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Key Account Manager B2B

CÁC PHÚC LỢI DÀNH CHO BẠN

MÔ TẢ CÔNG VIỆC

YÊU CẦU ỨNG VIÊN

QUYỀN LỢI

ĐỊA ĐIỂM LÀM VIỆC

THÔNG TIN LIÊN HỆ

Digital Visualizer

MÔ TẢ CÔNG VIỆC

YÊU CẦU ỨNG VIÊN

QUYỀN LỢI

ĐỊA ĐIỂM LÀM VIỆC

THÔNG TIN LIÊN HỆ

“Million miles of wonder experiences” campaign – Vietnam Airlines: Conquer customers on every mile

Background

At the end of 2022, post-COVID, although Vietnam’s domestic tourism market has prospered and is one of the first Southeast Asian countries to reopen, the recovery rate is still the lowest in the region, especially in terms of international visitors.

As a market leader, together with Lotusmiles – the most unique loyalty program in Vietnam, Vietnam Airlines has focused on attracting new customers, especially from international customers, upgrading the brand experience, optimizing on the mobile platform and strengthening the connection with new technology.

By leveraging the strengths of technology and expanding online interaction, Vietnam National Airlines has successfully attracted both domestic and international customers, contributing to stimulating Vietnam’s tourism demand to develop strongly again.

Objective

Vietnam Airlines is focusing on important goals to promote sustainable growth and development.

  • Communication Objective: The company aims to constantly improve the brand experience through the application of advanced technology, especially on online platforms App Mobile, website, Gmail, Zalo, Viber… to provide convenience and a seamless personal experience.
  • Marketing Objective: Build deep connections with current and potential customers through content personalization, omnichannel engagement, and specialty care programs, thereby enhancing Vietnam Airlines’ brand recognition and engagement.
  • Business Objective: Boost sales from new customer sources, especially international customers with high spending power, which plays an important role in business recovery and expansion.

In this way, Vietnam Airlines aims to build a strong and long-term relationship, increase the rate of returning customers and stick with the brand, affirming the pioneering position of Vietnam’s national airline.

Idea

Salesforce AI Analytics

The campaign is powered by Salesforce’s artificial intelligence (AI). Salesforce AI Analytics provides insights into CRM processes and real-time operational data, helping Vietnam Airlines have a more comprehensive view of customer behavior assessment. After consolidating the data, the platform enables prediction of customer behavior across sales, marketing, and service channels, including analyzing customers’ past habits on websites and mobile apps, as well as their spending trends to expand cross-selling opportunities for products and services. This approach helps optimize marketing activities according to individual preferences and expected behavior of each customer.

In addition, thanks to geotargeting technology, Vietnam Airlines can identify the country where potential customers are located. Combined with user data (identified and unknown), this technology supports the creation of relevant content and offers that are maximally personalized to the currently recorded behavior. All based on more than 10 important factors in the customer’s trip such as weather, cuisine, culture and language… creating a unique experience for each separate journey.

Campaigns Powered by Salesforce’s Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Salesforce AI Analytics – provides information about customer relationship management (CRM) processes and real-time operational data to help Vietnam Airlines have a more comprehensive view of customer behavior evaluation

Strategic Solutions

1. Personalization Content  

Based on CRM data, Vietnam Airlines has developed a sophisticated and effective customer outreach strategy by creating more than 200 different customer segments.

Each of these segments is not only defined based on distinct consumer characteristics and behaviors, but is also served by the most appropriate content and communication channels. This allows Vietnam Airlines to meet the diverse needs of each customer group, and at the same time attract and retain potential customers effectively.

Vietnam Airlines understands that every customer has their own desires and preferences, so personalizing the communication message is extremely important. Thanks to the detailed data analysis from the CRM, Vietnam Airlines can identify the factors that affect the purchase decision of each segment, thereby developing attractive and value-added content. The communication channels that Vietnam Airlines chooses are also optimized to match the behavior and habits of our customers, ensuring that our messages reach the right people at the right time. Thereby, Vietnam Airlines not only improves the efficiency of approaching customers but also contributes to building a sustainable and reliable relationship with them.

Vietnam Airlines has classified customer groups to tailor programs and messages to each target group

Vietnam Airlines has effectively applied a customer segmentation strategy to optimize communication activities and create a personalized experience for each audience group.

For potential customers: The airline focuses on highlighting its image as a national airline with four-star standards, outstanding flights and excellent customer service, in order to attract attention and stimulate customers to learn more about Vietnam Airlines’ products.

For potential customers, the campaign emphasizes Vietnam Airlines as the national airline with four-star standards, premium flights and excellent customer experience

For current customers: The strategy is divided into two main groups

  • Non-members: Vietnam Airlines implements attractive incentive programs to motivate them to participate in the loyalty program.

For existing customers, Vietnam Airlines’ goal is to encourage them to register to become a member to upgrade their membership tier, buy more tickets or become loyal customers for future flights

  • Members: The airline constantly enhances the value of the experience by personalizing messages and offers, encouraging them to upgrade their membership tier, buy more tickets, or increase their use of the service.

Customers upgrade their membership tier, purchase additional tickets, or become loyal customers for future flights. This approach not only helps to strengthen relationships with customers but also creates sustainable revenue growth opportunities for Vietnam Airlines.

Customer experience at Lotus Lounge

Vietnam Airlines expects customers to upgrade their membership tier, buy more tickets or become loyal customers for the following flights

2. Event Marketing  

Vietnam Airlines also actively sponsors many local cultural events, with the goal of not only promoting domestic tourism but also attracting international tourists. These programs are promoted to each customer segment, accompanied by attractive incentives for flights on corresponding routes, creating opportunities for customers to fully experience the beauty of the country’s culture.

In July 2023 in Hanoi, Lotusmiles members are invited to experience the art of Ikebana flower arrangement and Japanese cuisine.

Lotusmiles members are invited to experience the art of Ikebana flower arrangement

Hozo International Music Festival 2023 has attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators and has become an annual music event of Ho Chi Minh City. Appearing at the Food Festival area within the framework of Hozo Super Fest 2023, Vietnam Airlines’ Lotus Deli bubble milk oolong attracted the attention of a large number of genZ. Young people queue up to enjoy delicious bubble tea of Vietnam Airlines.

Hozo International Music Festival – HOZO Music Festival 2023 has attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators and has become an annual music event of Ho Chi Minh City

In Nha Trang, Vietnam Airlines accompanies the VnExpress Marathon to become one of the largest sports events annually.

Vietnam Airlines accompanies many annual races such as the VnExpress Marathon

3. CSR Marketing: “1 Million Miles of Love”

Novaon Digital accompanies Vietnam Airlines to conquer MMA Smarties 2024 Vietnam Airlines launches a charity program called “1,000,000 Miles of Love”

Vietnam Airlines launched a charity program called “1,000,000 Miles of Love”, a meaningful initiative to connect the community and spread love. The program allows members to donate their miles to support practical volunteer activities, thereby helping disadvantaged people in society. With every mile donated, we not only create opportunities for those in need, but also inspire a spirit of sharing and connection among community members, including:

  • 9 surgical projects for 1,100 children with cleft nose and palate
  • Screening and surgery for 3,000 children with deformities existing in remote areas
  • 4 projects of Head – Face – Neck – Eye deformity surgery for 180 cases

This is a way for Vietnam Airlines to join hands to build a better society, bringing joy and hope to those who are in need of support.

4. Data Activation & Real-time Marketing

Vietnam Airlines has implemented Data Activation and Real-time Marketing to optimize customer experience on Vietnam Airlines App, Gmail, iMessage, Zalo, Website, Viber… Our customer segments are offered unique offers tailored to each route they choose. The itinerary is personalized according to specific stages: From ticket purchase, pre-flight, in-flight, post-landing procedures.

