Page 76 - The EDIT | Q2 2017

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My take on Vietnam
When you think about 2017 so far, what were the most exciting things that have happened in your market till date?
I think from a macro-economic perspective it is worth highlighting that more and more foreign companies enter the Vietnamese market. While we do see a slight uplift in terms of media spending, we know that most of this goes into digital channels. In fact, investment into digital media is expected to be 15%–20% of total media spending in 2017 as opposed to only 10% in 2016.
In our biggest cities Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, there is a lot of construction happening now! If you visit these cities any time soon, look out for all the high-rise building, new condos as well as other premium buildings. It is impressive and a clear sign for a booming economy in Viet Nam!
In terms of media, mobile Internet is on the rise. I know this is probably expected for an emerging market but the speed it is happening with is incredible!
According to Global Web Index, by the end of 2016, 85% of Internet users are now using their mobile phones to access the Internet as opposed to 54% in 2012. 90% are still using their personal PC/laptop to access the Internet but I think mobile phones will soon be the #1 device for going online.
What factor is most driving change in your market at the moment?
We see enormous growth in terms of start-ups in Viet
Nam these days — but there is also a lot of new local and global companies entering the market. There are many private stores, more and bigger shopping centres as well as convenient stores such as VinCom+, Vinmart from Vingroup, Circle K, Family’s Mart, B’s Mart or Ministop.
With Vietnamese getting more health-conscious, there is also rapid growth for green/organic stores and homemade online private stores.
While all these developments do not necessarily affect the comms industry (yet), it is definitely an indicator that Vietnamese consumers are increasingly embracing the Western world.
What do you think will be the biggest comms challenge speci cally for your market in the next 12 months – and what will you do to overcome it?
TV is still the media channel delivering high reach for most of our big advertisers, including our FMCG clients. However, Viet Nam has already started to embrace global trends and digital media, content and campaigns that can truly engage consumers will be the way forward!
I think Programmatic will rapidly gain in importance over the next few months and the big advertising platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram) will increase creating platform-specific content.
Currently, almost all our clients focus on digital media channels and I think here at PHD Viet Nam we are more than equipped to guide our clients through these exciting changes!
THE EDIT ISSUE 06 | Q2 2017