[English Blog] Case study | Banh mi job mobility centers

This below writing about "Banh mi job mobility centers" campaign (in Vietnamese: "Xe bánh mì tặng việc làm") will inspire you with disruptive innovations on marketing practices.

Strategy

In 2021, the on-going wave of Covid-19 pandemic had made the Vietnamese labor market face a serious employment crisis with high demand for job solutions. Viec Lam Tot's mission to 2025 is to connect and meet the job demands of 43 million blue-collar workers, which is expected to solve the riddle of the labor force for Vietnam's economy. Eventually, the platform will enable us to improve Vietnamese workers’ lives by helping them find better job opportunities with a one-touch application that takes less than a minute. Viec Lam Tot aims to support blue-collar workers in improving their professional skills and getting better jobs, thereby improving their income and quality of life.

Developed from the Jobs category on Cho Tot - Vietnam’s leading online classifieds site, Viec Lam Tot positions itself to be one of the leading recruitment and job search portals in Vietnam, specializing in blue-collar jobs. After a months-long COVID-19 lockdown, the labor market in Ho Chi Minh City and nearby industrial provinces witnessed an upward trend in employment demand from job seekers. In this context, Cho Tot launched Viec Lam Tot and put the new sub-brand at the center of attention. As the first brand campaign to launch Viec Lam Tot - a key strategic vertical of Cho Tot, the “banh mi job mobility centers” campaign was one of the most important product launch activities in 2021 aiming to introduce the new brand name and its value proposition to the targeted consumers - the blue-collar workers. The campaign's success was measured by the uplift in brand awareness and the number of workers that we help to connect with new job opportunities.

Insight

The fourth wave of Covid-19 pandemic pushed millions of migrant workers from the Southeast into the state of unemployment. They lost their jobs and starved for new opportunities to cover their pile-up expenses. Understanding the problem, Viec Lam Tot launched the “banh mi job mobility centers” campaign to solve the employment needs of the targeted blue-collar job seekers, aged between 18 - 34 years old in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Dong Nai - the top 3 industrial provinces in the South Key Economic Zone region.

Creative strategy

Based on the one-word-brand strategy: “Việc Làm Tốt, chốt làm luôn” (Get good jobs immediately) and the wishes to further enhance our point of differentiation: Easy to apply, quickly get job, the big idea was generated which is transforming hundreds of traditional banh mi carts at every corner of the streets in Ho Chi Minh City into hundreds of mobility job centers that blue collar workers can find diverse job types and connect directly to recruiters via multi-method application procedure with minimum efforts.

Leveraging the image of banh mi - the most popular fast food in Vietnam, every banh mi cart became an experiential OOH that enabled audiences to experience the brand idea: Getting jobs with Viec Lam Tot is as fast as having a banh mi. While waiting at the banh mi carts, audiences can quickly access the Viec Lam Tot website to find jobs by using the tablets attached on the banh mi cart or simply using their mobile phones to scan the QR codes printed on the decorative materials and the banh mi wrapping papers. When finding a job that fits their needs, they can quickly apply via phone calling to their recruiters or leave the short CV in 30 seconds.

So, why banh mi?

Beside being the most popular fast food in Vietnam, banh mi held more special meaning, especially during the height of the pandemic.

Resonating with the mission of  Viec Lam Tot, the image of having a job is usually associated with that of bringing food to the table. The word “breadwinner" in English is the best depiction for this comparison since it describes the person in a family who works to provide the money that the family needs to live on. In Vietnamese, there is also a proverb “Có làm thì mới có ăn" (“You have to work to feed yourself") making the comparison also align well with Vietnamese culture.

So, why does Viec Lam Tot choose banh mi and banh mi cart to be the campaign’s key asset? We want to deliver the message: Getting jobs with Viec Lam Tot is fast and easy as having a banh mi, and create an emotional touchpoint the blue-collar workers to whom banh mi is also a staple dish due to its affordable price. Furthermore, we want to raise the Vietnam flag higher through the image of banh mi, a national street food pride.

Execution

Launched amidst the turmoil of post-Covid pandemic when the employment  situation was  negatively  affected, the banh mi carts campaign aimed to satisfy the high demand for job search for a quick rebound.

By utilizing the networks of top low-priced banh mi franchise chains in Vietnam, 1,4 million job vacancies on Viec Lam Tot were brought to every street corner in 24 districts all across Ho Chi Minh city:

• The displays of each banh mi carts became interactive OOH of Viec Lam Tot with QR code that everybody can experience job search on the Viec Lam Tot while waiting to buy banh mi
• The banh mi wrapping papers became convenient leaflets from Viec Lam Tot so that the audience can read more information then quickly apply via phone calling to their recruiters or leave the short CV in 30 seconds.

With the goal to enhance brand awareness and increase brand trust, Viec Lam Tot chose Quyen Linh as the representative influencer for the campaign, since he had a wide coverage and a credible voice to the blue-collar class. Choosing Quyen Linh as the representative, Viec Lam Tot expected him to leverage his credibility to draw more job seekers to the site, by then more and more people had the opportunity to expose to diverse job opportunities and get employed.

The brand also collaborated with charity kitchens to serve people in difficult circumstance combos of a free banh mi with a chance to have a new job on Viec Lam Tot.

Providing the offline-to-online experience, Viec Lam Tot captured the whole exciting job-finding experience at the banh mi carts in viral videos to spread them on multi-channels: Facebook, Tiktok,  Youtube and Viec Lam Tot's internal tools, to maximize the Viec Lam Tot awareness as the leading job portal for blue collars in Vietnam. The brand continued to re-target the videos through mobile-friendly touchpoints: Facebook, Google, Appstore, and Playstore. After triggering our audiences on social media, Viec Lam Tot leveraged the onboarding process to assist the users in having a seamless job finding experience. The brand also conducted job hunting gamification to trigger the job  seekers' retention on the platform. Moreover, the brand applied the referral scheme among the job seekers community to utilize the growth loop.

Evaluation

The “banh mi job mobility centers “ gained huge public attention with more than 160 earned online news and TV news, 12,8 million video views across channels (TikTok, Youtube, Facebook), 100 thousand social interactions with 98% social mentions were positive. Furthermore, the campaign also increase brand awareness rate to 48% in Nov 2021.

In the post-event survey of Viec Lam Tot, 91% of respondents said that the campaign made Viec Lam Tot seem more appealing to them, 95% of them  enjoyed seeing these videos a lot, and nearly 100% recall the Viec Lam Tot message: “Having a job on Viec Lam Tot is as fast as eating a banh mi”

The campaign also achieved fruitful results for the business. Nearly 1 million users visited the Viec Lam Tot platform in just one and a half months running the campaign. The campaign helped uplift the total revenue of Viec Lam Tot by 20.9%.

More than just fulfilling the KPI, the “banh mi job mobility centers” campaign brought positive contributions to society and joined hands to recover Vietnam's economy in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak. Thousands of unemployed people due to Covid-19 impacts can quickly get new jobs right after the lock-down time. This campaign also boosted the brand awareness of Viec Lam Tot the pioneer job portal for blue collar workers in Vietnam and marked the 1st successful phase of 5 years -strategy to connect 43 million blue-collar workers in Vietnam by 2025.

Awards and nominations