growth in the M-
commerce market in the coming years.
40
Zalo’s perspective THE WAY USERS INTERACT ON MOBILE APP

on the mobile app Vietnamese spend averagely 114 minutes daily on mobile, in which time-spent
on apps takes up a decent amount of time, according to Appota’s research.
ecosystem in
Overall, Vietnamese use mobile apps mainly for communication, and social
Vietnam interaction. However, other activities such as e-commerce, entertainment, and
reading online news also take up a relative amount of time compared to the
average time-spent on mobile.

Time-spent on app

41
User behaviors
Verbal: Activities include text such as chat
Non-verbal: Other activities such as: newsfeed,
commercial,
e-commerce

FREQUENCY OF USING APP CATEGORIES

Similarly, the frequency of regular usage for

social, instant messaging & search applications
significantly overtake the entertainment & news
groups. Despite the lowest proportion of daily
usage, the e-commerce, travel and book
applications account for the highest percentage
of regular use.

42
DEVICE USAGE

In the five years since 2013, the smartphone penetration has overtaken the No. 1 position from
the PC with an impressive growth rate. The smartphone penetration, at this point of time, has
left the PC penetration far behind. Despite a very high growth rate in 2015, the proportion of
tablet users remains very small and starts showing a rapid decline in the past two years. This
forecast smartphone will still be the main focus of the market as of now and in a near future.

43
ZALO GROWTH RATE

Noticeably, Zalo's growth rate is much higher than smartphone penetration in Vietnam. This shows
that the speed of adaptation of Vietnamese users with mobile applications is very positive. Since
2015, Zalo grows almost three times faster than the growth rate of smartphones, and this growth is
continuing till 2017.

44
ZALO STICKER GROWTH RATE

Within a year, the number of stickers downloaded by Zalo users has almost doubled compared to the
previous year, indicating a significant increase in the need for communication via emoticons. The number of
stickers that users use daily during chat has increased by one third over the previous year. Compared with
the usage growth, as of now, the number of stickers in the sticker store also increased more than 60%.

45

" Nguyen Anh Tuan, Managing Director
Adtima - Zalo Group
" Mobile leads the change of content
Thanks to technological advances and
competitive hi-tech market in recent years,
mobile has become an indispensable part of
Vietnamese people. They not only use
mobile to communicate but also to satisfy
higher human needs such as entertainment,
esteem and self-actualization. The amount of
time Vietnamese people thus spends on
mobile has been increasing and does not
show any sign of reducing. It, however, does
not mean that marketers’ job which is to
manifest brands would be easier. On the
other hand, it poses a challenge that
"
marketers need to equip themselves with
innovative mindsets and forward thinking to
win in this mobile-first world. Go mobile or go
home has never been truer!
Tina – Do Tran Diem Mien
Nestle VN – Digital & Integrated Mktg
Manager
consumption. Mobile media is also
considered to be more personal than any
other channel. The major advantage of
this media as a tool of marketing is that it
will improve the chances of reaching
consumers directly with personalized
content. The real impact of a mobile
marketing campaign is the ability to
create massive amounts of good,
shareable content.
Sandip Roy, COO Denstu X Vietnam
A fantastic maiden attempt to bring
credible data support as a single point of
reference for all marketers and media
agencies. While a ‘Mobile First’
philosophy is an important agenda for all
– details on mobile connectivity along
with updated insights on type of activities
on mobile will help us to design better
communication by platform, device and
markets.
46
 Annexure Mobile Channel Definitions
Traditional Mobile Advertising Formats
Channels Definition
SMS is a text message which is sent
through short message service and
SMS1 includes a Multi Media message
which is sent through Multi Media
message service (MMS).
A phone technology that allows a
computer to detect voice and
touch tones using a normal phone
call. The IVR system can respond
with pre-recorded or dynamically
IVR2 (Interactive Voice Response) generated audio to further direct
callers on how to proceed. IVR
systems can be used to control
almost any function where the
interface can be broken down into
a series of simple menu choices.
Benefits Limitations
Crisp: Conveys USP & expectation
from user within 160 characters
Economical: Cheaper than other Linguistic challenge: Difficult to
digital media vehicles communicate in regional script
Ease of use: All mobile users are Third party database: Not a reliable
aware of the SMS mechanics source for reaching a specified TG
Mass Reach:100% of mobile phone Limited analytics: Very basic metrics
owners can be reached via SMS for measurement
Save for later: Gets stored in phone
for later reference
User journey: The IVR menus can be
Cost effective: Reduces operational
long, complicated and time
costs
consuming thereby creating fatigue
Customized communication:
Clarity: Quick menus and sub menus
Increase first contact resolution,
within the user flow sometimes
gives a personal touch from the
confuses the user
brand to the customer
Communication protocol: Poorly
Best for media dark markets: majorly
drafted scripts of dialogue creates
rural and tier 3/ tier 4 cities
bad experience for user.
47
Channels Definition Benefits Limitations

