Vietnam's U23 football team trending online like 'tsunami'

Entries and comments on the national football team have continuously surged since Vietnam defeated Iraq at the AFC U23 Championship on January 20, and reached the peak of over 2.65 million when Vietnam beat Qatar at the semifinal on January 23.

The statistics were issued by Buzzmetrics, a proprietary technology that scans through all social networks, forums, blogs, new sites and retailers to collect all discussions into a database.

“The victory of Vietnamese U23 football team has boomed on social media, becoming a Fad topic with a great influence,” Buzzmetrics said.

The attention on Vietnamese U23 football team on social media has strongly affected advertising campaigns. Many businesses have launched short-term campaigns about football and the U23 team.

Data from Buzzmetrics showed that discussions on the U23 team now is 20 times higher than those on the upcoming lunar new year festival (Tet), which starts on February 15. The interest in Tet also dropped three times compared to the time before the victories of the U23 team.

In previous years, discussions on social media used to focus on Tet as early as three weeks before the festival, according to Buzzmetrics.

Ha Anh Tuan, CEO of Digital Marketing Agency Vinalink, said the impact of the U23 team on social media is as strong as a “tsunami”. Instead of trying to be different, business should take advantage of it in building short-term advertising campaigns.

After the semifinal, many business have launched advertising campaigns related to the U23 players.

Small-scale campaigns often offer discounts or incentives, while larger ones are conducted in a more professional manner with a specific story inspired by the U23 team and the “king sport”.

Popular milk tea shops are serving free drinks to anyone named Bui Tien Dung, coincidentally the name of both players who helped Vietnam overcome Iraq on penalties last Saturday to secure a place in the semifinals.

A coffee shop in Hanoi also announced 23 percent discounts on all drinks after the victory on Saturday night.

Vietnam Airlines offered to fund travel, accommodation and visa expenses for two relatives of each member of the U23 team to attend the final of the Asian Football Confederation Under-23 (AFC U23) Championship in Changzhou, China on Saturday.

Vietnam will face Uzbekistan on January 27 in the final after the latter defeated South Korea 4-1 in extra time on January 23.