Around this time of year, brands are probably frantically chasing agencies to lock in their Tết campaign plans after 49 rounds of revisions. Then, about two months before Tết, YouTube will suddenly be flooded with a whole bunch of… music videos and Tết films.
For people in the industry, the routine is pretty simple. The moment something drops, we watch it so we can review it, then immediately check the credits to see which agency, production house, director, or crew made it. Once we’re done, we copy and paste the link into the group chat with our colleagues and start judging it together.
For consumers, meanwhile, Tết advertising is like walking into a buffet where, before they even get a chance to choose what they want to eat, 80 servers have already rushed over to spoon-feed them different dishes while insisting, “This one is really good.”
So how do you get them to try yours? And more importantly, how do you make sure they still remember how good it was after they’ve gone home?
I don’t have an exact answer to that. But I do want to share a few basic principles that I think can be useful for both clients and agencies before trying to solve the bigger challenge of brand communication during Tết.
You’re Competing With Everyone
For most campaigns during the year, we analyse direct and indirect competitors to identify opportunities for the brand, usually against a fairly specific target audience.
Tết campaigns are a little different. They’re almost like a free-for-all: every brand is competing for consumers’ attention, and the target audience tends to become much broader. That means a soft drink brand isn’t only competing with other soft drink brands. It’s also competing with confectionery brands, cooking oil brands, and even beer brands.
When analyzing competitors for a Tết campaign, I usually compile brands with prominent communication activities during the season so clients can see the entire landscape. From there, they can better understand which brands they actually want to compete with, rather than looking only at traditional direct and indirect competitors.More importantly, it helps answer another question: where do you want to play? In other words, which communication territory do you want to occupy?
Which brings us to the next point.
Refresh an Existing Communication Territory
There are several communication territories that brands commonly use during Tết, including: Homecoming & reunion, Celebration, Appreciation, New beginnings, Abundance. For example, Pepsi and Honda have consistently played in the homecoming and reunion territory. Coteccons and Ensure have leaned into appreciation and gratitude, while brands such as Mirinda and Tiger have explored new beginnings.
One of my students once asked me a very good question:
“Do white spaces—opportunities for meaningful differentiation—actually exist during Tết, given that traditions and consumer behaviors are heavily influenced by cultural values that have been passed down from one generation to another?”
My very diplomatic answer is: yes and no.
No, because well-managed brands usually want to build a consistent association with a particular territory over multiple years. And because the core values surrounding Tết are so deeply rooted, it is very difficult for a brand to simply invent an entirely new Tết territory.
But also yes, because brands can absolutely find white space within the territory they already own.
Homecoming and reunion, for example, doesn’t necessarily have to mean returning to your hometown and gathering around the table with a traditional family. Reunion could also mean celebrating Tết together online. Likewise, abundance doesn’t have to mean prosperity, health, or good fortune. Abundance could mean having an abundance of free time—and absolutely nothing to do.
It’s easy for me to come up with examples here, of course. In reality, whether an idea like this happens depends on both the agency’s proposal and the client’s calculations—and courage.
Music Marketing Is a Mystery
Brands love producing music videos for Tết campaigns because the data often tells them that “consumers are X times more likely to consume music content during Tết compared with normal periods.”
To me, Tết music videos are still something of a… mystery.I’ve read reports that track brand health metrics after Tết campaigns. Usually, those metrics improve as a result of the combined effect of many different campaign activities. But I’ve never had the chance to see clearly how much the Tết music video itself contributed to those improvements—and obviously I’m not just talking about views or social buzz.
There’s another question too: are consumers actually sitting there and watching the music video? Or do they watch it once and, if they like the song, simply listen to it from then on? That distinction matters a lot when it comes to brand health. If the lyrics are packed with the brand name, nobody wants to listen to the song. But if the brand barely appears at all, nobody remembers who made it.
I’m genuinely curious about how effective Tết music videos really are. So I’d love you to do a quick informal survey among people around you—ideally people who don’t work in marketing or advertising, to reduce the bias—and ask them two questions:
Which Tết music video or song do you or your family still remember and play every Tết?
If that music video or song contained advertising, which brand was it for? And do you remember anything about the advertising itself?
There’s one more thing. Have you ever noticed where a lot of the statistics I mentioned earlier actually come from? Usually, they come from major platforms such as YouTube. And those platforms don’t publish free reports purely for the fun of it. Those reports also help persuade brands to invest more money in music videos. When brands produce more music videos, the platform gets more content—and more advertising revenue from the media budgets brands put behind that content.
So, in summary, there are three things I think you should consider before developing a Tết campaign: You’re competing with every brand that is active during Tết. Refresh the communication territory you already have. And seriously consider whether you need to make a music video at all.
These are simply observations from my own perspective and experience after working through many Tết seasons. I hope you find them useful, and I’m always open to a good, respectful debate.
Wishing all brands very large budgets so their agencies can finally make the spectacular Tết campaigns they’ve been dreaming of. 🤞
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