Completely non-intrusive as the

caller is taking an action him/herself The subscription is auto renewed
A ring back tone (RBT, alternatively
and then RBT is played every month and hence
ringing tone) is an audible indication
RBT7 unsubscribing can cause discomfort
that is heard by the originator of a Reach is huge and the
(Ring Back Tone) to the users
telephone call while the destination communication is direct and not
being called is ringing. prone to a call drop

Message delivery strength: Delivers

Outbound Dialers are recorded calls
made from an application to pre-
OBD3
defined recipients through their
mobile phone.
a branded voice message in under
1 min
Cost effective: Cheaper than many
digital media vehicles
Similar to IVR; complicated and time
Reach & Awareness: An OBD can
consuming user journeys can create
be sent to any mobile subscriber not
fatigue
in DND
-Excessive telemarketing calls can
Multi-lingual experience: An IVR can
be annoying to consumers and
talk in multiple languages
businesses
Dynamic user journeys: The IVR
journey can be tailor-made for the
brand basis objective and
information that it is seeking e.g.
referral, contest participation etc.

48
Channels Definition Benefits Limitations

A message sent via a Multimedia

Messaging Service that contains
multimedia objects.
A MMS Banner is a transparent
advertising screen image that is
inserted with text onto an MMS Compatibility issue: Only works on
Variety: It has more styles and
message. This image will be multimedia enabled mobile devices
formats then a simple SMS
MMS2 displayed as the subscriber is and not all feature phones
Functional benefit: It also supports
viewing the complete MMS Higher costs: It costs more than a
voice, video and images messages.
message. regular SMS
A Complete MMS ad could be the
result of a WAP Banner click or a
free message sent to subscribers
who have opted-in to receive news
about the advertiser.

New Mobile Advertising Formats

Creative & visual communication:
Innovative with varied formats
Extremely targeted: Audience can
Measurement Metric: Accidental
A graphic mobile ad represented by be selected on various parameters
clicks can skew your reach numbers
a banner featuring an image. High Reach: All publishers have
BANNER2 Limited space: You can’t get very
Similar to a web banner, but with mobile banner ads, so the reach is
creative with your messaging. It has
lower size constraints. incredible for this channel
to be crisp and to the point
Quick tip: If you are on a tight
budget, mobile banners are the
way to go