After the data is synchronized and activated, Vietnam Airlines has set up an automated communication process for each segment. Communication content is tested through A/B Testing to determine the most optimal solution, thereby ensuring that the message conveyed is always accurate, timely and suitable for customer needs, improving interaction efficiency and building a strong relationship with them.

Vietnam Airlines has implemented Data Activation and Real-time Marketing to optimize customer experience on Vietnam Airlines App, Gmail, iMessage, Zalo, Website, Viber.

RESULT

The campaign has garnered impressive numbers:

  • The campaign attracted 43 million new customer records from 17 countries.
  • The number of international visitors increased by 283.5%.
  • International sales increased by 154%.
  • The number of new Lotusmiles members increased by 1 million.
  • 20% growth in the number of Lotusmiles members.
  • Online sales increased by 145%.
  • The percentage of active Lotusmiles members increased by 63%.

At the SMARTIES Awards Vietnam 2024 ceremony, Vietnam Airlines’ “Million miles of wonder experiences” campaign also achieved a successful double:

  • Silver (no Gold) in the Personalization category
  • Bronze Prize in the Real Time Marketing category

Novaon Digital accompanies Vietnam Airlines to conquer MMA Smarties 2024

Through a meticulously designed campaign, making full use of customer data, Vietnam Airlines has reached the right audience with the right method, timing and message, thereby significantly improving the indicators of customer experience performance with the brand. The campaign not only succeeded in attracting international visitors, but also laid the groundwork for long-term goals, turning investments in marketing technology and data architecture into tangible revenue outcomes.

Novaon Digital is proud to be an agency accompanying Vietnam Airlines in its journey to conquer the MMA Smarties 2024 award this time.

At the end of the MMA SMARTIES season in Vietnam, Novaon Digital and Vietnam Airlines believe that in the future, more strategic initiatives and innovations in marketing will be implemented, in order to optimally meet the needs of customers and contribute to the sustainable development of the brand as well as the whole industry.

The campaign continues to be nominated by the MMA SMARTIES APAC (Asia Pacific region) shortlist. This achievement is a clear testament to the strength and effectiveness of the “Million miles of wonder experiences” campaign with innovative and groundbreaking marketing initiatives. Stay tuned for the latest information about this contest in the near future!

“Zoom out” of Vietnam’s Consumer Electronics industry: Market news and consumer trend forecast for the 2024-2025 period.

1. Overview of the consumer electronics industry

a. Access to Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics include electronic devices that serve the daily needs of consumers. The Consumer Electronics industry includes 2 main industries: Electronics (phones, computers, electronic devices…) and Household appliances (kitchen equipment, cooling, cleaning, etc.). For each category, the products have different characteristics, specifically:


Products in the electronics industry are characterized by short life cycles, continuous innovation, and trend-following. Consumers are mainly from 18-35 years old, with a preference for updating technology trends and dynamic behavior on social networks. Electronic products are widely consumed on special occasions such as the Tet season, the tourist season, the new product launch season, the back-to-school season, and the festival season.


On the contrary, the product life cycle is long, there is little fluctuation in features and designs, and customers are more interested in quality, durability, energy saving, etc. are the characteristics of the household electrical industry. These products can be consumed at any time of the year, seasonality is evident in products such as air conditioners, fans, refrigerators (consumed mainly in summer) and heaters, heating fans, clothes dryers (consumed in winter).


The role of consumer electronics is diverse, not only improving the quality of life but also promoting technological development, creating jobs and stimulating the economy. These products help connect people, support work and entertainment, personal communication, and enhance utility and efficiency in daily life.

To better understand the industry, as well as see the performance of each specific product group, let’s take a look at the ranking below:

Refrigeration equipment is the most talked about item in 2023, accounting for 36% of the total discussion in the Electronics, Refrigeration, and Telecommunications industry. The top popular brands on social networks are Dien May XANH, FPT Shop, Mobile World, Viettel Store and Hoang Ha Mobile. The Electronics and Refrigeration retail industry is an “ideal playground” for big brands. In particular, Mobile World and Dien May XANH of Mobile World Joint Stock Company are still the 2 most chosen brands to buy in 2023, according to a report by YouGov BrandIndex.

b. Category statistics on the e-Commerce channel

Grasping the development trend of e-commerce channels, consumer e-commerce businesses expand their business through official online sales channels or booths on e-commerce platforms Shopee, Tiktok, Tiki, Lazada, etc.

The Consumer Electronics industry has great growth. Shopee is still the Top 1 e-commerce platform, this is the largest consumer electronics brand to focus on. The largest allocation of Consumer Electronics revenue on e-commerce platforms is Shopee with 76.8%, followed by Lazada with 21.9%, the rest is allocated to Sendo and Tiki (excluding TikTok Shop).

In 2023, Household Appliances is the industry with the highest revenue in the Consumer Electronics industry (~15 trillion VND), up ~6 trillion VND over the same period in 2022. In 2nd place is Phones & Tablets, with revenue of about ~12 trillion VND, an increase of more than 4 trillion VND over the same period in 2022. These are the 2 industries that account for the largest market share of the entire Consumer Electronics industry on the e-Commerce floor.

Although the market was launched quite late, however, by the end of 2023, TikTok had surpassed Lazada and ranked 2nd with a market share of 11.1% of the market. Tiktok is gradually singing to develop the consumer electronics market and help the revenue of small goods industries surpass significantly. Details of the growth of Tiktok Shop by month are as follows:

The statistics below are compiled from 4/2023 to 4/2024, measured on 4 platforms Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, and Sendo, showing consumer consumption and demand for each specific category.

Realizing that sales of categories grew quite well on e-commerce platforms. This proves that customers are gradually changing their shopping habits. Shopping on online platforms is somewhat more lively than that, in contrast to the gloomy atmosphere at physical stores. However, compared to the total revenue of the whole industry, the revenue growth on the e-commerce platform is insignificant.

After a period of hot growth due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic – causing the demand for electronic devices to support learning and remote work to increase, the purchasing power of consumers is weakening, business plans based on false growth expectations and the macroeconomic situation is not very positive, which has caused businesses to face a series of challenges.

2. Challenges for the Consumer Electronics Industry in 2023 and Opportunities for Recovery in 2024

a. Factors Affecting Consumer Electronics Businesses in 2023

Changing Consumer Behavior

Macroeconomic difficulties, along with rising electricity prices and living costs, have impacted consumer purchasing power. According to PwC’s report on consumer habits in Vietnam in 2023, up to 62% of consumers chose to cut back on non-essential spending, with 38% of them reducing their use of electronic products.

Instead of shopping based on personal preferences, many consumers have shifted to purchasing based on actual needs, prioritizing essential products with long-term value. Besides the key factors of brand, price, and quality, other aspects highly valued by customers include advanced technology, energy consumption, environmental impact, warranty policies, and promotional packages. In the battle for market share, understanding customer needs is the weapon that will help businesses succeed.

The Influx of Foreign Businesses

According to statistics from Metric over the 12 months (from April 11, 2023, to April 9, 2024), the top 10 brands with the highest revenue on Vietnam’s e-commerce platforms mostly come from countries like the U.S., South Korea, and China.

The absence of domestic brands requires Vietnamese businesses to develop smart and effective business strategies to enhance their competitiveness.

The Development of E-commerce

E-commerce offers a sales channel with lower costs, but it also brings pressure to lower prices due to price transparency and the ease of comparison between suppliers. According to a report from Metric.vn, the total revenue of the entire e-commerce market in Q3/2023 reached VND 63 trillion, achieving a growth rate of 54.42% compared to the same period last year.

