FOCUS: AGENCY OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2000 - Record-setting efforts pay off for a rising media star in Vietnam

<p>Category: Media </p><p>Person of the Year Certificate of Excellence: Nguyen Thi To Uyen </p><p>Agency: Leo Burnett/ M&T Vietnam </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In a country where advertising in general and media specifically is </p><p>regarded as a social evil, 27-year-old senior media planner/buyer Nguyen </p><p>Thi To Uyen has achieved a "mission impossible" throughout her four </p><p>years with Leo Burnett/M&T Vietnam. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Across a range of clients and media disciplines, Ms Nguyen managed to </p><p>build client brands with breakthrough media plans that took both </p><p>creative thinking and an amazing amount of tenacity to get through the </p><p>communist bureaucracy. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Her achievements include placing the first-ever newspaper advertisements </p><p>within editorial pages in Vietnam for Tetley Tea and Abbott Labs; </p><p>negotiating the first-ever sealed section in a magazine for the drug </p><p>Diflucan; and obtaining the green light to use the Vietnamese flag in </p><p>advertisements devised for Tiger Beer during the SEA Games and Tiger Cup </p><p>2000 events. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ms Nguyen also utilised all elements of above and below-the-line media </p><p>in an initiative for Procter & Gamble's Rejoice Plus shampoo. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The idea was to dramatise the convenience proposition, to create </p><p>national awareness for the product and to add fun to the grand </p><p>communication mix. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The PR event saw 120 hairdressers offer free wash-and-blowdrying to as </p><p>many people as possible in a single day, between 9am to 6pm. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The event set a new Guinness World Record, the first ever for </p><p>Vietnam. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>More than 18,000 people attended the event, which created national and </p><p>international publicity, including a 30-minute television special. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Another event for P&G - this time for Rejoice Anti-Dandruff/SuperSoft </p><p>shampoo - was the "Sinkboy" campaign, using the product's "Sinkboy" </p><p>personality to "ambush" consumers in locations, such as swimming pools, </p><p>supermarkets and shopping centres. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Lucky consumers then had their hair washed, courtesy of Sinkboy. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ms Nguyen's choice of media resulted in 2,000 participants over the </p><p>12-day campaign, at 11 different locations. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Her media strategy included: </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Two 30-second TVCs and eight-second teasers; </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Non-TV media such as cinema and in-store monitor ads; </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Street banners and other out-of-home media. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In conjunction with the press kits Ms Nguyen compiled for the media, </p><p>more than a dozen press articles with photographs were published, in </p><p>addition to a four-minute slot broadcast on HTV. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Another initiative was to use client Moet Hennessy as a sponsor for </p><p>annual opera concerts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from 1996 to </p><p>1998. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Hennessy invited famous musicians from around the world, such as Russian </p><p>Mstislav Rostropovich, American Barbara Bonney and The Eroica Trio from </p><p>Canada, to perform in Vietnam. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The sell-out performances produced press coverage in more than 30 key </p><p>publications, were promoted on radio and TV, and the recorded concerts </p><p>received numerous repeat airings on Vietnam TV. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Burnett/M&T's biggest client, Tiger Beer, was again sponsor for the </p><p>famous Tiger Cup, which was played in Bangkok last month. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The brief was simple: to generate awareness of the sponsorship </p><p>announcement and to stir up excitement among the general public prior to </p><p>the event. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ms Nguyen's media strategy incorporated traditional uses of media; </p><p>however, the public relations element to this was much greater. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>These have included editorials in at least 40 newspapers reviewing the </p><p>1999 Tiger Cup, as well as for 2000; interviews with players plus a look </p><p>behind the scenes; various 20-minute television programmes on HTV; </p><p>numerous contests and fan participation such as the Million Baht Kick, </p><p>photo contests and fans signing a giant good luck card. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>For Bao Minh CMG, Ho Chi Minh City's first life insurance joint venture, </p><p>Ms Nguyen organised a press conference attended by 200 people, issuing </p><p>press kits, invitations, venue decor, street banners, commemorative </p><p>plaques and so on. Over the following two weeks, 23 press articles in </p><p>major newspapers and magazines appeared in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. </p><p>After the press launch, she organised street PR, with hundreds of CMG </p><p>promoters supporting massive characters from the advertising all over </p><p>the country. Eight months later, the street PR is still moving through </p><p>rural Vietnam. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>As Burnett/M&T's submission stated, these are just a few examples of Ms </p><p>Nguyen's achievements over and above her role of simply providing </p><p>efficient and effective traditional media solutions. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>