49
Channels Definition
Interstitial ads are full screen ads
that cover the interface of their host Size does matter:The direct call to
app. They're typically displayed at
INTERSTITIAL2 (it is a form of a banner
natural transition points in the flow of make interstitials a particularly
ad)
an app, such as between activities
or during the pause between levels
in a game.
With motion ads i.e. gyroscope
technology, users now can perform
movements such as a “shake” to
Motion Mobile Ads4 (it is a form of respond or a “tilt” to change the
banner ad) view. It’s not just convenient without
the need for fingers tapping; it also
engages users with high
interactivity.
Benefits Limitations
Disruptive: Interstitials a clutter
breaking incremental inventory
format
Reach:Inventory isn’t present with all
publishers
action and larger size combine to
Intrusive:If not crafted carefully, the
can hinder user experience
effective form of mobile
Data Usage:It consumes more data
advertisement.
thereby incuring cost on end user
Quick Tip:They are very effective for
branding, building traffic and
conducting transactions
Immersive format:Highly interactive
edge of the ad makes it unique
Novelty:The native features being
Trial & Error:The ad creative is tricky
invoked by the banner make it an
to make, many time the creative is
feel good experience
not able to do justice to the motion
Dial up communication USP:The
innovation possibilities can bring out
the brand proposition better
50
Channels Definition Benefits Limitations

Interactive & Dynamic

Rich media is a digital advertising
term for an ad that includes
advanced features like video,
RICH MEDIA5
audio, or other elements that
encourage viewers to interact and
engage with the content.
capability:High on interaction
catering to audio, video, animation.
Play me:The RM banner can be a Size heavy:Takes time to load, need
playable format with a gratification good internet connection to work
fulfilment seamlessly
Powerful branding:Even if the ad High risk on ad blockage
isn’t clicked on, viewers are still more
likely to see and remember the ad
than traditional display advertising

CAROUSAL ADS6 (it is a form of rich
media)
Interactive:Carousel ad format is
interactive, attention-grabbing and Navigation:The user interface for
Carousal ads lets advertisers
helpful for both direct response and carousal ads aren’t easy to
showcase multiple images and links
brand awareness marketing navigate for all users and it
in one ad. They support up-to 5
Catalogue Format:The format of the becomes tougher if mobile data is
images in one ad.
ad allows product to display more slow
than one feature at the same time

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Channels Definition Benefits Limitations
A stunning and captivating way for
publishers and content creators to
share immersive stories
Viewer has an option to skip the
Video as a creative type overcomes -Increased share-ability
video ads
one of the biggest objections to -Marketers can take a deep dive
-Non skippable video ads may
mobile ads: using sight, sound, and into analytics
make the user hop onto another
motion to tell a brand’s story – shared, views, complete views,
video
VIDEO5/6 overcomes the limitations of screen likes and other social interaction all
-Many ads are inserted in single
size. Moreover, it builds a dynamic, metrics that marketers love to know
video so there is a lot of
immersive, rich media ad that works about
competition. Therefore, marketers
across the fragmented mobile -With vertical video now rising, more
have to go that extra mile to create
interactive landscape. and more people will consumer
great content
videos on mobile as they usually use
mobile without tilting the screen
horizontally