Compared to electronics supermarkets and retail stores, the prices offered by sellers on e-commerce platforms are always more attractive due to subsidy policies from the operators. However, many consumers still hesitate to purchase high-value items such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, televisions, refrigerators, and air conditioners on e-commerce platforms due to concerns about quality assurance or receiving products that do not match the price paid.

These factors have had significant impacts on the Vietnamese electronics market.

The wave of spending cuts since the second half of 2022 has created excessive inventory pressure on consumer electronics retailers, leading them to continuously offer promotions and deep discounts to attract customers. To avoid losing clients, other retailers must do the same and even provide even larger incentives.

This strategy has led to the most intense price war in history. Sustained price reductions have significantly decreased the profits of retailers. Furthermore, the consumer electronics industry has witnessed a dramatic “price drop” for key items such as smartphones (down from 2 to 14 million VND each), laptops (down from 5 to 10 million VND each), and consumer electronics and home appliances (down from 50 to 70% per product).

The consequence of this price race is that retailers are struggling to sustain operations in a fiercely competitive environment and under heavy economic pressure.

According to statistics, in the first quarter of 2023, the revenue of the largest retailer dropped by 25.7% compared to the same period, and after-tax profit was only 21.28 billion VND, a decrease of 98.5% compared to the same period in 2022, marking a record low since going public.

The demand for non-essential items has sharply declined in the context of a challenging economy, coupled with the trend of shifting consumer spending toward online shopping, causing many retail stores to close en masse. Thế Giới Di Động closed nearly 150 stores within two months, with the number reaching 200 stores by the end of 2023, while FPT Shop closed 36 stores and reported a record loss of 329 billion VND.

Given the bleak outlook for the consumer electronics market in 2023, the most pressing question is whether 2024 will present opportunities for recovery or pose even greater challenges for the industry.

Retail representatives believe that in 2024, the macroeconomic environment will still be a barrier for the consumer electronics sector, and the market will continue to face difficult and challenging times. However, experts maintain that there are still grounds for optimism regarding the industry’s recovery potential.

b. Opportunities for Development for Vietnamese Consumer Electronics Companies in 202

After experiencing a significant revenue drop of 20-25% in retail sales of phones and electronics in 2023, experts anticipate a recovery in product sales of about 5% compared to the same period in 2024. This assessment is based on the considerable potential for growth in the home appliance sector in Vietnam, which remains largely untapped.

According to Euromonitor, the average age in Vietnam is 31 years—an age group that typically engages in shopping—while average income is improving (3,000 USD per person per year). Although most Vietnamese households already own essential household items, the demand for purchasing new or upgrading basic home appliances is still on the rise.

Additionally, the population in Vietnam is steadily and consistently increasing each year. This creates a significant opportunity for businesses in the consumer electronics sector, as the demand for purchasing and upgrading electronic devices—from smartphones and tablets to home appliances like washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners—is continuously growing.

To effectively capitalize on the market’s potential, companies need to make concerted efforts to seize opportunities and implement appropriate marketing strategies that align with market fluctuations and industry trends. This approach will help restore business activities and achieve revenue growth in the upcoming period.

3. General Trends Forecast for the Consumer Electronics Industry 2024-2025

a. Consumer Market Forecast: Online Shopping Channels Will Continue to Develop

After more than a decade of robust activity in Vietnam, e-commerce platforms have redefined shopping habits for consumers. Previously, consumer electronics were not prioritized on online shopping channels. Now, with support to embrace technological trends and facilitate the launch and growth of online businesses through e-commerce platforms, along with commitments to warranty and after-sales service, consumer electronics products are increasingly appearing on e-commerce platforms and receiving greater favor from consumers. 

According to the Vietnam E-commerce White Paper 2023, technology and electronics account for 39% of the total online shopping choices of consumers. With support from e-commerce platforms and the trend of online shopping, consumer electronics businesses can fully leverage this opportunity to reap the benefits of this business model.

b. Spending Trend Forecast: Increased Demand for Upgrading and Replacing Household Electronic Devices

Statista notes that as the economy recovers, consumer spending will increase, and the demand for upgrading and spending on consumer electronics will gradually rise as well. In terms of per capita revenue, each person in Vietnam is expected to generate revenue of $79.71 in 2024—a significant increase compared to 2023.

Additionally, the high proportion of young people in the population leads to many changes in the demand for the quality, design, and functionality of electronic and household products.

The recovery of the economy, increasing consumer spending, and a young population will provide strong momentum for the recovery of the consumer electronics market in Vietnam in the upcoming period.

c. Development Forecasts: Smartphones and Personal Computers Will Lead in Consumption

The consumer electronics market in Vietnam is witnessing a surge in demand for smartphones and smart TVs. In the first six months of 2023, Vietnamese consumers spent $2 billion (49.2 trillion VND) on smartphones, making it one of the highest spending categories in the Asia-Pacific region.

2024 will also be a time for upgrading devices such as smartphones and laptops following the peak purchasing period in 2021. This aligns perfectly with the forecasted trend that Vietnamese consumers will focus on advanced technology and be willing to upgrade personal devices to meet new demands and trends.

The projected trends in the consumer electronics industry are not only indicators of technological and product development but also play a crucial role in understanding changing consumer behavior and how businesses approach customers.

In the face of challenges due to market fluctuations and changing consumer trends, companies need to find new directions to optimize their marketing strategies to overcome market difficulties and achieve sustainable growth.

To support businesses in building effective Brandformance strategies for the period of 2024 – 2025, Novaon Digital has launched the Consumer Electronics & Home Appliances Brandformance Guides 2024. This resource will provide a comprehensive overview of the market, customer insights, creative marketing strategies, solutions to effectively balance branding and performance, as well as successful Brandformance implementation lessons from various domestic and international brands.

Register to receive information about the guides: Here

Marketing Strategy for Banking – Finance: Innovative Marketing and AI & Big Data to enhance brand experience

Brandformance is the combination of the power of brand building and performance in communication strategies. This method is flexible and comprehensive, offering maximum benefits to businesses both in the short and long term.

In addition, the Banking – Finance sector in Vietnam is booming, particularly in the field of Marketing, with the strong spread of digital technology. How is the creative Brandformance strategy, combined with Big Data, artificial intelligence (AI), and personalized customer experiences, being driven by changing consumer needs in this industry?

1. Banking – Finance businesses applying Innovative Marketing in Brandformance strategies

In the era of digital banking, innovative marketing activities revolve around using strategies on digital platforms, social media, and mobile apps. These tools play a crucial role, enabling targeted and precisely analyzed campaigns.

However, a report from Kantar indicates that brands risk declining sales if they focus too much on performance marketing while neglecting brand building. From 2019 to 2021, brands with increasing brand equity saw a 72% rise in brand value compared to only 20% for those with decreasing brand equity.

Allocating the majority or the entire budget to focus on PERFORMANCE mostly helps reach bottom-of-the-funnel customers—those with direct needs. This leads to several disadvantages for the brand:

  • A significant decrease in the number of qualified leads.
  • The conversion rate gradually declines over time.
  • Selling to potential customers before they develop a need, making them uncomfortable.

On the other hand, allocating the majority or the entire budget to focus on BRANDING allows the brand to widen its funnel at the conversion stage, but it misses the opportunity to generate short-term revenue.

Therefore, Brandformance is the combination of these two elements in a single strategy, created to address the challenge of balancing short-term and long-term benefits. To successfully implement a Brandformance strategy, Novaon Digital emphasizes three key factors:

  • Messages clearly derived from the target audience.
  • Decisions based on data, data analysis, AI, and personalized customer experiences.
  • The integration of creative marketing (Creative Marketing) and technological marketing (Technology Marketing), with both factors prioritized.

When starting to implement a marketing strategy, the banking and finance sector often faces many challenges. They need to clearly understand that convincing customers to make decisions takes time. It’s not just about “selling” through performance marketing; the banking and finance industry must invest time in branding to “convince” customers during their decision-making process. This is where the combination of creativity and technology in a specific Brandformance strategy, known as Innovative Marketing, becomes important.

