DIGITAL MARKETERS ACTIVITIES AMONG VIETNAM ENTERPRISES

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Digital marketing landscape in Vietnam (2019)
Voices of Vietnam digital marketers and agencies
From Q&Me Vietnam Market Research

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INTRODUCTION
Vietnam advertisement market is in the middle of huge shift from the traditional to digital, as
smartphone changes the lifestyle of consumers and many spend hours online daily.
Q&Me, market research service operated by Asia Plus Inc, has conducted the survey among
135 enterprises (102 brands, 20 agencies, 13 media) in August 2019 to understand their
marketing activities, relationship between brands and agencies, as well as the issues of
Vietnam digital marketing industries.
This is the second time that we conduct this survey. The first survey was conducted in Oct
2017 and put information as the reference.

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DIGITAL MARKETERS ACTIVITIES AMONG
VIETNAM ENTERPRISES
Digital marketing activities among Vietnam enterprises
Among several digital marketing activities, Vietnamese enterprises focus on social activities
the most. 84% spend their money on social advertisement. Display advertisement (including
GDN) and Search advertisement / SEM are also popular, with 44% and 46% of the
enterprises invest them respectively.
Social advertisement is popular regardless of the company size. 94% of the mid/large
enterprises (staff number is 50 and more) spend money for social while 79% of small
enterprises (staff number is less than 50) do the same activity as well. The other activities are
mainly for the mid/large enterprises. For instance, 35% of mid/large enterprises take influencer
marketing while the number is 11% only for small enterprises.
3%
6%
6%
3%
6%
13%
4%
4%
21%
24%
31%
29%
46%
45%
9%
22%
25%
25%
30%
8%
21%
84%
52%
46%
40%
34%
33%
30%
Social advertisement
Search advertising / SEM
Display advertisement / GDN
Online video advertising
Email marketing
Performance marketing / Affiliate
Influencer marketing
Digital marketing in use
Do not know it Recognize but never do it Have done it before Do it

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When we compare the trend in 2019 with 2017, the brands came to use more
method of digital marketing. Search advertising and influencer marketing
becomes more popular.
DIGITAL MEDIA IN USE
Digital marketing media in use
Facebook is the most popular media that almost all enterprises have the account. YouTube
follows after that. 96% of the brand use Facebook for their digital marketing. YouTube is also
high, as 75% use it.
Social medias in use
84%
46%
44%
39%
23%
84%
52%
46%
40%
30%
Social advertisement
Search advertising / SEM
Display advertisement / GDN
Online video advertising
Influencer marketing
Service popularity in 2017 and 2019
2019
2017
96%
FACEBOOK
75%
YOUTUBE 49%INSTAGRAM
32%
ZALO

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Objective of digital marketing
Facebook is used mainly for branding and customer support.
90% use the media for branding. The enterprises came to use Facebook for customer care
more than before. This is because of the changes in consumer touch point from email or SMS
to social media. Other than that, the common objectives are for PR, campaign and traffic
increase.
Many enterprises use Facebook ads, in order to increase the number on inquiries and the
traffic. They tend to use advertisements to enhance the conversions such as inquiries, website
traffic, and like / followers, while the branding activities are taken care of by the regular
contents-based operations.
34%
35%
38%
50%
57%
65%
69%
72%
73%
90%
Traffic conversion at EC
Member acquisition
Hiring
Traffic increase to the real
store
Feedback to product
development
Traffic increase to the
website
Campaign
PR
Customer support
Branding
Facebook objective
39%
47%
60%
63%
70%
70%
84%
Increase those who search
the keywords related with ads
Increase traffic/purchase to/at
real shop
Increase conversion
Increase Views of the posted
contents
Increase Likes/followers of
Facebook
Increase traffic to website
Increase number of inquiries
Facebook ad objective

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Popular media for online video
Online vide is one of the most popular digital marketing activities in Vietnam, with 83% of
brands use it. YouTube and Facebook are the two most popular online video media.
Although YouTube is more popular for the content updates, Facebook are used with paid ads
more, to reach the target audience effectively.
Media satisfaction
What are the media satisfactions among the enterprises? Facebook receives the highest
satisfaction with 64% satisfaction ratio, followed by YouTube (44%), Instagram (29%) and
Zalo (14%). (The figure is only from the company who use those media).
95%
86%
60%
9% 8%
Youtube Facebook Own website Use ad network/ DSP CocCoc
Popular online video media
17%
9%
8%
6%
47%
36%
21%
8%
27%
40%
56%
49%
8%
14%
14%
25%
1%
2%
1%
13%
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
Zalo
Media satisfaction
Very satisfied Satisfied Average Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied

