According to Vietnam Advertisement Association, 80% of Vietnam’s advertising revenues (app. US$500mill. in 2006) went to about 50 foreign enterprises, while app. 3000 local companies competed for the remaining 20%.

Most of serious FDI enterprises have their global marketing agencies, or choose to work with international partners in Vietnam, as between Unilever, Ford and Mindshare&JWT; Honda, Toyota and Dentsu. And increasingly, Vietnam’s companies also seek services, in particular strategic branding plan or creative campaigns, from foreign partners, such as MobiFone, Vinaphone or Viettel, 3 leading mobile network operators.

Among 3000 local entities, only a handful number is capable to draw a strategic marketing plan. Foreign advertising agents often seek to contract local companies in outsourcing of below-the-line activities: logistics, installment, branding, promotion activities.

It is not cheap at all in Vietnam to run a serious ad campaign. A 30sec TVC at major national channels (VTV or HTV) costs up to US$1,800. A full page ad fee in a 10,000-circulated bi-monthly magazine ranges between US1,500 and 3,000.

TV’s and newspapers in Vietnam are all under control of the government. There is nothing of so-called private TV or private magazine. While all TV channels and most newspapers run the sales of advertisement by themselves, a portion of (professional) magazines seek to work with local advertisement agencies to outsource the sales of ad.

Hanoi Group’s expertise

Managing partners at HG are among the top names in Vietnam’s marketing and media industry. We have been involved in a number of marketing consulting projects with prestigious clients: Honda, IBM, Abbott Laboratories, Samsung etc. At present we also extend to invest in direct marketing, a sub-line of marketing which possesses great potential in Vietnam.