Video as a creative type overcomes

one of the biggest objections to
mobile ads: using sight, sound, and
motion to tell a brand’s story
overcomes the limitations of screen
size. Moreover, although rich media
creative tools are steadily
INTERSTITAL VIDEOS
improving, porting a PC or a TV spot
to mobile (making sure the content
suits the unique aspects of mobile)
can be easier than building a
dynamic, immersive, rich media ad
that works across the fragmented
mobile interactive landscape.
More in less:The interstitial video
brings alive the static. It gives the
user more information in the same
Data usage:They take a long time
time and better size
to load and consumes data thereby
Engaging:As video is a better
incurring a cost on the user
engagement format ads that speak
have better engagement time
spent
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Channels Definition
The video ad can appear when a
user initiates video play either in the
beginning (pre-roll), at points in
between (mid-roll), or after (post-
roll). Video ads are offered as either
skippable or non-skippable. In
Pre/mid/post roll video
skippable video ad the viewer has
an option to skip an ad after 5, 10 or
15 seconds as defined by the brand
or the platform. In non-skippable
apps the viewer has no choice but
to watch the ad completely.
Mast heads are ads that present on
the homepage of video publishers
like Vuclip and YouTube. They are
MAST HEAD
the most seen ads on the platform
and are present on the spot for a
complete day.
Benefits Limitations
Receptive mindset-Since the user
has searched/streaming for a video,
Intrisive:If not planned carefully the
he is in receptive mindet & threfore
pre/mid/post rolls can become
the pre/mid/post rolls have a strong
annoying if the same message is
impact on the user
played for the user at a very high
Get there faster:The pre/mid/post
frequency capping
rolls are seen as a timer due to their
short duration format
Paint the town:The mastheads are
premium property as the skin of the
web/mobile destination sets the
tone/mood for the user experience Expensive:Due to the high impact
on it nature of mast heads, they are
Impact:Mastheads are high impact expensive within a digital plan
properties as they cover 75% of the
area on the page and leave a
lasting message
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Channels Definition
These ads are the ones that viewers
actively want to see. They appear
on Google search when a viewer is
searching for a topic. This is an
TRUE VIEW ADS
example of active advertising
where the user opts in to watch an
ad. These ads are run on YouTube
and GDN (Google Display Network).
As the video plays, watch the scene
come alive. Turn your mobile device
360 VIDEO ADS or drag your finger to move around
within the video and explore every
angle.
Benefits Limitations
Challenge creativity: The true view
ads are a challenge for the creative
team to deliver a message in a short
time but maintaining the stickyness
of the communication so user
Skippable: User is not bound to view
doesn’t skip
the whole ad and can skip it
Accurate impact measurement:
True view ads measure the real
impact of the communication as
users choose and continue to
watch the ads they like
3D Experience: Breaking the clutter
of 2D and static ads, 360 degree
ads give a 3D experience to the Expensive: It’s difficult to get the 360
user which is novel degree creative and user
Immersive: Ads are crafted with experience right.
delivering an immersive experience
to the user
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Channels Definition
Live Video is a platform where a
user can create a video of their
experience and share it on the spot.
If you are at a concert or doing an
LIVE VIDEO adventure sport you can share your
live experience with your friends,
fans, followers etc. Live Videos is
more of a content platform rather
than a direct advertising platform.
In-game advertising (IGA) refers to
advertising in mobile video games.
IGA differs from advergaming,
which refers to a game specifically
made to advertise a product. IGA
In Game advertising7
allows brands to have their name or
products featured in digital games.
Huge billboards placed in virtual
cities can feature the logos of major
corporations.
Benefits
No Royalty: Since its user generated
content and user is willing uploading
the vid as a participation criteria,
the content repository can be
reused by the brand with no
additional costs incurred on content
licensing
Trendy & Targeting: Ad campaigns
cater to a segment of users with
smartphones and willing to uplaod
their work of art. Thereby addressing
a targeted audience with a
contemporary offering
Not at all intrusive and places your
brand name in the user experience
in an organic fashion
-High on creativity as gives the
brand several ways to integrate
themselves in a game