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DIGITAL MEDIAS OPERATIONS
Ratio of in-house and outsource in digital media operations
While almost all companies use Facebook for their marketing, who are in charge of the
operations? 74% enterprises manage Facebook on their own while 26% outsource the
operations to the agency. This trend difference is very obvious by company size. While 91%
of the small companies (company size is less than 50 staff) manage Facebook on their own,
the number goes down to no more than 55% for the mid-big size companies (company size is
50 staff and more).
Who manages Facebook operations
What are the backgrounds of these differences? The top reasons among the
company who outsource Facebook operations are due to more professional
operations. The top reasons are “more skills (73%)”, “as part of advertisement
operations (43%)” and “better report (40%)”.
On the other hand, those who do in-house think that they “have enough skills
(82%)”, as well as “cost constraint (44%)”.
74%
26%
All
91%
55%
9%
45%
Staff size less than
50
Staff size 50 and
more
By company size
We outsource it to
the agency
We run it ourselves

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73%
43%
40%
33%
30%
30%
27%
Agencies have more skills to
win better performance
As we outsource all the
advertisement work to them
As agencies provide us
better report
As we outsource all the
Facebook management to…
Agencies could complete the
task with lower rate
We do not have the skills to
conduct it on our own
Accounting purpose (e.g
VAT issues)
Reason to outsource to agency
82%
64%
44%
27%
27%
25%
As we have enough skills to
manage the ads
As it is easier to modify
contents or setting
As we do not have to pay
extra cost to the agency
As we could save the time of
communicating with
agencies
Social ads management are
easy enough
As our budget is not big
enough
Reason to manage it inhouse

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ISSUES OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN VIETNAM
Digital marketing satisfaction
How much satisfaction do they have for the current digital marketing? They have fair
satisfaction in terms of “performance (click, views) (44%)”, “audience reach (43%)”. On the
other hand, they are not satisfied with cost (29%), and also they are not happy with the
contribution to the sales as the satisfaction figure is the lowest (31%).
Digital marketing advantages / disadvantages
So how do enterprises perceive the advantages and disadvantages in digital marketing? The
biggest benefits are “better audience targeting (88%)”, “easy to measure performance (82%)”,
“easy to manage content (81%)”. On the other hands, the major weaknesses are the
reachability. “Difficulty to reach elderly segment (67%)”, “Difficulty to reach in rural area
(59%)”.
However, if you compare the results with the ones conducted in 2017, we see that the
enterprises came to appreciate the benefit of digital marketing better, especially in the areas of
the reachability, performance management and content management. On the other hand,
13%
12%
8%
5%
4%
31%
32%
32%
24%
27%
36%
40%
40%
46%
48%
16%
12%
17%
23%
18%
3%
4%
3%
1%
3%
Performance (click, view etc)
Target audience reach
Conversion (member, app install etc)
Cost
Sales impact
Media satisfaction
Very satisfied Satisfied Average Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied

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overall weakness scores become less which is the other indication that the enterprises came
to understand and make use of the benefit of digital marketing more effectively.
Issues in digital marketing of Vietnam
What are the issues to be solved in Vietnam digital marketing? The answer with highest vote is
“lack of educational opportunity”. The learning opportunities of digital marketing seem to be
missing in Vietnam despite of its rapid industry increase. What follows afterwards is “the lack
of understanding in digital marketing among management”.
If you compare the same data with that of 2017, we see the improvement as to the
“organization structure” and “the necessary resources for both of brand / agency side”.
However, the enterprise seems to be dissatisfied with the budget allocation to the digital more
than before.
88%
82%
81%
76%
73%
71%
69%
78%
74%
72%
75%
77%
68%
69%
Better audience targeting
Easy to measure
performance
Easy to change / modify the
contents
Easy to see audience
response
Flexible budget planning
Shorter lead time
Flexibility in creative
Advantage of digital marketing
2017 2019
67%
59%
25%
24%
19%
16%
13%
72%
69%
30%
25%
21%
17%
19%
Difficulty to reach elderly
segment
Difficulty to reach audience
in rural area
ROI is not clear nor good
Small budget allocation
Difficulty to measure
performance
Quality of contents
Little business impact
Weakness of digital marketing
2017 2019

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ONLINE SHOPPING OPPORUNITIES
Online shopping usage among enterprises
Online shopping market goes up by over 20% annually and became the new opportunity of
the revenue stream. Among the enterprises, more than half of the brands have already
started the online shopping.
The most popular online channel among enterprises are Facebook, followed by their own
websites. Among EC platform, Tiki, Shopee, Lazada are the 3 big players. Big enterprises
tend to use these EC platform higher.
57% 25% 18%
Online shopping usage
We do online shopping
We are interested in starting online shopping
We are not interested / our products are not suitable
78%
63%
57%
51%
45%
29%
Facebook Own channel Tiki Shopee Lazada Sendo
Popular online shopping channel

