Vietnam’s top 10 market trends in 2022 are the rise of TikTok, e-commerce platforms, fintech applications, metaverse experiences, influencer marketing, live streaming, music video marketing, podcasting, sustainability-focused branding and a resurgence in classic out of home (OOH) advertising techniques.

Each of these trends has been profoundly shaped by the impact of the global pandemic. 2021 wasn’t the best year for Vietnam’s economy. After a remarkably effective pandemic response all through 2020, the COVID-19 delta variant hit Vietnam hard in Q2, 2021. 

The number of COVID-19 cases quickly surpassed 1 million nationwide, prompting major cities to enter into months of financially crippling lockdowns and market trends to move in a number of unanticipated directions.

Businesses have struggled in the aftermath of the 4th wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam, especially in the tourism, services and hospitality sectors. Unsurprisingly, GDP growth hasn’t been able to keep up with optimistic government targets set earlier in the year. 

The good news is that Vietnam has been rapidly accelerating its public vaccine programs. 

By the end of 2021, nearly 50% of the population was fully vaccinated, with vaccination rates reaching 90% or more in the big cities. This has enabled the domestic workforce to spring back into action, setting Vietnam up for a return to business as usual in the post-pandemic period. 

Despite the pandemic, Vietnam still managed to attract 30 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2021. That includes 250 million USD invested by Samsung to build a colossal R&D center set to launch in late 2022 just outside of Hanoi. 

“Vietnam remains an attractive investment destination,” said Mr Choi Joo Ho, Director of Samsung in Vietnam. The nation’s undeniable economic resilience has set the stage for a promising comeback in the year ahead.

In fact, the pandemic has even introduced a number of novel business opportunities, with hybrid work situations and extended lockdowns dramatically accelerating Vietnam’s digital transformation. 

Vietnamese consumers are now more tech-savvy than ever. Ordering groceries through ride-hailing services, paying bills via digital wallets, and working or studying from home have become the new normal for the average Vietnamese citizen. 

To help your brand capitalize on these emerging consumer habits in the year ahead, here are We Create Content’s top ten Vietnamese market trends to watch out for in 2022.

TikTok booms in Vietnam

A few years back, Tiktok wasn’t even in the top 5 social media channels in Vietnam. The youth-dominated platform made a significant breakthrough in 2021, rising to become the 4th most popular social media channel in Vietnam. 

According to a recent survey by Q&Me, 71% of Vietnamese Gen-Z are now spending their free time on TikTok. 

Tiktok is no longer just for lip-syncing performances and quirky dance routines. It’s now a full-fledged video platform serving a dizzying variety of content, including educational materials, DIY tutorials, inspiring lifestyle and art projects, fitness programs, and just about everything in between.

By August 2021, the #LearnonTiktok campaign in Vietnam had attracted more than 700 creators, generating extremely viral content around six major themes:

#HocCungTikTok (Learn on TikTok)

#TikTokMentor

#GocSangTao (Creative Zone)

#SongKhoe247 (Live Well 24/7)

#BiKipSongAo (Photo Tips)

#ThanhCongNghe (God of Technology)

E-commerce and online shopping are the new normal in Vietnam

Vietnamese consumers endured no less than 6 months of prolonged lockdown in 2021. All non-essential brick-and-mortar stores were closed as traditional wet markets and grocery stores severely limited entry numbers. Faced with stringent social distancing protocols, Vietnamese consumers had little choice but to turn to online shopping.

Ride-hailing services like Grab, GoJek, Bee & Baemin pivoted into food and parcel delivery, while domestic e-commerce giants like Tiki, Shopee, Lazada, and Sendo, along with major supermarket chains like VinMart, BigC, and Lotte Mart, all embraced door-to-door shipping for household goods.

For small businesses the shift to e-commerce has been a complete game-changer, drastically reducing the financial burden of maintaining brick-and-mortar storefronts. 

