As a brand, Bia Saigon has been working to dial up on innovation and modern imagery to increase its association with the future core gen Z.
Tet is the biggest battle for the beer category in Vietnam; Bia Saigon has now established a legacy to compete and win against popular international brands during this crucial season. 2023 was a difficult year because of the economic downturn. So, Tet 2024, which marked the year of the Dragon, provided the much-needed hope and belief for the category and Bia Saigon to bounce back.
In 2024 Tet, the brand decided to push its five SKUs to drive massive uplift in sales and leave no option behind. So, brand suitability, aspiration, and socialization attributes were equally important to increasing market share.
The campaign was an evolution of Bia Saigon's long term Tet platform. The brand brings innovations every year during Tet to drive a strong sense of national pride for Vietnam. For 2024, the focus slightly shifted to ensure that the brand created a strong association with the target demographic and increased consumption opportunities. While doing so, driving modern brand imagery was at the center of attention, which continues to enhance the brand equity beyond just one campaign.
Tet is a mass targeting campaign. Bia Saigon identified a key high value audience segment who were targeted to increase frequency of consumption across a 63-day countdown to Tet. The brand tapped into one of the most active and biggest gen Z subcultures: gamers. Associating with gamers also helps the brand to enhance its modern and premium imagery and to truly drive the socialization and aspiration attributes.
Bia Saigon has leveraged the iconic symbol of the dragon for its logo and packaging. Since 2024, marked the Year of the Dragon, the most iconic symbol of prosperity according to Vietnamese folklore, this was especially relevant. So, it was natural for the brand to really leverage this long-term brand association.
According to legend, every Vietnamese person was born as descendants of a dragon and a fairy. There are five dragon species, representing five natural elements: fire, wood, water, earth, and gold; it is believed that uniting them all will bring luck and prosperity to the nation.
On the other hand, Bia Saigon has five SKUs (stock keeping unit), each of which can be mapped to the attribute of a particular dragon. This opened the opportunity of implementing a sophisticated campaign featuring all SKUs — matching each SKU with the attribute of each dragon, thus, creating a seamless fit between culture and brand.
The brand activated this through a best-in-class brand experience which hinged on gaming and extended the experience to its packaging, omnichannel branding, and offline experience through a 63-day media strategy.
This led to the launch of the gamified experience, "Catch the Dragon, Unleash Fortune This Tet," transforming the iconic symbol of the dragon. A mobile-first 3D AR-based gameplay strategy formed the nucleus of the campaign. A "phygital" experience was at the heart of the execution where the dragon symbol on the cans of Bia Saigon SKUs represented the sleeping dragons inside, which could be awakened by scanning the image with AR tech.
The goal of the game: Players must summon, unite, train all five legendary dragons, and engage in epic battles to unleash the fortune and level up in the leaderboard. Each gameplay led to instant rewards, such as Bia Saigon beer and other daily rewards and the grand cash prize of VND 5 Billion. The five steps of the game included:
A core tech partnership with Approi was instrumental in creating this clutter-breaking 3D A/R gamified experience. Approi infused the image scanning technology, enhancing the experience.
The campaign is a smash hit — as measured through media and business impact. Since Bia Saigon adopted a strategy with the five SKU focus, its brand suitability score increased significantly, while the game experience increased the socialization, aspiration, and premium imagery attribute.
According to the brand lift study across Meta and TikTok, results included:
Core Media Metrics results included:
Gameplay results included:
Further, overall market share increased 0.9 points.
The campaign was a groundbreaking example for the category of how to effectively market to gen Z by deeply understanding core subcultures and combining cultural insight with innovative tech, such as using image-scanning AR but with 3D effect to move beyond traditional "blast it everywhere" advertising. This approach not only built strong brand relationships but also set a new standard for the industry.