-The gamer while playing the game
sees a brand placement in high on
purchase intent
Limitations
Data Only: Caters to only market
with mobile internet penetration
Junk master: A lot of junk comes in
as a part of the campaign if the
CTA is not clearly defined
Choosing the right game to
advertise your brand is a critical
issue. The game that is relevant for
your brand may not have many
users but these users will have high
intent on purchase. Look less for
mass reach, look for targeted reach
-In-game have engaged user that
will have high intent for your brand.
On the other hand, the users are so
engrossed in playing the game may
sometimes miss your brands
placement as well
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Channels Definition
When a brand occupies all of the
home page inventory on major
mobile sites and apps for a single
ROAD BLOCK8 day, so a user is confronted with the
same ad everywhere with the
ultimate objective, of obtaining
100% share of voice for the brand.
Native ads give you the control to
design the perfect ad units for any
channel (across social, video,
audio, search, text and is not limited
to a platform). With our Native Ad
NATIVE ADVERTISING6
API, you can determine the look
and feel, size and location of your
ads. Because you decide how the
ads are formatted, ads can fit
seamlessly in your application.
Benefits Limitations
It’s the one stop shop for branding
exercise for major campaigns like a
new product launch
Very expensive and marketers end
-A brand reaches all kind of
up putting money on properties i.e.
audiences and creates a buzz
apps and websites that are totally
around its campaign very quickly
contradictory to your brand
and effectively
message and TG
-Many ad formats available with
rich media, interstitial, homepage
take over etc.
Native advertising benefits
Native is a new advertising format
publishers, advertisers and the
and therefore marketers don’t know
audience
how to read its performance and
-Allows for advertisements to be
where to benchmark it
unobtrusive
-Higher spends on creating good
-Higher audience engagement
content
leading to better CTRs
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Channels Definition
Native advertising has another side
to it that is content creation. You
can create original content like
NATIVE CONTENT CREATION video, audio or text sponsored by
your brand that is read, heard or
viewed by audiences on different
channels.
Emoticons are visual representation
of your feelings and emotions.
Brands either use existing emoticons
EMOTICONS
for their campaigns or create
branded emoticons for themselves
to break the clutter.
Benefits Limitations
Control communication
protocol:When content is curated
basis brand guidelines there a
quality control that the brand has in Expensive: Its expensive to create
place native content which addresses not
Exploratory:The branded content just the branding objective but also
finds its place subtly within a useful the fits the platform tonality
article that user is browsing,
therefore the user stumbles upon the
discovery of the advertising
Monkey see monkey do:They go
viral easily
Get it right:If used very casually or in
My own lingo:They set you apart
a wrong connotation can create a
from other brands
bad reputation for the brand, the
Strong non-verbal que:Easily used
entire message can be taken out of
by consumers
its original context
What's hot:Trendy and popular with
the youth audience
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Channels Definition
Mobile browsers don’t exactly have
ad formats, they are prevalent for
content partnerships which helps
you promote your brands in-terms of
increase in number of users
MOBILE BROWSER accessing your content. If you are a
news aggregator you can partner
with a browser to push your content,
this is viable for any category that is
content lead be it shopping, video
streaming, music etc.
Music is amongst the top consumed
media by people which has led to a
AUDIO tremendous growth in music
streaming apps and hence the
growth of audio advertising
Benefits Limitations
Instant reach:It is used by everyone
with a smartphone, so usage is high
Ad blocker:Browser ad blocks are
Choose what you say:You can
prevalent
become an exclusive partner with a
No new:Limited options on ad
browser to create a particular
formats
content and all users will consume
your content for the said category
Tune me in:Highly engaged
audiences
Non-Intrusive: Placed after the Missing the mark:People are using
listener has consumed a good the apps while working on driving
amount of uninterrupted music the car then they aren’t able to see
makes these ad spots nonintrusive the companion banner.
2 in 1:The companion banner solves
the problem of no CTA in audio ads
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Channels Definition Benefits Limitations