As speaker Sylwia Kulesza noted: “Innovative Marketing: It’s not something grand, but the things that happen in life.” Therefore, it’s essential for customers to feel that every banking advertisement is personalized for them—this concept is known as Invisible Marketing.

Innovative Marketing is More Prevalent than Traditional Marketing

In the modern marketing world, the boundary between Creative Marketing and Innovative Marketing is not an insurmountable wall. In fact, they often overlap and interact strongly. This means that Innovative Marketing activities are not entirely new, but they still play a crucial role in driving growth and creating differentiation within a Brandformance strategy.

A prime example involves three key activities: market research, marketing campaigns, and marketing research & development (R&D). Currently, although these activities exist in parallel, they are not yet effectively connected and coordinated.

Market research provides essential insights into the market and consumers, but it is often not used creatively or innovatively in developing marketing strategies. Meanwhile, marketing campaigns typically focus on generating attention and engagement from customers but may lack critical feedback from the market through research. Finally, marketing R&D can generate new and creative ideas, but these efforts will not succeed unless they are applied in a real marketing campaign.

This integration of market research, innovative strategy, and creative execution is what makes Innovative Marketing more dynamic and adaptive than traditional approaches.

Mr. Le Viet Hai Son – CEO of Novaon Digital gave an assessment:

To fully leverage the potential of all three activities—market research, marketing campaigns, and marketing R&D—it is essential to blend creativity with innovation. In the context of Innovative Marketing, the combination of creativity (Creative) and technology (Technology) becomes crucial in driving Growth Hacking for a Brandformance strategy.

The formula for Innovative Marketing is:

Innovative Marketing = Creative Marketing + Tech Marketing

This approach not only allows businesses to use market insights in a creative and innovative way, but it also enables the creation of effective and breakthrough Brandformance strategies. By integrating creativity and technology, companies can unlock new opportunities, optimize performance, and create a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic market.

Applying the Brandformance strategy combined with Innovative Marketing is necessary for Banking – Finance businesses

Currently, businesses often focus primarily on creating content and solving specific problems. However, to ensure comprehensive technological development, it is essential to combine creativity, automation, and system building. For large financial institutions like banks, adopting a range of new technologies is crucial, including transitioning entirely to a more modern technological platform. For example, in the realm of technology, using advanced tools like Chat GPT can be considered a key strategy for optimizing interactions and communication with customers in a smart, automated way.

Financial institutions and banks need to leverage their vast customer data to enhance user engagement through personalized content. The synergy of content marketing and influencer marketing, combined with AR/VR on social media, will amplify brand recognition. Meanwhile, mobile applications offer tailored promotions, taking advantage of the widespread use of smartphones. Adapting to these digital avenues is the key to banks thriving in modern brand experiences while simultaneously increasing business revenue.

This holistic approach—blending creativity, technology, and personalized customer interaction—creates a more dynamic and competitive edge for financial institutions in today’s digital landscape.

2. Three levels of Innovative Marketing for Banking – Finance businesses towards B2B goals

One of the key tasks of technology is to help banks address current issues, including in the B2B sector. Although budgets are typically allocated for reaching individual customers, the question remains about how technology can be applied to help banks solve existing B2B challenges.

Techcombank has implemented a diverse roadmap, including banners, digital ads, and various other media to expand its reach. This is one of the technological solutions banks use to tackle their issues.

CEO Le Viet Hai Son emphasized that Innovative Marketing is not only necessary but also crucial. He outlined three levels of applying Innovative Marketing:

  • Level 1: Combining traditional methods with technology.
  • Level 2: Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support employees in executing marketing strategies.
  • Level 3: Leveraging AI to contribute to the development of new products and services.

A specific example of Viettel’s approach to the rural market is a case study conducted to understand the benefits of implementing a mobile application in this market and how to deploy it more creatively and effectively.

The reality shows that the rural market is significant, comprising 65% of the population, and cannot be overlooked. However, technology remains a major barrier in these areas. Viettel developed a strategy aligned with the national digital transformation goals. Initially, the rollout of Viettel Pay (an e-wallet) faced challenges in rural areas. However, Viettel’s mission is to ensure that no one is left behind in the technology development process, so they focused on providing convenient transaction services for rural residents through the Mobile Money project. The implementation strategy targeted small traders (4.0 Markets) and students.

When starting to implement a Brandformance strategy with Innovative Marketing that combines Creative Marketing and Tech Marketing, businesses often encounter many challenges, making it difficult to ensure three critical elements: strategy, creativity, and technology in execution. Novaon Digital, a Brand Experience Agency, has been collaborating with major brands across various industries such as Peugeot, Vietnam Airlines, Mobifone, and Viettel to provide effective marketing communication solutions for businesses in the banking and finance sector.

3. The key role of AI and Big Data in enhancing customer experience and driving growth

Discussion on Digital Transformation in the Banking and Finance Sector & Revolutionizing Marketing Efficiency in Vietnam. Focusing on the crucial role of AI and Big Data in enhancing customer experiences and driving growth, Mr. Rohit Dadwal, CEO of MMA Global APAC and Global Director of SMARTIES™ Worldwide, stated: “The need for AI has long been established, from the era of in-store shopping to the emergence of the Digital Age, where interactions have become personalized and customer experiences have been enhanced through websites. We need to broaden our mindset to embrace and leverage AI due to its advantages in minimizing labor for repetitive tasks and the valuable data it provides.”

Assessing the period from 2016 to 2024, Mr. Rohit noted a 1000% increase in AI utilization performance and predicted that AI would support businesses in planning, operations, and marketing if leveraged correctly. The search for ROI when using AI, both online and offline, remains a top concern. Although AI is not widely adopted yet, it is expected to develop strongly and become as prevalent as mobile phones in the future. The expert urged businesses to start using AI now, believing that in the future, AI, robotics, and automation will become crucial partners in daily operations, helping to alleviate burdens and establish a new trend in the industry.

However, the choice of AI tools must be based on the specific needs of each sector, particularly in finance and budgeting, as profit margins play a vital role in marketing. This is a critical starting point to benefit from the power of AI and Big Data in today’s digital era.

Mr. Nguyen Duy Tuong, Digital Marketing Director and Magnet Program Manager at MSB, shared the bank’s ambition to transform the role of marketing within the Banking and Finance industry. With 16 years of experience in the field, he observed the evolution from the initial use of Internet Marketing and Advertising to the present, where the emergence of Digital Marketing has become an extremely effective marketing foundation for businesses.

Financial and banking enterprises need to build marketing campaigns based on customer behavior, use more customer tracking tools both online and offline as well as evaluate the performance of each channel. To be able to build an effective personalization campaign, the prerequisite for businesses to do is to know what customers like and understand what customers want. From there, give messages as well as develop products based on customer preferences and experience (customer journey). In fact, MSB has applied this in organizing campaigns on holidays such as Valentine’s Day or International Women’s Day, sending personalized messages to customers, showing the bank’s interest in its customers.

Agreeing with Mr. Nguyen Duy Tuong’s view, Mr. Julian Brozoska, CGO of Publicis Groupe once again emphasized: “Marketing must be customer-centric and people-focused”. This activity not only enhances the customer experience but also promotes growth and marketing efficiency for businesses.

In order to develop products, in order to serve a larger number of customers, Ms. Thao Nguyen – Head of Digital Products and Services of VPBank Securities, shared about the use of AI data in digital banking and securities investment applications. 
According to Ms. Thao: “VPBank has integrated advanced technology solutions such as AI and Machine Learning on Digital Marketing platforms, Digital Banking applications, and VPBank Securities, helping to personalize the interface and journey of each customer based on spending habits and service usage.”

