Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

In Tet 2020, Vietnamese Lunar New Year, Budweiser entered Tet communication for the first time and competed against the iconic Heineken, the “Premium beer for Tet”. With a budget of estimated ¼ that of Heineken and a relative newbie in the Tet arena, Budweiser successfully challenged the market norm and reinvented the way an emotional campaign is done in the festive season. Their bravery has taken them from “not a Tet brand” to become “Tet talk of town”, with the most positive sentiment in the segment and was recognized as one of the most outstanding campaigns in Tet.

Background

In Vietnam, Budweiser is a big name in beer category, but only as an “international beer for nightlife”. Tet, Vietnamese Lunar New Year, is the biggest and most important consumption occasion, which is where Budweiser is weak at. To make it harder, Tet is also an occasion of traditional values, making the contemporary, high energy, ambitious brand image of Budweiser irrelevant. The brief was then to penetrate into Tet by building relevancy between the brand and the occasion, ultimately to become “the beer you choose when it’s time for celebration”. Therefore, the objectives were to (1) Drive massive brand awareness (2) Stand out and become the most talked-about brand in the premium segment (3) build meaningful connection to target audience in Tet.

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

The biggest challenge for Budweiser was its relevancy to the Tet occasion. Known as a lifestyle, contemporary brand, how can it own a very traditional, emotional occasion? Also, going against big spenders and major Tet players like Heineken, how can it cleverly gain share of voice? Tet is the noisiest time of the year, specially in the traditional media. As the brand cannot go head-to-head, we focused on where the digital-savvy, Experience Maximizer (18-35 years old) actively seek out content. But more than this, we established relevancy and found a way in through an engaging, relevant insight. Hence, our ultimate desired outcome was how to make people proactively seek out our very insightful content and willing to talk about it to maximize awareness.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

The campaign needed real tension to drive talkability. Through “Generations – 1 size fits all?” research, we learned Vietnamese youngsters are stuck between the traditional family expectations VS what they really want. “Embracing your true self” proved to be the territory that’s both relevant and fits the brand. Going deeper into their Tet tension, we learned “the uncomfortable questions often asked by the family stopped the Experience Maximizer from enjoying Tet as it should be. This was the breakthrough thought. How can we solve this real tension and reinforce Tet value of openness and togetherness? Instead of telling them what to do, we SHIFTED THEIR PERSPECTIVE and let them see these questions in a whole new light. Once their mind is open, then conversation becomes possible. And this is where Budweiser becomes truly relevant as a CATALYST for positive conversations.

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

We landed at the idea BUDWEISER TET TALKS – a series of stand-up comedy shows the target can watch to help them navigate the uncomfortable questions during Tet. We used wit and humor that is inherent in stand-up comedy to SHIFT the target’s perspectives and let them see the uncomfortable questions in a whole new light. In the sea of sappy, emotional Tet stories, Budweiser Tet Talks stood out as unique, relevant and engaging to watch. We intended the idea to really solve their tension so we produced 3 shows tackling the most common questions asked during Tet: Questions about love, appearance, and being different. Our stand-up artists spin the questions with clever, positive answers that had the audience thinking - with the right attitude, they can enjoy Tet again.

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

As the first and only brand to use Stand-up Comedy, Budweiser successfully reinvented how an emotional Tet campaign can be done. The combined impressions (3 12-minute videos) reached 589,962,282 in just a few weeks. Accumulated completed views reached 20,197,532 achieving 238% of our KPIs. 125% more than what the client set. We also stood out in the premium beer category, with 29,098 buzz volume during January 2020. Higher than our competitor, Heineken, with lower budget. Using long form webisodes in a market with short attention span was a risk that paid off, with all our content earning a positive sentiment score of 85% with the remaining 15% being neutral Most importantly, the campaign enabled our target to start conversations and include Budweiser in their Tet Family gathering with positivity, not uncomfortability.