Case study in Vietnam: Biti’s – Successful SNS Marketing

At the end of 2016 and early 2017, Vietnamese young people talked much about the campaign “Đi để trở về” (which means: Going far to return/to come back home), marking the outstanding “comeback stage” of Biti’s with the new brand: Biti’s Hunter. By starting the controversial product placement in a screen cut of music video named “Lac troi”  of Son Tung MTP (a famous singer in Vietnam),  then raising a storm of debate which was that young people should travel or return home on Tet Holiday with hashtag #teamdi (who agreed that they should go far on Tet) and #teamtrove (who agreed that they should come home) on social networks, and after that officially launching the “Di de tro ve” which means “going far to return home” music video (ft. young singer up Soobin Hoang Son)  as the final answer of the brand, Season 1 of the campaign has been greatly  successful, making Biti’s be a brand in “Tet communication war” which was considered merely for big brands.

In early 2018 and 2019, Biti’s continued Season 2 and 3 with the MV “Di de tro ve 2” and “Di de tro ve 3” performed by Soobin Hoang Son and continuously achieved certain successes, increasingly affirming the image of the brand of Biti’s Hunter in consumers’ mind.

Before the campaign, Biti’s is a domestic brand (sneakers, slippers) with a tight budget with small market share in Vietnam. It was nearly like a memorable products in people’s childhood. It was popular in the past when Vietnam economy was not good and people’ income was low. However, by understanding young people’s mindset, Biti’s hunter made this campaign to express the spirit of “going and experiencing” and to build up again their brand. What did they do?

1.Idea:

From young people’s perspective, Tet is a long holiday in Vietnam nowsaday. Many young people want to travel to relax, to experience on those days instead of coming home, while others shares that they need to go home to visit parents after long-time far from home. It leads to a question which is “traveling or going home” ?

From brands’ perspective, Tet Holiday is regarded as the best time of year to for many brands to launch their message about “Homing”. However, when most of big brands talked about story of “coming back home”, Biti’s did opposite way which was a story of “going far to return”. This story was new and different from other brands but it did imply “homing” message, which was not against the crowd’s mindset.

The idea of Biti’s Hunter was reinforced through music video- “Di de tro ve 1” which the content of message was “going far to return” . In season 2, they implied message which was “young people had a lot of journeys, but the most meaningful journey is home”. In the season 3, they  focused on “traveling toghether” on Tet Holiday.

2. Action:

In Season 1 (2017), the campaign was divided into 3 stages:

-Stage 1: KOL’s debate on social network about: #teamdi (going far) and #teamtrove (coming home) within 4 days

-Stage 2: Released MV “Lac troi” (Son Tung MTV singer) and “Di de tro ve” (Soobin Hoang Son)

– Stage 3: PR activities on famous online news/magazine like Kenh14

Season 2 (in 2018) Biti’s also released “Di de tro ve 2”, then focused on PR activities on Kenh14 and the competition about “Share the most meaningful journey of yours” with Biti’s Hunter.

Season 3 (in 2918) they released “Di de tro ve 3” to reinforce their brand awareness by emphasizing  “Promise to go far together” by a competition (stories sharing) with the prize which was going to Japan with family.

a. Social

Season 1, with the purpose of leading young people to the story of “Homing”, Biti’s raised a storm of debate on Facebook, with KOLs participation. As a temporary trend at that time, there were 87,000 talks/posts about #teamdi (going) and #teamtrove (returning).

Season 2, Biti’s started a competition on Facebook. Biti’s encouraged fans to share stories about their “meaningful journeys”. The prize was 500 tickets for coming home. This activity was appealing to many fans and the result was 12,000 participants and many shares on social network.

Season 3, Biti’s continued kicking off new activity on Facebook which was “Hứa sẽ đi cùng nhau” (Promise to go far together). Then, they received a lot of fans’ sharing about the journey of them and thier friends.

b. Video content:
On January 1, 2017, the MV “Di de tro ve” was released, opening the Season 1 of the campaign. In addition, MV “Lac Troi” of Son Tung MTP was released on the same day with a screen placement controversial when placing modern sneaker with ancient costume style. It caused controversial topic on social network and online press.

MV “Di de tro ve 2” and “Di de tro ve 3” launched on January 1, 2018  and 2019 with insight exploited from a new aspect: the trip to back home. The music videos were intentionally released on the first day of January 1, not December 31, because Biti’s wanted to choose a special day, the first day of the year, to let young people navigate new journeys, but also did not forget “Go so far to return”.

c. PR

To make a successful marketing campaign, the support of press is very important nowadays. Kenh14 was the press that Biti’s chose to do PR activities. Kenh14- one of the most popular online press – usually updated information and follow the campaign during season 1, 2 and 3.

3. Results

After 3 seasons, Biti’s and Biti’s Hunter (a small brand of Biti’s) has increasingly carved into the minds of consumers with extremely meaningful messages for young people: Going far, to explore, to experience, to grow up and then respect return, cherish homing journey. In addition, Soobin Hoang Son and Son Tung MTP were considered good choices for marketing campaign as celebrity involvement because they are young and famous, have big fanclubs in Vietnam and usually create trends that inspire young people. Their images are suitable for Biti’s Hunter’ concept. As a result, the sale revenue of Biti’s has increased significantly after those campaigns. Sometimes, the website was overloaded because of huge number of visitors and orders. Products in Biti’s online and offline were sold out quickly, and many consumers had to wait for weeks. It can be considered the rise of Biti’s after years of silence.

Season 1:

• 2 MVs were in Youtube Trending for 21 consecutive days
• MV “Đi để trở về” of Soobin Hoang Son is present in Zing’s social chart for 6 consecutive months.
• Only the MV “Đi để trở về” has created 1.7 million social network interactions, in which the brand mention accounts for more than 10%.
• Achieve 300% of sales target within 7 days.
• Number 1 Youtube Ads Leaderboard 2017 Tet
• Best Asia Media Campaign Bronze Award, Best Use of Video Gold Award at the PR Asia Awards 2017

Season 2:

• MV “Đi để trở về 2” more than 38 million views within 1 month.
• 18 consecutive days in the top Youtube Trending
• Ranked No. 3 in the top 10 campaign highlights on social media Tet 2018 (according to the ranking of YouNet Media)
• Over 3,500,000 interaction and nearly 300,000 mentions on social networks (according to YouNet Media’s ranking)
• Sales grew by 250% compared to 2017, exceeding 60% of the target
• Number 1 Youtube Ads Leaderboard 2018- in Vietnam

Besides those marketing campaigns for young people, Biti’s did some campaign for special days like Women day (with image of Mr. Universal H’Hen Nie). Furthermore, they made animation for kids as one of their market segments is kids’ slipper and sneakers.

In conclusion, Biti’s did successfully marketing campaign (especially using SNS marketing). Biti’s is expected to keep investing in Marketing to expand their brands in the future.

Reference:

https://www.brandsvietnam.com/campaign/209-Bitis-Di-de-tro-ve#home

https://www.bitis.com.vn/