SMEs can now focus more on expanding promotion, improving customer service, and streamlining logistics to increase revenue. Anyone who can set up an online store is now capable of entering Vietnam’s busy consumer market. 

Meanwhile, big brands are also enjoying this change of pace. E-commerce channels have enabled manufacturers to sell products directly to consumers (also known as D2C) through platforms like ShopeeMall and LazMall. These official stores offer greater credibility than resellers, attracting much more customers as a result. 

In this new normal, manufacturers and consumer brands are no longer reliant on traditional distribution channels. They can now tap into their customer bases directly through online promotional campaigns, a strategy offering more accurate feedback, expanded sales, and less time spent negotiating with resellers and middlemen. 

In light of this new trend, we suggest that consumer brands of all sizes adopt and optimise their online stores in 2022. Resources permitting, brands should invest in building out an online ecosystem for their consumers. That includes:

Setting up your e-commerce website

Setting up official stores on e-commerce platforms

Setting up customer support chatbots

Setting up automated workflows to process large number of orders and enhance customers’ shopping experiences

Vietnam’s Fintech battleground heats up

After a year-long plateau, Vietnam’s resurgent economy means more room to grow for financial services, opening up plenty of new opportunities for start-ups. In 2017-2020, the number of fintech start-ups in Vietnam tripled (from 44 to 203).

In a recent Fintech in ASEAN report released by UOB, PwC, and SFA, Vietnam ranked 3rd in Fintech funding, just behind Singapore and Indonesia. Nextrans, a Korean venture capital fund, estimates that the value of Digital Services will grow from 0.5 billion USD to 3.8 billion in the next four years, with online payments projected to grow 15% year-on-year until 2025.

COVID-19 has made Vietnamese consumers appropriately wary of cash payments. Unsurprisingly,  e-wallets and digital banking have witnessed meteoric rises in popularity. Most online and offline stores now accept digital payments via mobile apps. Leading players in this rapidly emerging scene include VNPay, Momo, and ShopeePay.

As Vietnam’s GDP per capita continues to rise despite the pandemic, the nation’s working-class now has more idle cash on its hands than ever. That explains the rise in retail investing, real estate fintech, blockchain, and cryptocurrency.

Just a few years back, buying stocks was seen as a purely elite activity. Nowadays, Vietnamese investors can get started with as little as $2 USD, whether in traditional stocks, cryptocurrencies or even small scale real estate. 

Fintech in Vietnam is still in its early stages of development, making it an immensely promising sector for newcomers in 2022. On the other hand, brands and service providers should be aware of consumers’ changing payment preferences. 

Market entrants should be sure to enable digital payments to accommodate this new mold of Vietnamese consumers.

Vietnam enters the Metaverse

Even in the wake of nationwide lockdowns, Vietnam continues to restrict the number of attendants at both private and public events. This has made hosting traditional business gatherings overwhelmingly impractical.

Teleconferencing platforms have stepped up to fill the gap with remote workshops and virtual events, but they’re no substitute for pre-pandemic norms. That’s where the ‘metaverse’ concept is steadily coming into play.

A metaverse is a virtual world enabling users to interact between virtual selves in a fully digital environment. Aided by digital currencies and cryptographically secure profiles, participants can buy, sell, trade, socialize, and generally interact in any way they see fit.

While Facebook’s high-profile rebrand has undoubtedly popularized the term, there have been signs of this growing trend in Vietnam for quite some time.

A notable local example of this kind of metaverse experience is Axie Infinity - an NFT-based online video game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis. The game is now valued at $3 billion, after just two groundbreaking funding rounds.

Axie Infinity’s success demonstrates just how eager Vietnamese, and indeed international consumers are for more comprehensive virtual experiences in the wake of the global pandemic.

According to Ngo Van Cuong, Chief Technology Officer of Meta Spatial, creating a genuine metaverse requires a combination of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and blockchain technology. This means that full-fledged metaverse experiences won’t be cropping up in Vietnam overnight.