Despite the challenges, there are good examples of marketing excellence. Looking ahead, the industry anticipates further innovations that promise to redefine the effectiveness and reach of financial marketing in Vietnam’s vibrant economy.

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The event “Executive Dialogues: AI and more” organized by MMA Global Vietnam with the sponsorship of Novaon Digital is an in-depth event exclusively for senior leaders – Executive Dialogues with the participation of big names in the industry. The event took place with the presence of leading experts: Representative of Novaon Digital – CEO Le Viet Hai Son, Ms. Phan Bich Tam – Country Director of MMA Global Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia, Mr. Rohit Dadwal – CEO of MMA Global APAC,…

During the program, representatives of businesses participated in in-depth discussion sessions on prominent topics such as:

With in-depth experience and knowledge in the fields of Banking, Finance and Financial Technology – Fintech, the speakers shared their views and perspectives on hot topics and the future of the industry in the digital transformation period, which attracted a lot of attention.


What is Brandformance? Strategies that will help brands grow

Brandformance is a strategy that promises to attract the attention of many businesses starting in 2023 to address the balance between brand building and performance optimization, bringing long-term benefits to companies.

1. Definition, Origin, and Importance of Brandformance

In the digital environment, users encounter thousands of pieces of content every day. Their attention span is continuously shrinking. It can be said that users are increasingly distracted by the abundance and allure of various digital content formats. Furthermore, numerous digital platforms are constantly evolving and expanding, continuously testing algorithms that pose greater challenges for businesses in attracting their target customers.

The common difficulties facing the economy in 2023 are putting significant pressure on many businesses, leading many leaders to prioritize achieving short-term sales goals. From this strategy, companies focus on optimizing marketing costs and expect to see quick results from their implemented campaigns. Businesses are increasing investments in formats such as sales advertising, prioritizing high return on investment (ROI), and looking for rapid results.

However, companies are also aware that profits from advertising are an approach that only serves short-term needs. Therefore, establishing a marketing strategy that balances short-term and long-term benefits has become more urgent than ever.

Brandformance emerged as a method to balance and optimize both short-term and long-term benefits for businesses. This approach combines branding and performance in communication strategies. While branding is used to establish an attractive and distinctive appearance for a brand or product in the market to attract and retain customers, performance focuses on stimulating sales and popularity, while keeping customer acquisition costs as low as possible.

2. What does the LEVI effect explain about how to implement Brandformance?

Imagine separating the activities of brand building and performance marketing and placing these two activities on a graph with one axis representing time and the other representing the effectiveness of the company’s marketing activities.

A phase in the implementation process will consist of four steps:

  • L – Lift-up: Optimistic about market prospects.
  • E – Effectless: Activities begin to trend toward saturation, gradually losing effectiveness.
  • V – Vague: The team questions the reasons for failure and explores alternative methods.
  • I – Illuminated: New methods are tested and prove effective, leading to strong implementation.

And the cycle continues.

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LEVI – Exclusive model from Novaon Digital explains the effectiveness of Brandformance

The graph illustrates the trend line of brand value and performance ROI, corresponding to the individual activities of brand building and performance marketing.

If we place this in the context of a company implementing these activities simultaneously, the characteristics of the two activities are as follows:

  • Performance ROI increases rapidly during the Lift-up phase. Brand value also rises but at a slower pace. The effectiveness of performance ROI is much more evident compared to brand value. At the peak of performance ROI, the effectiveness of brand value is visibly lower and tends to plateau (but is not yet saturated) before performance ROI reaches its maximum.
  • From the Effectless phase to the Vague phase, performance ROI tends to decrease rapidly, while brand value remains stable (flat), and even shows a slight upward trend toward the end.
  • From the Vague phase to the Illuminated phase, performance ROI continues to drop to its lowest point. Upon reaching the starting point of the Illuminated phase, performance ROI begins to increase again. During this phase, brand value continues to rise and shows better effectiveness than performance ROI.

Therefore:

Investing in increasing brand value yields more sustainable results than focusing solely on performance ROI.

Combining these two activities simultaneously through the “Brandformance” method will provide optimal effectiveness for the business.

When implementing Brandformance, metrics traditionally associated with performance can also be effectively used to measure brand health (branding). Below is an example of website metrics in the banking sector.

3. Why many large companies will strive to implement brandformance from 2023

Apple’s Actions Since the Release of iOS 14

User privacy protection is becoming a crucial trend at the moment. Apple has taken the lead in implementing new privacy policies through their actions concerning IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) in iOS. According to various predictions, the percentage of users who agree to share their IDFA with advertisers does not exceed 10%.

Since the release of iOS 14, the restriction on accessing IDFA has been a significant blow to the advertising system. When users decline to share their IDFA, advertisers are unable to track actions such as clicks, downloads, sign-ups, and purchases. This poses a disadvantage, as the inability to monitor user interactions with ads makes it difficult for marketers to measure their effectiveness, leading to wasted budgets on ads targeting disinterested audiences.

Changes in Advertising Algorithms on Major Platforms (Facebook, Google, etc.)

Major platforms like Facebook and Google are continuously updating their algorithms to prioritize content from friends over content from brands. This forces businesses to increase their advertising budgets. A cycle is created where marketers find themselves “drained” in both budget and energy while managing ads on these large platforms.

Compared to 2020-2021, advertising on Facebook is now much more restricted. One noticeable aspect is that in the past, simply having anyone’s phone number or email and entering it in Facebook’s search bar would yield their profile, but that is no longer the case. For example, previously, spending 15 million VND would get you 158,000 impressions. Now, you have to spend at least 20-25 million VND to achieve the same number of impressions. The cost of advertising on Facebook has increased by 5-10% if you want to achieve the same effectiveness as in previous years.

KhGoogle’s algorithm is also reducing visibility, forcing businesses to run more ads and spend more money. Companies are now competing directly for both organic search results and paid search traffic.

Towards Sustainable Marketing

Separating performance advertising from branding is not a sustainable long-term strategy because:

  • Over-reliance on Ads: Relying solely on advertising to attract as many customers as possible can negatively impact brand image and customer perception.
  • Missed Opportunities: It leads to missed opportunities to attract quality customers through indirect “organic” channels, which are more subtle in their advertising nature.
  • Resource Allocation Issues: Companies struggle to allocate resources effectively for two separate strategies, leading to budget waste.
  • Incomplete Assessments: This approach can result in inadequate evaluations of brand growth.

Brandformance perfectly addresses the challenge of balancing short-term and long-term goals by establishing a foundation for sustainable business growth while achieving key performance indicators. Brandformance enables companies to simultaneously communicate continuously with their target audience and build a strong brand presence, ultimately improving the overall ROI of their marketing campaigns.

Positive Impacts of the Brandformance Strategy

Brandformance brings numerous positive impacts to businesses, including increased brand awareness, building customer trust, and subsequently improving conversion rates. When a brand effectively connects and shapes its image, customers can easily perceive it as trustworthy, leading to quicker and easier purchasing decisions.

Additionally, by optimizing brand building based on performance metrics, the Brandformance strategy helps save resources and marketing budgets. This results in improved cost-effectiveness and higher profit margins.

4. Typical examples of brandformance implementation

Let’s follow the case study of the hair dye brand from Indonesia, Hello Bubble below:

Hello Bubble has built a Brandformance strategy and achieved impressive metrics: attracting 32,000 participants on TikTok, recording an 18.1% increase in brand recall among the target audience, and a 700% increase in total transaction value within one month. So, what did this brand do?

