- 1,414%growth in unique users from Vietnam on its Facebook page
- 10.49%average engagement rate, against a 3.81% Vietnam average
- 1.89Mengagements on Vietnamese content
About the client
DFL Digital Sports is the content division responsible for media production at the Bundesliga, Germany's top football league. The Bundesliga named Vietnam a key market, but had no content in Vietnamese.
- Client
- DFL Digital Sports (Bundesliga)
- Industry
- Sports
- Market
- Vietnam
- Services
- Social media strategy and community management, video and graphic production, localisation, PR articles, offline event assets, monthly reporting
- Project duration
- 3 years
The challenge
A world-class league that Vietnam overlooked
An afterthought to the Premier League
The Bundesliga is one of the world's most exciting football leagues, with the highest number of goals per game. But for football fans in Vietnam, it's often an afterthought to the likes of the English Premier League.
A key market with no Vietnamese content
The Bundesliga defined Vietnam as a key market, but it had no content in Vietnamese, and 443,000 unique users from Vietnam on its Facebook page.
Standing out from Europe's other leagues
The biggest challenge was to stand out from the English Premier League, La Liga and Serie A, using social media content fuelled by local insight to educate, engage and entertain Vietnamese audiences about Germany's top flight.
What we did
A bespoke social media studio, built on local insight
Starting with research
Insights from our pre-launch brand positioning lab showed that Vietnamese audiences saw the Bundesliga as a highly tactical league, and enjoyed the entertainment value of its high-scoring matches.
A two-part strategy
For core fans, we launched educational, bite-sized content that celebrated the league's stats, players and goals. For new fans, our tailored content tapped into what Vietnam was talking about, from pop culture and Lunar New Year to U23 and national team tournaments and the Mid-Autumn Festival.
From social to press and events
DFL Digital Sports chose We Create Content to launch and manage its social media in Vietnam. Our content marketing studio ran content strategy, a high-intensity production schedule and community management. We also wrote PR articles for Vietnamese media and designed assets for the Bundesliga's offline events.
- 20–25social posts a month
- 368Vietnamese content pieces
- 102Vietnamese-language videos
- 103PR articles in Vietnamese media
- 2offline events
"Bundesliga trusted us to create social content fuelled by local insight."
Ian PayntonCofounder, We Create ContentCampaign spotlights
Three ideas that made a German league feel local
Local insight made a German football league feel "in tune with Vietnamese culture". These three ideas show how.
Marco Reus meme: 18,000 reactions in hours
When rapper Den Vau was #1 trending on YouTube in Vietnam, his video showed him with his head poking out of the ocean, rapping "how did my raps get so good? It's a secret". Our focus groups had told us Vietnamese fans found Borussia Dortmund striker Marco Reus "handsome". So we made an image card of Reus with his head poking out of the ocean: "Why am I so handsome? It's a secret".
The post won the highest reach and engagement of all the Bundesliga's content in Vietnam that summer. Fans were impressed that the Bundesliga was creating content in Vietnam, and surprised at how "in tune with Vietnamese culture" the league was.
- 18,000organic reactions within hours
"Big Brother has arrived": posts that made the newspapers
Our research told us Vietnam's national team is known as the big brother of ASEAN football. So a few hours before a World Cup qualifier against Malaysia, the Bundesliga posted a good luck message: "Big Brother has arrived". Before a match against Thailand, it asked: "Shall we have Thai hot pot for dinner?"
Posts like these showed a deep understanding of Vietnamese culture. They even made it into Vietnamese newspapers, earning the Bundesliga extra media coverage.
Players speaking Vietnamese: 743,907 reach
Speaking Vietnamese in Vietnam goes a long way. Working closely with the Bundesliga, we helped players learn and speak Vietnamese phrases for social content.
The series earned coverage in Baomoi, Vietnamplus, VTV, Zing News, Kenh14, Bongdaplus and more.
- 743,907reach for "Happy Lunar New Year"
- 260,000+video views for "Happy Lunar New Year"
- 652,000reach for "Good luck U23s"
- 239,614video views for "Good luck U23s"
Featured work
The posts that got Vietnam talking
A selection of the Bundesliga's Vietnamese content, and the press coverage it earned.
"Why am I so handsome? It's a secret"
- 18,000organic reactions within hours
- Riffed on Vietnam's #1 trending YouTube video
- Used a player fans already found "handsome"
"Shall we have Thai hot pot for dinner?"
- Earned coverage in Vietnamese newspapers
- Timed for the Vietnam v Thailand match
- Played on national pride, with a wink
Witty social wins earned media in Vietnam
- 10+Vietnamese outlets covered the "Speaking Vietnamese" series
- Content that felt local was worth reporting
- Earned media on top of social reach
Local news media covers Bundesliga social content
- Earned coverage, on top of social reach
- Social posts that doubled as news stories
- Showed a deep understanding of Vietnamese culture
The results
From 443,000 to 6.7 million in Vietnam
Since partnering with We Create Content, the Bundesliga grew its unique users from Vietnam on Facebook by 1,414%, from 443,000 to 6.71 million. With engagement rates 175% above Vietnam's Facebook average, the league engaged its new Vietnamese audience in an effective way.
The work won countless column inches of earned media, and took the new social audience offline at two events: DeutschlandFest in Hanoi, and the Bundesliga Penalty Shootout Arena in Ho Chi Minh City. There, 400 fans came to compete and watch, and the winning team won an all-expenses-paid trip to a Bundesliga game in Germany.
Since our work with the Bundesliga, the league has gone on to sign a new broadcast deal with NextMedia in Vietnam.
- 6.71Munique users from Vietnam on FacebookBefore: 443,000 → After: 6.71M
- 10.49%average engagement rate (Vietnam average: 3.81%, We Are Social)
- 1,889,850engagements on Vietnamese content
- 400fans at the Penalty Shootout Arena