Even so, forward thinking brands should be aware of this mid to long-term trend and embrace various aspects of the “metaverse experience” in the interim. 

Following the likes of Adidas, who partnered with both Bored Ape and Sandbox to create NFTs and buy plots of virtual reality land, local fashion company Boo has partnered with a London-based start-up to experiment in transforming its fashion products into NFTs in a metaverse called “Nextverse” built on the Solana blockchain.

Other examples might include holding virtual workspaces, virtual marketing events and (virtual) branded social experiences aimed at Vietnamese audiences.

Vietnam loves influencer marketing

According to 7Sat’s State of Influencer Marketing in Vietnam report, while only 30% of Vietnamese consumers trust advertisements, 90% trust influencers’ recommendations. Influencer marketing may be a fairly new format abroad, but it’s already considered a tried and true strategy in Vietnam.

Read more: Influencer marketing in Vietnam: what could possibly go wrong?

A celebrity presence adds a memorable touch to any advertising campaign. That’s proven especially true for Netflix’s recent “Netflix free plan” campaign in Vietnam. The campaign features beloved female rapper, Suboi, using a rewrite of her hit track “Cho Không” (given for free).

The campaign received praise for its creative localisation, with the choice of Suboi as the main character proving to be a particularly effective casting choice for capturing Vietnamese hearts. The appearance of two iconic personas from Netflix originals, Squid Game and Money Heist, undoubtedly added to the campaign’s popular appeal.

Of course, enlisting a household name celebrity for your marketing campaign can be a costly choice. Thankfully there’s also a wide range of micro-influencers to choose from in Vietnam.

Micro-influencers can be screen talents, noted professionals, local community figures, or even community pages with fictional personas. These present a much more affordable alternative to hiring big influencers for small and medium sized businesses, and can be just as effective as celebrities for engaging targeted Vietnamese audiences.

“Buzzmetrics, Nielsen and AnyMind’s reports in the last 2 years all have shown that nano and micro influencers receive the highest engagement among all tiers of influencers - despite their relatively small number of followers,” says Trang Le,  Senior Influencer Marketing Executive at AnyMind Group. 

Businesses can book micro-influencers to show up at launch events, share products on their social media pages, or feature in branded marketing campaigns. The cost of securing a micro-influencer will vary depending on the scope of work, but with so many options to choose from, there’s almost always someone right. 

The real key with any kind of influencer marketing is to find a candidate who will genuinely click with your intended consumer base. 

“Users love seeing influencers in their element, showing their authentic selves and airing honest opinions. Brands can communicate their messaging in a chosen influencer’s voice or style to really connect with their audiences,” says Trang Le.  

Choosing the right influencer can make or break the success of any brand’s marketing campaign in Vietnam, so picking the right personality is crucial.  

“While we can’t ever fully guarantee a win, we absolutely know that choosing the wrong influencer can create a crisis for your business,” cautions Trang. 

“So of course there are many things a brand should examine thoroughly before deciding to cooperate with an influencer, including but not limited to their category, background, social attitudes, historical brand associations, and even their personal scandals (if any),” Trang adds.

Another take on the influencer scene is affiliate marketing. With the rise of user-generated content and streaming platforms in recent years, more and more content creators are monetizing their work through affiliate marketing programs. 

These typically involve individual creatives or digital content creators earning commission from product placement or embedded shout-outs in their work. 

Affiliate marketing has proven especially effective during the pandemic period when Vietnamese citizens have had more time to stay at home and consume content online. 

Even as the country reopens in 2022, Vietnamese consumers are likely to continue heeding their favourite influencers’ and creators’ recommendations.

Vietnamese E-sports, live streaming and gaming giants

According to a 2021 survey on online gaming in Vietnam, Vietnamese respondents spend an average of 3.1 hours watching other people play video games online per week. Respondents also spent a weekly average of 3.1 hours watching e-sports tournaments; that’s just 30 minutes shy of the weekly average for watching traditional sports programming.