Hello Bubble launched a store on TikTok Shop to simultaneously enhance brand awareness (branding) while engaging users and increasing revenue (performance). They utilized brand ambassador Blackpink to visually showcase the hair dye colors to users. The brand created stickers and effects on TikTok and encouraged users to use these effects in their own videos. Additionally, various advertising formats, including viral videos with KOL collaborations, TopView ads, and Reach & Frequency (R&F), were employed to amplify the spread of videos using the effects created by Hello Bubble.

Target Audience Messaging

A deep understanding of the target customers is the first factor for an effective Brandformance strategy. Businesses need to grasp customer needs, desires, and how they interact with the brand to deliver appropriate messaging.

Many Brandformance campaigns start with customer surveys, asking specific questions such as:

  • What influences your decision to purchase?
  • What do you find special about your shopping experience with our brand?
  • What aspects of our product do you find most satisfying?
  • How does our product help you solve your problem?

Customer feedback is far more valuable than advertisers hypothesizing customer needs and wants.

Data-Driven Decisions and Analytics

Using data and analytics to monitor campaign performance will help businesses understand how customers respond and adjust their strategies in real time. Data not only shortens the decision-making process but also aids in effective budget allocation, especially for Brandformance.

For instance, a Brandformance campaign employing targeted content testing allows marketers to frequently monitor which content is performing well based on data. This enables them to scale successful content that has already proven effective. This content testing approach, developed by Meta, has proven effective in increasing ROI, shortening the time to create effective ads, and reducing costs associated with underperforming advertisements.

Constant Innovation and Adaptation

Optimization and adaptation are essential to keep pace with the continuous changes in the market, technology, and target customer groups. Businesses need to regularly review and adjust their Brandformance strategies to ensure they continue to achieve desired results. Let’s look at a case study where a brand focuses on innovation and adaptation in its Brandformance strategy:

At the end of the year, the retail sector receives a lot of customer attention. As a distributor of sleep products, Vua Nem aimed to attract more customers to purchase premium mattresses during this peak season. Additionally, Vua Nem sought to enhance its branding effectiveness to gain a competitive edge in a strong market and create a gap with its competitors.

Guiding Principle of Performance Culture in Decision-Making

To make quick and highly accurate decisions, a business needs to build, maintain, and develop a performance culture over time. This culture has helped the marketing team continuously generate creative ideas in a short period while ensuring that the decisions made are data-driven and precise.

At this point, imagine a system of barriers on a highway. The highway allows you to drive at high speeds to reach your destination quickly. The barriers provide a clear framework within which you can navigate. If needed, you can change lanes at any time. What remains constant is the direction and high speed at which you are moving.

Similarly, a performance culture acts as a system of barriers for decisions regarding campaign expansion. It provides a clear framework within which decisions can be made without requiring significant adjustments. The benefit of this “barrier” is time savings. For example, when a brand considers “jumping on a trend” on TikTok, it’s crucial to recognize that trends often end much faster than the time many companies spend evaluating whether they want to participate. Performance, in other words, is about pursuing goals, prioritizing speed and effectiveness.

5. How businesses can improve their Brandformance capabilities

Investing Heavily in an In-House Team

To successfully implement Brandformance, businesses need a well-rounded in-house team comprising experts in various areas: market analysis, data analysis, content creation, performance marketing, design, and more. However, it is crucial that team members are strong in their ability to collaborate, understand, and be familiar with the roles of other members, as Brandformance campaigns often require a high level of integration between creativity and technology.

Building a strong in-house team demands time, effort, and significant investment, but it allows businesses to better control the Brandformance process and make necessary adjustments to ensure they meet their business objectives.

Preparing a Budget for Brandformance

Brandformance campaigns typically require a budget for integrated communication activities, such as advertising, social media channel development, hiring influencers (KOLs), and organizing events. To achieve both brand and performance goals, businesses need to allocate their budget reasonably across each category and according to a specific timeline. This approach will help businesses control resources when executing campaigns.

Brandformance is not a short-term strategy; it needs to be maintained and continuously improved over time. Preparing a budget in advance ensures that the business can sustain long-term Brandformance activities.

Finding an Agency Partner with Strong Brandformance Capabilities

When first implementing a Brandformance strategy, businesses are likely to encounter mistakes and failures due to various reasons, including a lack of experience and resources. At this stage, seeking a reputable agency partner can help avoid unnecessary risks and losses for the following main reasons:

  • Agencies Have Specialized Resources to Support Businesses Holistically: Agencies typically have access to a wide range of expertise and resources that can enhance a company’s Brandformance efforts.
  • Reducing Time and Optimizing Goal Achievement Rates: Agencies have established processes for analysis and research, allowing them to expedite the campaign setup and execution.
  • Agencies Can Evaluate Advertising Channels Transparently and Objectively: They can provide insights based on the performance of each channel, ensuring that businesses make informed decisions.
  • Agencies Can Respond to Platform Changes Effectively: With techniques and experiences that have been continuously tested, agencies are better equipped to adapt to shifts in advertising platforms.

One secret to finding the ideal agency for implementing Brandformance is ensuring that they cover all three elements: Strategy, Creative, and Technology, in their service offerings. They know exactly how to combine these elements effectively and can explain the respective processes in detail to the business.


6. Wrapping Up: The Future of Brandformance and Branding

Brandformance will really become the marketing trend of the digital age. Therefore, businesses that want to build a brand image while achieving good results in terms of revenue need to start doing Brandformance right now.

Who will determine the “never-ending war” of Brand building – Performance marketing?


When companies prioritize sales goals, they may struggle to be remembered, reducing their ability to reach new audiences. Conversely, over-prioritizing brand goals can lead to significant costs in brand building while hindering growth. This article, referencing Kantar’s research, aims to provide a more nuanced perspective on this perennial issue.

When Prioritizing Sales Goals, Companies Risk Being Forgotten

In Summary: Is branding or focusing on numbers and growth more important?

The CEO expects Marketing to drive short-term sales, evidenced by the numerous internal meetings created solely to answer the question, “Why aren’t we generating sales?” “Marketing for sales” is essentially known as performance, sales, or activation marketing (for example, promotional programs) aimed at achieving revenue efficiency.

In 2023, due to the notable impacts of economic fluctuations, a company’s ability to see profits from every dollar spent on marketing has become a decisive factor in the short term. Facing tough conditions, up to 48% of the global Marketing teams surveyed by Kantar reported that they are investing in promotional activities to attract customers rather than in brand building or more abstract concepts like optimizing customer experience. This is very dangerous.

In essence, it cannot be denied that digital advertising has evolved significantly. Instead of simply introducing products, describing their uses, and persuading purchases, modern digital advertising has a greater mission: representing the voice of the brand. In other words, digital advertising—this potential media channel—can achieve more than just selling stories.

The Importance of Long-Term Brand Building

Branding has become part of daily life, the experience of the masses, and a component of culture. Building a brand is more closely related to the sales story. Most importantly, brand building must make the brand stand out compared to competitors and facilitate consumer choice.

A famous case study in long-term brand building is Airbnb. In recent years, Airbnb has made significant changes to its marketing strategy. Since 2019, the company has sought to rely less on search advertising, focusing instead on marketing forms that have good virality and emphasizing public relations to strengthen its brand. Airbnb has actively communicated news about its business operations and has run television ads. Brands like Airbnb have become stronger, broader, and capable of continuing to exist with us for many years to come.

Dissecting Global Marketer Perspectives

A serious study conducted by Kantar (2021) aimed to find the key answer: What is the most important factor in measuring ROI—performance marketing, brand building, or a combination of both?

While 86% of marketers believe that the combination of both is necessary, only 63% of them report that they ACTUALLY MEASURE the effectiveness of campaigns based on both types of data.

The perennial story: measuring digital marketing campaigns in organizations. In many companies, measurement simply involves counting clicks and checking if sales have increased. While an increase in clicks is a positive signal, this metric is too basic to ascertain whether the money spent on marketing is truly effective.

