62% of the Vietnamese population is under 34 (Source: General Statistics Office of Vietnam). We have a young country that is hungry for entertainment on TV and online. So brands often bring new content into the homes of Vietnamese viewers.

But most “branded content” in Vietnam is in the form of sponsorship, and only from big brands at that. Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Unilever can afford to sponsor and make themselves visible on national TV shows popular among youth like Vietnam Idol, The Voice, Vietnam’s Got Talent, Vietnam’s Next Top Model, K-Pop Star Hunt, etc…

So branding content in Vietnam usually means latching on to available content.

Brands also create online content by simply taking the background song of their TV commercial, and releasing it as a music video. While they label the music video as hailing from their brand commercial, it’s often an existing song not originally written for the brand.

In Vietnam, it’s rare to find original branded content that not only sells, but also engages consumers with the brand in a way that’s relevant to both.

We produced “A Valentine’s Day-Off” to suit the taste of Vietnamese youth, who have a musical sweet tooth - Overly sweet (or cheesy) songs are popular.

To differentiate our music video, we added the charm and stop-motion of James Gulliver Hancock (he made a video for Lenka), an animator we admire.

Then, 3 weeks before Valentine’s Day, we released the music video online.

We even launched the Kit Kat Vietnam Facebook fanpage to rally people for our cause for love.

Soon, people were making their own covers, ranging from a harmonized acoustic performance to uber-cheesy Valentine’s slideshows.

1,722,420 views (with reshares).

We achieved over 200% of our KPI. (Source: Internal data)

Facebook fanpage:

113.5 % of fan growth target.

360% of KPI for engagement rate (46,110 Likes for 34 posts).

We tracked 600+ people who used our cover photo, a badge of commitment to a day off for love. (Source: Internal data)

Social media reach:

Valued at: USD70,000.

Actual spending: USD20,000.

350% ROI. (Source: Internal data)

Kit Kat sales

Went up by 100% (volume and value) for 2-month period before and after Valentine’s. Sales value in 6 weeks equaled half of 2013. (Source: Nestlé Vietnam).