The takeaway? Vietnamese youths are now all but guaranteed to be watching two things: TikTok videos and live-streamed games.

Pandemic lockdowns and strict social distancing protocols forced Vietnamese youths to stay inside for much of 2021. With few opportunities to socialize or connect with their peers in real life, browsing, commenting and listening along to people playing video games has become an increasingly popular pastime for young Vietnamese.

The most popular live-streaming platforms for gaming in Vietnam are Youtube Gaming, Facebook Gaming, and Twitch. More and more casual gamers are turning to live streaming as an opportunity to generate income online, creating all kinds of affiliate marketing opportunities for enterprising brands.

Meanwhile, the gaming market is growing steadily in Vietnam. Recent reports show that no less than half of Vietnamese people are gamers, that's a total addressable market of more than 40 million people.

About two-thirds of Vietnamese gamers are playing on mobile, with just one-third playing on PCs and consoles. For now, the most popular game genres are MMORPGs (massively-multiplayer online role-playing games) and simulated card games.

The most popular domestic game publishers include VNG, Garena, VTC Games, Vietnam Esports, Soha Games, and Funtap. Unfortunately, import taxes on foriegn games and consoles are getting tighter every day.

To make the most of Vietnam’s huge gaming market, foreign game developers are better off launching through local Vietnamese publishers or a Vietnamese subsidiary. Meanwhile, brands that want to tap into the Vietnamese gamer audience can easily sponsor popular live streamers, or incorporate them into virtual marketing and sales events.

The opportunity for creative local marketing in this area is huge. Expect plenty of successful live stream and gaming partnerships from major consumer brands in 2022.

Music video marketing wins in Vietnam

Music marketing has been an effective strategy in Vietnam for years. There are very few things Vietnamese consumers love more than catchy songs produced by their favourite artists.

In late 2020, Honda Vietnam sponsored “Đi về nhà” (Let’s go home), a track by JustaTee and Đen Vâu. Less than 2 days after being released, the sponsored music video had already climbed to the top 1 trending spot on Vietnamese YouTube with 7.2M views.

The song’s lyrics revolve around returning to one’s hometown and seeing family again for the Vietnamese new year, nostalgic subjects that clearly resonated with the many Vietnamese youths studying and working far from home. Nailing this kind of audience connection isn’t easy, but when done right, the results are clear.

Vietnam’s Podcast scene heats up

Podcasts have been around for a while in Vietnam, but the medium only really hit its stride after Vietcetera's Cast Camp competition in 2021.

The competition invited Vietnamese podcasters from a diverse range of categories to duke it out for various accolades, offering all kinds of technical training and brand networking opportunities for up and coming creators.

“Lockdown has created a space for audiences to discover and create habits for new formats, and podcasts have proven to be a real winner in this category,” says Hao Tran, CEO of Vietcetera Media.

“Music video marketing will remain popular, but how do creators and brands stand out to capture audiences’ attention? Podcasts are one of the last unexplored formats, at scale, in Vietnam. So brands can be amongst the first to establish leadership with a growing audience by seriously investing in podcasts,” Hao says.

“If Vietnam follows global trends, podcasting should continue its adoption and growth in Vietnam. We'll see more creators adopting podcast-only or podcast first strategies,” Hao adds.

It's a sentiment echoed by Niall Mackay, founder and director of Seven Million Bikes, an early mover and shaker in the English language Vietnamese podcast scene.

“I think podcasting in Vietnam will continue to grow from ‘amateur’ hobby podcasts to more mainstream culture in 2022. They'll likely be produced by media companies and Vietnamese celebrities will start to host their own shows. So the medium as a whole will grow but the original pioneers will be gradually outshone by more traditional media powerhouses,” Niall says.

For the time being, Vietnamese consumers continue to listen to smaller independent podcasts on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Podcasts’ popularity stem in large part from their ability to engage with audiences on the go. People can listen to their favourite shows when their hands are busy but their minds are clear, whether they’re commuting to work, hitting the gym or washing the dishes after a meal.