The lack of research in digital advertising activities and the reliance on surface-level metrics like click counts have caused digital advertising to evolve primarily as a tool for performance. Given its low cost and immediate visible returns, using digital advertising in this manner can lead to a lack of a holistic view and strategic vision.

Another issue arises from the average tenure of a marketer—typically 2 to 3 years—which has sparked debate in many companies about whether to invest in a permanent Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) position. With new and attractive job opportunities on platforms like LinkedIn, a marketing role often doesn’t stay long enough to see the results of long-term strategies. As a result, marketers feel the pressure to demonstrate their abilities through quick achievements or results before moving on to their next position.

Is it possible to achieve brand building and performance marketing objectives simultaneously?

Assuming the goal of an advertisement is to achieve both branding and performance objectives, what would the weighting of each outcome be? Looking at data collected by Kantar over the past five years, it indicates a strong correlation between brand building and performance marketing.

Two-thirds of advertisements perform similarly in both areas. Very few ads excel significantly in one aspect while performing poorly in the other.

Evidence shows that ads successful in the short term still perform well in the long term, and vice versa. The key lies in the brand’s focus on brand building when developing advertisements.

It is especially important to not lose sight of long-term objectives, even when producing ads aimed at short-term results.

What Would Advertising That Achieves Both Outcomes Look Like?

Analyzing a dataset of 50,000 ads targeted at consumers over the past five years, several potential factors have been identified that help digital ads perform effectively in both branding and performance aspects (Source: Kantar).

  1. Product or Brand Variations: Successful ads often showcase the product or brand in various forms. The top 5% of ads that excel in both branding and performance tend to provide more information about the product, including demonstrations of use, specific ingredients, or materials.
  2. Brand Placement: The brand should be introduced early in the first few seconds of the ad. This helps establish brand recognition and sets the stage for the audience.
  3. Wordplay: Incorporating humor through wordplay in ads increases engagement metrics and enhances the overall performance of the advertisement.
  4. Trendy Influencer Marketing: The effectiveness of using celebrity influencers is particularly noticeable when reputable or well-known personalities are featured in ads. Their presence can significantly boost the impact of the campaign.

Important: Focusing on Brand Building Increases ROMI

While performance-focused advertising can show direct increases in ROI, a stronger emphasis on brand building has been proven to enhance ROMI, which is a more direct metric in marketing discussions.

ROMI measures the revenue generated by a marketing campaign relative to the costs incurred to run that campaign. It is calculated using the formula:

ROMI = (Marketing Income – Cost of Goods – Marketing Spend)/Marketing Spend * 100

Solving Problems with AI Assistants

The future of advertising shows promising potential for ensuring both brand identity and performance flexibly.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the capability to create dynamic content, allowing for the adjustment of ads during their execution. This integration facilitates a seamless combination of branding and performance content while enabling effective measurement. The ability to modify an advertisement in real-time—such as adding or removing offers or changing messages targeted at users—will ensure that both aspects are effectively represented in a single ad.

A successful example of a campaign that builds brand identity while showcasing sales techniques is McDonald’s ‘Hungry Eyes’ campaign. This advertisement does not aggressively prompt customers with a call-to-action; instead, it subtly reminds viewers that, thanks to the McDonald’s app, their favorite meals can be delivered at any time. This clever approach effectively boosts sales.

Understanding the strengths and influencing factors of digital advertising enables marketing teams to optimize their communication and advertising strategies, aligning with the significance of both sales objectives and brand building.

How did Airbnb “win big” thanks to a 28% reduction in marketing budget?

In the midst of an economic downturn, Airbnb made a groundbreaking impression in the travel industry by achieving its highest performance to date after shifting its focus from Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to Brand Marketing. So, why did the home-sharing giant make such a pivot, and how did Airbnb execute this plan?

Airbnb is one of the most popular online booking companies in the world. Since its establishment in 2008, it has revolutionized the hospitality industry by offering users unique lodging experiences at local destinations.

The shift from search engine marketing to building brand marketing, combined with the recovery of the travel industry after the pandemic, helped Airbnb achieve its strongest growth ever in the third quarter of 2022.

Airbnb Inc. stated that its strategy to cut advertising spending, invest in brand marketing, and reduce Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns proved to be highly effective. As anticipated, Airbnb’s marketing budget was reasonably reduced starting in 2022 to avoid sudden cuts in the face of the impending economic downturn in 2023.

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1. How Airbnb Implemented Its Brand Communication Strategy

“We see Search Engine Marketing (SEM) as a way to balance supply and demand rather than a way to attract a large number of customers.” — Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb.

Airbnb reduced its overall marketing budget. In the first quarter of 2021, the budget for sales and marketing dropped by 28% compared to the same period the previous year, down to $229 million. This cut was primarily due to reducing performance marketing costs, as Airbnb prioritized leveraging the power of Brand Marketing to attract potential customers.

CFO Dave Stephenson stated, “Our company is pleased with the return on investment we are receiving from our new strategic communication approach. We spent $383 million on sales and marketing in the three months ending September 30, 2022.”

He added, “The results from our Brand Marketing strategy are outstanding, with a high return on investment, so much so that we want to expand our services into more countries.”

Specifically, Airbnb made significant changes to its marketing strategy. In 2019, the company began experimenting with limiting search engine marketing and focusing more on broad marketing campaigns and public relations to build its brand image.

The company concentrated on PR activities, developing informative content strategies about its business operations, and launching advertising campaigns across various channels such as television, social media, video campaigns, user-generated content (UGC), and influencer marketing.

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Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky further stated in a call that the company does not view marketing as a way to “buy” customers, noting that over 90% of the traffic to their platform comes directly without the need for search advertising. Instead, their strategy now focuses on using communication efforts to promote Airbnb Categories, which allows users to search for homes based on factors such as housing style or proximity to specific activities like surfing or skiing. Additionally, they are promoting AirCover, a policy designed to assist travelers facing issues like finding the wrong home or hosts canceling bookings at short notice. The company also offers AirCover for hosts, which includes liability insurance and damage protection.

When analysts asked whether Airbnb would cut advertising spending in light of the economic downturn or continue to invest in broader market expansion to attract consumers to new services, Airbnb executives indicated that they expect the percentage of marketing expenses relative to revenue next year to remain at similar levels as before.

2. What are the challenges for Airbnb when the wave of tourism marketing is back in full swing?

Mat Zucker, a senior partner and co-leader of global sales and marketing operations at consulting firm Prophet, noted that “Airbnb seems to have no priorities. They are actively integrating both.” One reason for this could be that Airbnb operates relatively leanly and is a newer player compared to traditional hotel chains. He mentioned, “They don’t have the burden of business structure, departmental divisions, and competitive personnel, which might be part of the reason they can do this seemingly easily.”

However, the Airbnb brand could face challenges if competitors ramp up their marketing expenditures. “I’m not sure if apartments are enough to maintain their share of voice,” Zucker said. “If hotel marketing comes back and spending begins to rise in the travel and hospitality sector, can Airbnb maintain its share of voice when hotels return aggressively?”

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Airbnb has identified three strategic priorities for 2023:

  • Make Hosting a Mainstream Trend
  • Refine Core Services
  • Build the Foundation for Future Products and Services

According to Chesky, this means investing in marketing to raise awareness and educate travelers about Airbnb’s new services and offerings, such as Airbnb Categories.

The company expects to maintain its adjusted EBITDA margin in 2023, with a slight decrease in the first quarter as the brand increases its marketing spending. Sales and marketing will be higher by approximately 150 basis points as a percentage of revenue in the first quarter, but will remain unchanged for the entire year.