Audio ads which are basically in-

ONLY AUDIO ADS stream ads for music listeners on
music streaming apps

With the audio ad you get banners

placed when the audio spot is
AUDIO + COMPANION BANNERS
running which gives your brand
more visibility

Captive audience:You can reach

your apps/browsers entire user
Push notification is the message you universe at once Turn off:The user can switch off the
get from an app or browser in your Now you see me:It is displayed even notifications
PUSH NOTIFICATIONS mobile devices notification center. It on lock screens (if user has that Don’t overdo:If you push many
can be an update, an ad or a setting on) when your app or notifications in a day the user can
piece of information. browser isn’t been used by the user also uninstall the app
Post it:It is non-intrusive and doesn’t
hamper user experience

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Channels Definition Benefits Limitations

Just google it:More than half the

A type of AdWords ad that can
Indian population uses mobile
appear on webpages and apps
devices to make their primary
that are viewed on a mobile device
research, making mobile search Info overload:Too much
like a cell phone or tablet. For
highly apt and effective for any competition with both paid and
AdWords, "mobile" is defined as
MOBILE SEARCH5 brand organic results. It takes time to start
where the ad can appear: on
Be where you want to performing, it’s more of a long term
"mobile" devices. These include
be:Heightened keyword targeting investment.
high-end mobile devices with
available. You are charged on a
smaller screens, such as
click therefore you know action was
smartphones.
took by a consumer

Brand love:Caters to loyal users who

want to be a part of the brand
A loyalty program is a rewards
platform
program offered by a company to
Stickyness:Increases repeat usage Notional value:Many coupons are
customers who frequently make
with engaging content and useful available only if you make a bigger
purchases in this case purchased on
LOYALTY PROGRAM info purchase, the consumer may feel
the mobile app. A loyalty program
Gold class:Increase customer loyalty cheated and hence uninstall your
may give a customer advanced
and future sales, helps in up-selling app
access to new products, special
VIP feel good:No problems of
sales coupons or free merchandise.
carrying cards and coupons they
are present in your app virtually

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Channels Definition Benefits Limitations

Sharp targeting:Targets the

In Location targeting section, you
customer when near the store helps
can select the name of one or more Limited reach: Area to which you
increase customer’s intention of a
countries, states, provinces, cities, can target your consumers is
buy
congressional districts, zip codes (US restricted
Share of competition:Marketers can
LOCATION BASED6 only) or post codes (internationally) Data usage:Needs strong mobile
target their competition’s locations
to show your ads to people in those data to use maps
and try and get their customers as
locations. You can also choose a Limited market landscape:Not vastly
well
radius within which the ads should available everywhere
Here i am:Improves your businesses
be displayed.
search results as well

Downlaods:Driving traffic and

Seamless:User experience
Defined engagement:Can serve
utility or innovative/experiential
engagement
Software solutions that power the
Stickyness:Long sustaining customer
MOBILE APPLICATION2 business logic for mobile marketing
relationship
initiative(s).
High Top of mind recall:users
download app for a specific
purpose therefore their top of mind
recall for the app us high
downloads requires additional
marketing budgets making it an
expensive asset to promote for
marketers
Variety engagement:Further
budgets required to keep the users
engaged
Shelf life:User uninstalls If the app if it
doesn’t serve their interest anymore,
therefore need to always have new
content on the app

61
Channels Definition
Showing ads in mobile apps. You
can reach a growing audience of
IN-APP ADVERTISING5
people using mobile phones and
tablets by showing your ads in apps.
Many mobile apps are pre-
embedded in smartphone software
and is available to all users who buy
that particular device. For e.g. –
Google applications are present in
PRE-EMBEDS
all android devices. Similarly many
external application also have deals
with OEMs (Original Equipment
Manufacturers) and are pre-burnt or
pre-loaded in their devices.
Benefits
Highly Targeted and Innovative
-Captivated audiences
-Better performance metrics can be
recorded
Mobile apps that are already
present in the device have higher
chances to be used by the device
owner as the app can’t be
removed from the device
-The mobile app gets better visibility
and usage if it’s pre-embedded in a
device
Limitations
Too much advertising within the app
can push consumers to uninstall the
app
The user can’t uninstall the app from
the devices if s/he doesn’t wish to
use it
-The app stays in the device
occupying the space which could
have been used for storing
something else. This will cause the
app to have lesser active users.
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Channels Definition Benefits Limitations
Internet of Things

A one-dimensional bar code conveys

information by the width of its bars and
spaces, or the difference in their
horizontal dimension. In contrast, a two-
dimensional matrix bar code like the QR
code communicates information by
QR CODE10
the arrangement of dark and light
elements in columns and rows. The
position-detection patterns, located in
three corners of each QR code, allow
the code to be read quickly and from
any angle.
Accurate monitoring and measurement
-Dynamic user journey
Dependent on Print media for fulfilment
-Economical, anyone can create a QR
of CTA
code online for free and use it as per
-Requires user to have a QR code
need
scanner app
-Integrated medium, works best with
OOH and Print

