BRAND
INTERVIEW
Lay's has experienced significant growth in CRP in 2022 in both urban and rural Vietnam. What key strategies and initiatives have contributed to this success?
Lay's, one of PepsiCo's largest brands, was introduced to Vietnamese consumers in early 2019 with the goal of generating billions of smiles and becoming the most innovative and fastest-growing snack company in Vietnam. After three years, 2022 marked a successful milestone for Lay's in Vietnam, with significant growth in consumer awareness and choice.
Our key strategic pillars are quality product, and advantaged brand. We focus on delivering the best quality from farm to field, using only selected fresh potatoes from Lay's collaborated farmers, a strictly global standard production process, and a dedicated sales force to distribute and display products on market shelves.
Additionally, Lay's diversified portfolio is also key to its worldwide product success across value-tier, mainstream, upper mainstream, and premium segments. The Lay's brand is the most valuable asset that can be strengthened through demand-centric innovations and culturally relevant communication.
Lay's has managed to stand out in the competitive snacking market in Vietnam. What unique marketing campaigns have been employed to differentiate the brand and resonate with consumers in 2022?
To bring the brand purpose "Spread the joy to everyone" to life, our marketing campaigns must be relevant to the Vietnamese youth's passion points and local Vietnamese culture. Two of the most successful campaigns in 2022 were Lay's Crispy Subtitles and Lay's Tet.
People love to munch on snacks while watching videos on their laptops and so Lay's introduced an Artificial Intelligence (AI) app - Lay's Crispy Subtitles. The app used machine learning algorithms to automatically activate subtitles when the "crunching" sound of potato chips was detected. Over 170 hours of 17,512 different "crunchy" sound samples were played to perfect the AI machine learning. With thousands of downloads, millions of earned media, and billions of impressions - not only in Vietnam but worldwide - the campaign scooped the coveted Bronze Lion in Entertainment at Cannes Lions 2022.
Meanwhile, Lay's Tet 2023 was our biggest Tet campaign ever, with integrated activities across online and offline touchpoints - from traditional to breakthrough channels. After several years of Covid restrictions, the Tet season was a good time to deliver a message that helped to close the family generational gap. Gen Z, as the family’s joy master, were able to connect all family members. Using this insight, Lay's introduced an extended music video featuring memorable storytelling from the singer Duc Phuc and rapper GDucky. This big idea was also leveraged and amplified on other media, including TV Commercials, TikTok Hashtag Challenge and Song 23 Performance. The campaign led to many impressive results for Lay’s, including gaining significant market share, becoming the #1 brand on Tiktok and ranking third in Top 05 Tet TVCs with the highest organic interactions during the Tet 2023 period.
As consumer preferences and market dynamics continue to evolve in Vietnam, how does Lay's plan to stay ahead of the curve and ensure its continued growth and success in the coming years?
To maintain Lay’s sustainable growth in Vietnam, we follow two key PepsiCo concepts in everything we do, which are Be Consumer Centric and Focus & Get Thing Done Fast. Being Consumer Centric means we consider consumers in every decision we make and continually innovate to create more value for them. Focus & Get Things Done Fast is about simplifying the way we work and staying committed to what really matters to the local market.
The year 2022 was a breakthrough year for Lay’s globally as it’s hailed as one of the most resilient brands in light of economic challenges. Despite being a relatively new player in Vietnam, Lay’s also achieved a remarkable feat to grow CRPs by 14% and 20% respectively in Urban 4 and Rural, capturing over 354,000 new shoppers.