These passive consumption habits are in many ways a huge benefit for marketers, who gain a rare opportunity to convey branded messaging to undistracted target audiences.

As Vietnam bounces back from the pandemic, the number of podcast creators and consumers is already expanding rapidly. “My listener numbers actually plummeted during lockdown as people stopped commuting and listening in places like the gym. And this was a common theme for podcasters. Only now are numbers recovering to pre-lockdown levels,” says Niall Mackay.

Usually, each podcast channel focuses on a fairly specific topic and therefore attracts a niche target audience. Here are some popular examples from late 2021:

The Present Writer - a podcast by Ph.D. Chi Nguyen. She talks about life lessons, personal development, education, and minimalism. 

Advertising Vietnam - a podcast featuring talk shows and discussions about Vietnam’s marketing and advertising community.

Oddly normal - a podcast interrogating the concepts of social conformity and oddity for Vietnamese youths.

Have a Sip - a podcast by Vietcetera, hosted by VJ Thùy Minh, chatting to well-known public figures about their daily lives. 

The Blue Expat - a podcast by Po Nguyen - a Vietnamese expatriate talking about her life abroad. 

Podcasts are very much the modern-day twin of traditional radio broadcasting; brands can pay to be featured on specific podcast channels. This can be an extremely effective strategy if your brand’s target audiences sync up well with a particular podcast’s listeners.

Eco-friendly brands gain traction with sustainability efforts in Vietnam

According to a recent report by Kantar World Panel, the percentage of Eco-activists and Eco-conscious consumers in Vietnam is at about 35%. That’s lower than the global average of 59%, but there’s been a noteworthy shift in popular attitudes in the past few years. This is largely thanks to a series of public outreach campaigns aiming to change consumer behaviors in Vietnam.

As the Vietnamese economy grows and greater numbers of Vietnamese citizens come to work, study, live and play abroad, consumers are becoming more aligned with the international eco-zeitgeist.

The younger generation in Vietnam leans broadly towards a more eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyle. That includes using animal-friendly products, recycling and upcycling goods, reducing plastic waste, and donating or reselling old clothes.

At the same time, Vietnamese consumers also expect manufacturers to take the lead in reducing the environmental impact of their goods. Repositioning existing products and services to be more sustainable is a surefire way to appeal to younger Vietnamese audiences.

These commercial trends are mirrored by Vietnamese state regulations, which are likewise moving towards conserving energy and reducing plastic waste to meet global targets.

Sustainability marketing, however, should never be approached cynically. Vietnamese consumers are highly sensitive to greenwashing and there have been a number of cases where Vietnamese netizens have actively called out brands for engaging in this practice.

Out Of Home (OOH) advertising makes a comeback

Traditional OOH (out-of-home) advertising used to be very straightforward in Vietnam. Most OOH banners simply included product images, a brand name and a simple slogan. In recent years a handful of domestic brands have been able to break the mold, bringing OOH back to life while sparking considerable consumer interest.

Take the example of Milo and Ovaltine (cacao drinks) in Vietnam. The two brands went head-to-head on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, with Milo promoting the message, “breakfast drinks for champions,” as Ovaltine retorted with an ad reading, “Do what you love. There’s no need to be a champion.”

This tongue in cheek contest immediately gained public attention, especially from the parents of young children (both brands’ primary audience group). The ensuing conversation revitalized the OOH ad scene, setting a new bar for consumer brands in Vietnam.

It’s important to remember that Vietnam is still a country dominated by motorbikes, with urban commuters spending hours in gridlocked traffic each day. That means there's plenty of room for grabbing consumers’ attention. 

Pinpointing ROI for OOH campaigns remains a serious challenge, but it’s an undeniably promising approach for improving brand awareness among mass audiences. If your campaign concept is strong enough, the rewards from social media and news mentions alone can be tremendous.