Background

Tet, Vietnamese Lunar New Year, is the prime time for beer consumption and ads spending across categories, especially FMCG. While Heineken was the most mentioned and purchased brand during Tet, there is no premium beer that successfully owns it. Budweiser is known only as a nightlife brand, it is weak on Tet. Going against big spenders, the challenge was to beat Heineken in the share of voice for Tet and build relevancy to the occasion. The campaign 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. Ultimately become “the beer you choose when it’s time for celebration”.

Describe the strategy

Our target is the EXPERIENCE MAXIMIZER (18-35), young, confident, go-getting urbanites, who want to embrace their true-self and make the best out of every moment. But they face a cultural tension every Tet: “Young people become scared of Tet since they are usually asked the uncomfortable questions from family or relatives.” “When to get married?” “How’s your salary?” “Have you become a boss?” which set them off from enjoying this joyful occasion and disconnect from their family. But instead of talking down to our target, we SHIFTED THEIR PERSPECTIVE about this subject. Our approach was to 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 because as a CATALYST for positive conversations, what can be better than having a talk over beer?

Describe the execution

We created BUDWEISER TET TALKS – a STAND-UP COMEDY series to help our target face uncomfy Tet questions. We used stand-up comics for their ability to use wit and humor and show a different, more positive perspective. We produced 3 shows featuring Vietnam’s hottest stand-ups, tackling three themes: Questions about love, appearance, and being different. They spin the questions with clever, positive answers that had the audience thinking - with the right attitude, they can enjoy Tet again. We released 3 videos consecutively, giving our audience space to discuss and engage with each. For scalability, we maximized these assets, using shorter versions for content, GIFs, memes the target can share. We engaged several KOLs to talk about the week’s topic and encourage the creation of UGC to drive engagement during the whole season of Tet. We tapped PR sites and social communities to further stir up conversations.

List the results

Massive awareness generated during the campaign period with combined impressions: 589,962,282 in just a few weeks with 3 videos of 12 minutes each. 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. Finally, using long form webisodes in a market with short attention span proved to be a big risk. But this risk paid off with all our content earning a positive sentiment score of 85% with the remaining 15% being neutral