New & Innovative channel of

An enhanced version of reality
created by the use of technology to
overlay digital information on an
AUGMENTED REALITY11
image of something being viewed
through a device (as a smartphone
camera).
mobile advertising
-Immersive and Experiential with a
Dynamic user journey
-Shock and Awe - creating curiosity
about new engagement medium
and then deploying a seamless
experience
Costly requires professional and
technical teams
-Medium Understanding is very less
by both consumers and marketers
-Requires on ground assistance
-Single time user experience

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 Channels Definition
An artificial world that consists of
images and sounds created by a
VIRTUAL REALITY11 computer and that is affected by
the actions of a person who is
experiencing it
NFC Is short range wireless
technology to exchange data
NFC12
among various devices with various
usages.
1TRAI | 2MMA | 3Airtel | 4Mobile Lead Blogs | 5Google | 6Facebook | 7Wikipedia | 8Clickz Blog |
9Invertiopedia Blog | 10Merriam Webster | 11Sony
Benefits Limitations
Virtual reality creates a realistic
world which is an exciting place to
be for consumers The equipment used in virtual reality
-It enables consumers to explore is very expensive
things like never before where they -The technology is not understood
can experiment with an artificial by consumers as well as marketers
environment -There is no metrics to measure its
-It’s a disrupting idea where success
consumers will remember your
brand for a long time
Can be used for store theft
detection, utility and security based
for access cards etc.
-NFC technology essentially
converts smartphones into loyalty Phones with NFC readers are
cards, single-tap location ‘check in’ expensive
devices, concert tickets, coupon -Cost of installation and campaign
carriers, contactless payment design is very high
devices, transit tickets, and secure
keys to access cars, hotel rooms,
buildings, and computers—the
possibilities are endless
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Acknowledgement

MMA Vietnam would like to acknowledge the efforts put in by the following in producing this report:

GroupM - Ed Thesiger | Huong Luu |Huyen Doan

Kantar Media - Tran Thi Tan Mai
Facebook – William Nguyen
Google – Nitin Gajria | Anish Jain
Gameloft – Hoang Dat
Adtima - Zalo Group – Nguyen Anh Tuan

About MMA:
The MMA is the world’s leading global non-profit trade association comprised of more than 800 member companies, from
nearly fifty countries around the world. MMA Member companies hail from every faction of the mobile media ecosystem.
Our consortium includes brand marketers, agencies, enabling technologies, media companies and others. The MMA’s
mission is to accelerate the transformation and innovation of marketing through mobile, driving business growth with closer
and stronger consumer engagement.

65
Disclaimer:

The information contained in this Mobile Ecosystem and Sizing Report Vietnam 2017/18 (“Report”) provides the readers with a comprehensive
overview of the mobile marketing ecosystem in Vietnam and the various factors that influence it. The information contained herein is purely for
information purposes only and we assert that no business or investment decisions be made solely based on the information presented in the
Report. If any such decisions are made based on the contents of the Report, then we shall not be responsible for the same.

The information provided herein is on "as is" basis and is based on data sourced from, or provided by, third parties or publicly available sources,
for which prior express consents have been obtained. While reasonable endeavours have been made to present accurate data in the Report,
no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made or claimed as to its accuracy, completeness, correctness or merchantability and
fitness for a particular purpose.

The contents of this Report are confidential in nature and without prejudice. No part of the Report may be divulged to any third party,
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, mechanical, recording or otherwise without our prior express
written consent. Appropriate express written consent be sought from various publishers/individuals who have been quoted in the Report prior to
borrowing/using/quoting their content.

The views expressed in the Report are based on the information available to us as of the date of the Report and are subject to change from
time to time without notice. We do not accept the responsibility to update this Report nor do we accept any liability arising from the use of this
Report in any manner whatsoever.

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