Biti's Hunter - The return of a legend

On the verge of 2019’s New Year’s Eve, all Vpop fans along the nation were given a huge surprise, as Soobin Hoang Son, along with famous song composer Tien Cookie and Da Lab had chosen the final day of 2018 to publish their latest musical production - Se hua di cung nhau on Youtube. A week later, the MV has earned more than 20 million views, marking yet another success of Soobin as a V-pop singer and Se hua di cung nhau as another milestone in Biti’s communication campaign - Di de tro ve (Advertising Vietnam, 2019).

Looking at the success of Di de tro ve, hardly anyone could imagine that just only a few years ago, Biti’s, along with many other local shoes brands, were suffering from the loss of market share. In fact, Cafef (2017) has stated that when the market was opened to foreign brands, the low-end market was quickly dominated by Chinese footwears, while the high-end market became a playground for sneaker brands like Adidas, Nike, etc. So in order to restore their position, the mission of Biti’s is to find a way to penetrate into the vacant middle sector (500.000 – 1.000.000 VND) of the sneaker market through the promotion of their new line - Biti’s Hunter (Vietcetera, 2018).

Se hua di cung nhau marks Soobin's 3-year collaboration with Biti's Hunter

It’s all about the buzz

With a budget of approximately 3 million VND, Di de tro ve faced the ultimate pressure of having to increase consumers’ brand awareness while having far less financial advantages. Consequently, Biti’s had chosen to wrap the whole campaign up in just 3 phases: Creating a buzz through conversations on social media using hashtags #teamdi or #teamve, launching 2 music videos with product placement, and finally, publishing PR articles on Kenh14.

Regarding all three phases of the campaign, online conversations was the most vital and efficient tactic of Biti’s to target Gen Z audiences, which can be explained by their unconventional digital behaviors. According to Decision Lab (2015), Gen Z are most comfortable spending their time behind screens, particularly smartphones and prefer to express themselves via their online citizenship. Naturally, they would become more skeptical toward information online and sensitive to advertising contents (GAM7, 2018). If Biti’s Hunter wanted to attract attention of these audiences, they would have to do it subtly, and in a manner that will make Gen Z associate the brand with their identities. As such, online conversations featuring KOLs and hashtags to discuss about the topic “travel or go home” during Tet had satisfied these criteria in many ways. In terms of technology, influencer marketing are resistance to ad blocking yet still ensures the visibility of the brand (WARC, 2018). In terms of authenticity, online conversations allow users to participate directly into discussions and express their opinions with their KOLs, maximizing engagement and understanding of Biti’s Hunter’s value through its association with specific celebrities (Pho, Giang Hoang, Phan Y Yen,...). Finally, in terms of finance, Biti’s will save more, as many KOLs are omni channel netizens and will guarantee more reach in different platforms.

Right person(s) at the right time

In the second phase of Di de tro ve, the influencer factor once again demonstrated its power, but this time, with some support from the time factor. As Brands Vietnam (n.d) has stated, this campaign was developed based on the insight “The more you go, the more you learn, and the more you will treasure the journey home”. Hence to maximize the campaign’s effectiveness, its time scope should be around the period of time when travelling needs reach peak - Lunar New Year. Biti’s is aware of a cultural fact that to Vietnamese people, Lunar New Year bears a special meaning, as the holiday is considered an occasion for people to go back to their homeland and/or see their families. Alternatively, Lunar New Year nowadays is also considered an occasion to travel by many Vietnamese youth, due to its extended length (Thanh Nien, 2018). Hence by placing their products in 2 MVs of Son Tung MTP and Soobin Hoang Son, Biti’s Hunter was able to achieve 3 desirable results: attract consumers’ attention, give them some time to plan ahead for their trip home/away (initiated further conversations), make consumers acknowledge and possibly choose Biti’s Hunter as a companion for their Lunar New Year trip. Additionally, another move done right by Biti’s during this phase was their selection of KOLs, as Son Tung MTP was the most searched celebrity on Google Vietnam in 2015, and had only represented for one brand (Oppo) prior to Biti’s (Zing News, 2015). With Biti’s financial situation and objectives, Son Tung’s astonishing popularity, Soobin’s youthful image and Tet were a perfect combination.

Good artists copy, great artists steal

So far, all 3 seasons of Di de tro ve have been successful and further concrete the image of Soobin with Biti’s Hunter, as well as Biti’s Hunter with Lunar New Year. Despite of this, the fact that Di de tro ve has become a 3-season campaign has somewhat gone against Biti’s original thought “People nowadays don’t really want to follow a prolonged campaign” (Brand Vietnam, n.d). Regarding the current state of Biti’s, it’s recommended that the brand should try to tackle other travelling seasons, for instance, Summer, or Autumn with a new campaign. Of course, it’s undeniable that the brand’s success in tackling young consumers can be used as a lesson for other. Yet in reality, how many brands right now can fully use influencer marketing to promote for their brands instead of the opposite ? Furthermore, a current trend can be observed in many advertisements is that many brands are overusing KOLs with high reputation, neglecting the compatibility between those KOLs and their brand value. From a marketer's point of view, the fact that many brands in Vietnam are trying to do what Biti's Hunter has done indicates their desire to be like Biti's, but celebrity endorsement alone won't be enough. It's vital for brands nowadays to take into consideration what their own values and objectives are to modify lessons learned accordingly.

Reference used

Advertising Vietnam. (2019). "Đi để trở về 3" - Gia đình đồng hành cùng người trẻ trên vạn dặm bước chân. [online] Available at: https://advertisingvietnam.com/2019/01/di-de-tro-ve-3-gia-dinh-van-la-diem-den-cuoi-cung/ [Accessed 5 Apr. 2019].

Báo Thanh Niên. (2018). Tết này bạn có về quê?. [online] Available at: https://thanhnien.vn/gioi-tre/tet-nay-ban-co-ve-que-929345.html [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].

Brands Vietnam (n.d.). Campaign: Bitis - Đi để trở về. [online] Brands Vietnam. Available at: https://www.brandsvietnam.com/campaign/209-Bitis-Di-de-tro-ve [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].

Cafef.vn. (2017). Không thuộc 10 DN giày lớn nhất Việt Nam nhưng Biti’s đang là niềm tự hào của sản phẩm Việt. [online] Available at: http://cafef.vn/khong-thuoc-10-dn-giay-lon-nhat-viet-nam-nhung-bitis-dang-la-niem-tu-hao-cua-san-pham-viet-20170105100025202.chn [Accessed 5 Apr. 2019].

Decisionlab.co. (2015). Download material - Genzilla - Vietnam. [online] Available at: https://www.decisionlab.co/download-material-genzilla-vietnam [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].

GAM7. (2018). Thế hệ Z và Những điều thương hiệu cần phải biết. [online] Available at: https://www.brandsvietnam.com/congdong/topic/11481-The-he-Z-va-Nhung-dieu-thuong-hieu-can-phai-biet [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].

Vietcetera. (2018). Biti’s Hunter: How A Small Budget Campaign Rebirthed A Brand - Vietcetera. [online] Available at: http://vietcetera.com/bitis-hunter-how-a-small-budget-campaign-rebirthed-a-brand/ [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].

WARC Ltd (2018). RMIT Central Authentication Service. [online] Available at: https://www-warc-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/content/article/bestprac/what_we_know_about_influencer_marketing/111564 [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].

Zing News (2015). Sơn Tùng được tìm kiếm nhiều nhất trên Google Việt Nam 2015. [online] Available at: https://news.zing.vn/son-tung-duoc-tim-kiem-nhieu-nhat-tren-google-viet-nam-2015-post613535.html [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].