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Online shopping evaluations
How much are they satisfied with online shopping, though? 41% are satisfied with the sales
via online channel. On the other hand, the satisfaction in profit goes down to 26%. Especially
the satisfaction from the smaller enterprises are lower. The online shopping has helped the
enterprises gain new revenues but the issues seem to be the profitability.
4%
4%
37%
22%
45%
51%
10%
20%
4%
4%
Sales
Profit
Online shopping satisfaction
Very satisfied Satisfied Average Not satisfied Least satisfied

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BRAND / AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS
Agency satisfaction
When brands are asked to score their satisfaction of their partner agencies from 1-10 (10 =
satisfied, 1=dissatisfied), only 13% scores 8 and higher while 49% scores 6 and less. The
main reasons of their low scores come from such items as “deliverables different from
original (58%)” and “Lack of flexibility (54%)”.
Issues between brand and agency
What are the reasons why the satisfaction does not go high. The below is the summary of the
opinions from both of brands and agencies side. From the brand side, “high cost (53%)” and
“lack of company strategy / history (50%)” are the two biggest issues. Especially the frustration
about the high cost went higher than before.
From the agency side, frequent direction change (70%) and budget limitation (64%) are the
highest dissatisfaction. Things such as “understanding in new approach” or “market
13%
14%
23%
23%
12%
1%
Agency satisfaction
4 and lower 5 6 7 8 9 10- Very effective
58%
54%
46%
40%
38%
30%
16%
Deliverables different from
original commitment
Lack of flexibility
Poor quality in creative
Lack of reporting
Poor performance
Delay in delivery
Slow response of the team
Reasons of dissatisfaction

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understanding” went lower while the agency seem to be more frustrated with the changes in
directions.
Gaps between brand and agency
We see several gaps as to how both of brand and agency recognize the current
communications in two aspects – briefing quality and proposal quality.
When it comes to the briefing, 43% of the brands think their briefing is detailed enough while
the ratio goes down to 12% from the agencies. So the agencies do not feel that briefing is
sufficient although brands think that they have done their job properly.
The opposite gap can be seen in the proposal. 53% of the agency feel that their proposal is
good enough while no more than 17% are satisfied from the brand side. The major
dissatisfaction comes from “lack of industry understanding” or “lack of requirement
understanding”.
53%
50%
46%
44%
43%
35%
32%
31%
25%
46%
49%
40%
38%
47%
29%
39%
35%
19%
High cost
Limited understanding of
company strategy & history
Lack of transparency
Movement from strategic to
tactical execution
Performance tracking
Project management
Lack of practical ideas
Limited ability to integrate
channels, campaigns, &…
Communication problems
Issues (Brand > Agency)
2017 2019
70%
64%
52%
48%
48%
30%
24%
60%
77%
70%
60%
60%
35%
23%
Frequent direction change
Limited budget
Fear in new approach
Obscure goals and
objectives
Lack of market
understanding
Communication problems
Project management
Issues (Agency > Brand)
2017 2019

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This gap also is seen in their evaluation of the cost. While 79% of the brands feel that the cost
from the agency is either high or very high, the 45% agencies feel that the budget given from
the brands are limited. So in addition to the briefing quality, there is a huge gap in terms of the
cost.
43%
12%
53%
73%
4%
15%
Brand view
Agency view
Briefing quality
With enough details With overviews No, not at all
12%
16%
41%
67%
41%
17%
3%3%
Brand view
Agency view
Proposal quality
Very good Good OK Bad Very bad
10%
69%
20%
2%
Cost evaluations among brands
Very high High Acceptable Affordable Very affordable
3%
42%
48%
6%
Cost evaluations among agencies
Very little Little Acceptable Generous Very generous

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RESPONDENT PROFILE
The survey was conducted from 135 enterprises in Vietnam in July 2019.
5%
5%
2%
1%
4%
41%
41%
Owner
President or CEO
CxO (CIO, COO, CTO, CMO, CFO etc.)
Senior Vice President/ Vice President
Director
Senior Manager/ Manager
Intermediate/ Middle level
Job titles
13%
33%
15%
13%
12%
5%
10%
Less than 10 employees
11 - 50 employees
51 - 100 employees
101 - 250 employees
251 - 500 employees
501 - 1,000 employees
More than 1,000 employees
Company size
24%
10%
66%
Company type
Marketing / Advertisement agency Publisher / Media company Brands

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ABOUT US
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