3. Enhancing Effectiveness and Scale by Balancing Branding and Performance

Novaon Digital, an agency providing brand experience solutions, believes that instead of approaching target customer groups in traditional ways, businesses need to focus on three key factors:

  • Implementing Long-term Marketing Strategies: Companies should adopt a long-term marketing strategy that emphasizes brand experience while balancing branding and performance.
  • Integrating Creative Content: Creativity should be integrated into communication and advertising activities, following the principle of driving creativity.
  • Leveraging Technology: Businesses should apply technology in their marketing activities to scale up rapidly while managing data effectively and minimizing advertising costs. The application of technology should be streamlined yet systematic, using two methods: integrating a CRM system and automating processes.

As they strive to enhance customer experience, Novaon Digital consistently seeks new solutions, incorporating technological elements and creative content to maximize effectiveness and create a more positive experience for customers.

Source: WSJ – Megan Graham (Reporter, The Wall Street Journal)

Which agency was honored by Meta at the Vietnam Business Messaging Awards 2023: Best Diversity?

On June 13, 2023, Meta announced the Vietnam Business Messaging Awards 2023. Novaon Digital was honored as the Agency in Vietnam recognized in the Best Diversity category.

The Vietnam Business Messaging Awards 2023 is an award that recognizes the innovative, diverse applications and the integration of creativity by agencies in maximizing Conversations to help businesses unlock the power of dialogue. This award showcases Novaon Digital’s success after a significant transformation aimed at creating comprehensive and diverse brand experience solutions for all clients.

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Novaon Digital is honored to be an agency in Vietnam honored in the Best Diversity category

1. Optimizing Profit for Businesses Through Conversational Marketing

According to Meta, Vietnam has the highest usage rate of Business Messaging among the surveyed countries: 73% of Vietnamese consumers reported using conversations to reach businesses. Approximately 40% of Vietnamese consumers indicated that they have increased the frequency of their conversations with businesses. At least 1 in 3 Vietnamese consumers chat with businesses once a week. Conversational Marketing is popular across all age groups, especially among Millennials and Gen Z.

The appeal of conversations through Messaging Platforms for businesses wanting to communicate with customers is crucial. However, merely applying these tools is not enough to meet customer expectations. In reality, businesses are struggling with the data leads from various advertising platforms flowing into their CRM systems. This results in fragmented data systems, affecting processes and personnel, and businesses need a robust tool to connect this vast data.

At the Vietnam Business Messaging Awards 2023, Meta also highlighted several new features of Business Messaging. The solutions and tools for Business Messaging, powered by advanced technology, help businesses reach their most promising customers and provide a personalized messaging experience easily and effectively. This also helps businesses optimize advertising costs while delivering the smoothest connection experience to their potential customers, enhancing conversion rates and revenue.

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Panel Discussion: Transform business with Business Messaging Innovation

According to Ms. Van Le, Market Lead – Vietnam Growth Business at Meta, to effectively implement Business Messaging solutions, businesses need to:

  • Understand and apply Business Messaging at each stage of the marketing funnel to connect with and convert customers most effectively.
  • Leverage data and signals to optimize strategies alongside Business Messaging.
  • Collaborate with experienced agencies and Meta’s messaging partners to easily start and scale on a larger scale.

Recognizing this demand, Novaon Digital provides a solution through a new product that combines core technology with comprehensive brand experience services to optimize management for customers. In the process of enhancing customer experience, Novaon Digital consistently seeks new solutions, incorporates technological elements, and fosters content creativity to maximize effectiveness and create a more positive experience for customers.

2. How Novaon Digital Unlocks the Power of Conversational Marketing?

Novaon Digital has made a big turning point in its development strategy. Novaon Digital launches the mission of “Digitally transform Brand Experience with Strategy, Technology and Creativity” to become an agency providing brand experience transformation services on a digital platform with strategy, creativity and technology.

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Le Viet Hai Son – CEO, NOVAON DIGITAL & Ben Joe – VP, Southeast Asia & Emerging Markets, Meta

In this context, Novaon Digital has developed a new product that maximizes solutions to promote and effectively implement Conversational Marketing:

  • Integrate new solutions from Messaging Platforms into the existing ecosystem and marketing funnel of businesses, including Messenger Offer ads, Lead Generation through messages (Click-to-Messenger Lead Generation), optimizing lead acquisition methods (Destination Optimization), chatbots, and CRM integration.
  • Develop a strategy for implementing the Messaging Platform, deploying strategies with a comprehensive brand experience solution from Novaon Digital.
  • Continuously innovate and diversify Creative Formats in content, providing rich materials for the Messaging Platform.
  • Effectively apply automation technologies like XChatbot with the Messaging Platform.

It is evident that in the digital transformation journey of customer experience, the application and upgrading of new tools are extremely important and necessary. Therefore, with technological improvements and new innovations from Novaon Digital and the Meta team, tools like Business Messaging will help brands quickly connect with and understand their customers better.

3. Vua Nệm: Quality Brand Experience on Digital Platforms

From comprehensive brand communication solutions, Novaon Digital has successfully implemented many large campaigns for brands in the Vietnamese market and the region.

Vua Nem is a leading brand in Vietnam in the field of mattress distribution and retail, having conducted strong communication activities across multiple platforms.

In the process of seeking potential customers, Vua Nem consistently aims for and continuously experiments with new technological solutions and methods to change and enhance the customer experience when they interact with the brand.

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Le Viet Hai Son – CEO, NOVAON DIGITAL & Le Huy Long – Head of Digital, Vua Nệm

During the period from 2021 to 2023, recognizing the potential and effectiveness of Conversational Marketing, particularly the new Business Messaging tool launched by Meta, Vua Nệm partnered with Novaon Digital to develop a plan to apply and implement this new method, aiming at two goals: increasing conversions and enhancing the customer experience. In the process of implementing Business Messaging, Novaon Digital developed strategies, creative content, and integrated new technologies to optimize Vua Nệm’s communication efficiency with potential customers, accelerating customer engagement through technical setups and continuous testing.

In addition to new communication strategies and the monthly sales push plan provided by Vua Nệm, Novaon Digital created highly flexible advertising content for customers, which effectively conveyed the brand’s message while easily gathering customers’ desires and needs regarding seasonal services and products for the brand as a whole. As a result, Novaon Digital collected high-quality customer data that met Vua Nệm’s expectations.

Novaon Digital has accompanied Vua Nệm for many years, with conversion rates continually improving.

Mr. Le Huy Long – Head of Digital at Vua Nệm believes: “We trust that Novaon Digital helps us connect and engage with customers easily, providing them with appropriate service experiences, thereby increasing conversion potential. Updating relevant information meets the customers’ needs.”

Winning prestigious awards has recognized the efforts of the creative team at Novaon Digital. This is also a motivation for Novaon Digital to continuously harness the power of Strategy – Technology Solutions – Innovative Creative Thinking, developing more interesting and effective solutions for future marketing communication campaigns. This creates a comprehensive brand experience, especially in a digitally-led environment.

The Vietnam Business Messaging Awards 2023: Best Diversity further encourages Novaon Digital on its journey to become a trusted strategic partner for businesses and the choice of clients in every campaign and the long-term brand-building journey.

The success stories of brands partnering with us: See details 

About the Vietnam Business Messaging Awards 2023

The Vietnam Business Messaging Awards 2023 is an award that recognizes the innovative, diverse, and integrative application of agencies in maximizing conversations to help businesses unlock the power of dialogue. The award showcases Novaon Digital’s success following a significant transformation aimed at creating comprehensive and diverse brand experience solutions for all customers.

In 2022, Novaon Ads, a member of Novaon Digital, had the honor of being recognized as the Meta Agency of the Year 2022 in the Business Messaging category in Vietnam.

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Novaon Digital harnesses the power of Strategy, Technology, and Creativity to drive brand growth. Drawing inspiration from crafting transformative experiences, we aim to enhance customer understanding and appreciation of your brand.


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