Vietnam Tet campaigns: why Red Bull and Tiger led in 2026
Vietnam Tet campaigns grew 14.39% in 2026 while discussion fell 8.9%. Red Bull and Tiger led by giving viewers a task, a lesson for Tet 2027.
YouNet Media, a Vietnamese social listening firm, tracked 151 Tet 2026 campaigns, 14.39% more than for Tet 2025 (Tet is the Lunar New Year, Vietnam's biggest shopping and advertising season). Over the same season, total discussion around those campaigns fell 8.9% (YouNet Media). The stage got more crowded while the noise in the audience got quieter. That is the backdrop for any Vietnam Tet campaigns playbook.
The top of YouNet's YMI ranking (its campaign score) is a little funny. Red Bull came first with “Năm mới bản lĩnh” (“A new year of grit”), and Tiger beer came second with “Khai xuân bản lĩnh” (“Open the spring with grit”) (YouNet Media). Sting, another energy drink brand, chose “Năng Lượng Bứt Phá, Dám Rượt Lại Tết” (roughly, “Breakthrough energy, dare to chase Tet”) (YouNet Media). Grit and breakthrough: three promises that sound almost like one idea. So the message alone can't explain why the top two names sit where they do.
Our reading at 126Insights: Red Bull and Tiger led because they gave viewers something to do. A small brand planning for Tet 2027 doesn't need to hire a star. It needs its own verb, a way for customers to take part, and enough patience to keep both across several Tets.
Nearly every number here comes from one report: YouNet Media's “Winning Tết 2027”, which measured 151 campaigns across 27 industries from 1 October 2025 to 6 March 2026 (YouNet Media, republished on Brands Vietnam). The Brands Vietnam articles cited below are reposts of this report, not separate measurements. The report measures conversation, not sales. None of the figures tells you how much extra product these campaigns sold.
Tet 2026 had more campaigns, so who was talking?
The 8.9% drop makes it tempting to conclude that audiences are tired of Tet ads. The report says something else. YouNet filters out noise with a metric called CFQU (Content From Qualified Users), meaning content created by accounts YouNet classes as “qualified users”. According to YouNet, total discussion fell, but the metrics counted by qualified users still rose (YouNet Media). In short: less noise, and no drop in people who really talk.
The trend isn't new. According to YouNet, its Winning Tết 2026 report, which analysed 132 campaigns from 128 brands in the Tet 2025 season, had already recorded falling total discussion (YouNet Media). Tet 2026 was another season of decline, while the number of campaigns went from 132 to 151.
Picture the flower market on the 28th day of the last lunar month. More stalls appear, every stall displays the same kumquats and peach blossoms, and every one shouts the same line. The crowd doesn't grow. People linger longest where they get to do something with their hands.
Beer shows the gap between loud and genuinely discussed. By YouNet's measure, beer had the most discussion from qualified users, 358 thousand, but a CFQU rate of only 8.12%, below the 14.14% average (YouNet Media). The most talked-about category had a CFQU rate below the overall figure.
What did Vietnam Tet campaigns talk about in 2026?
According to YouNet, “New Beginning” and “Homing” (going home for Tet) were the two message groups with the most campaigns (YouNet Media, republished on Brands Vietnam). YouNet's message analysis names the shift: “From storyteller, the brand becomes a companion.” It splits the companion role into three directions: helping people create luck, helping them get through Tet pressure, and making it possible for them to go home (YouNet Media).
Sting is the example for the second direction. As YouNet describes it, the campaign put pre-Tet work and deadline scenes on out-of-home (OOH) billboards and into content made with the rapper HIEUTHUHAI (YouNet Media). The insight is “Tet is pressure.” Anyone who has pushed out year-end reports until the afternoon of the 27th will see why that lands.
According to YouNet, Pepsi's “Mang Tết về nhà 2026” (“Bring Tet home 2026”) ranked third on the YMI, up from 13th the year before (YouNet Media). A going-home message, however familiar, can still reach the top.
Put the three directions side by side and the words on TV commercials look closer together than ever. “Grit” (bản lĩnh) sits in the names of both leading campaigns. In our reading, what separates them lies after the commercial, in what the viewer is invited to do.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
How did Red Bull reach number one on the Tet 2026 YMI?
According to YouNet, Red Bull moved from 4th place in Tet 2025 to 1st in Tet 2026 and led all four component metrics of the YMI (YouNet Media). Also per YouNet, the campaign had three layers:
- A TV commercial with the pop star Sơn Tùng M-TP, which YouNet called the opening “shot”.
- After the commercial, viewers were led to an activity called “Tạo Trailer Bom Tấn 2026” (“Make your 2026 blockbuster trailer”) on Zalo OA (an official brand account on Vietnam's dominant messaging app), where they attached their personal goals to the content.
- A check-in space and special-edition Tet gift boxes with gifts tied to the brand ambassador.
The result, according to YouNet Media: 47,089 qualified users and 107,701 discussions from that group. YouNet argues that asking users to attach a personal goal to the content helped Red Bull lead the Object Mention metric (YouNet Media).
This is the detail most worth reading. Brands Vietnam describes the commercial as choosing a tone that urges viewers to face a challenge, in place of a purely festive mood (Brands Vietnam). That tone is the invitation. The Zalo trailer is where the viewer accepts: they attach their own new-year goal to something they made themselves.
The second detail is easy to miss. For Tet 2025, Red Bull ran “Vì Việt Nam cần bạn - Vững bản lĩnh, năm mới húc tới đi!” (“Because Vietnam needs you: stay firm, charge into the new year!”) with the singer RHYDER (RGB). For Tet 2026, the campaign was named “Năm mới bản lĩnh” (YouNet Media). Two Tets in a row, the same pair of words, “new year” and “grit”, with only the person standing next to the brand changed. The report doesn't say that keeping the slogan is why Red Bull climbed. Our reading is the Vietnamese saying “mưa dầm thấm lâu” (steady rain soaks the soil deep): by year two, viewers already know the promise, and the brand doesn't have to introduce it again.
How did Tiger turn “Khai xuân bản lĩnh” into something to do?
Tiger is a beer. This section analyses the participation mechanism only and does not encourage drinking. Alcohol brands that want to learn from it should check current Vietnamese law on alcohol advertising before planning.
According to YouNet, Tiger ranked second on the YMI with 319.50 points, ahead of Pepsi with 316.75 (YMI). The campaign had 74,332 discussions from qualified users, also second on the whole table (YouNet Media). YouNet also recorded that Tiger set two Vietnam records certified by VietKings: the largest “lộc hunt” event series by number of participants (lộc means the luck and small gifts people seek at the start of spring) and the largest “Khai Xuân bản lĩnh” couplet banner. Alongside came the “Săn lộc bản lĩnh” (“Hunt for grit's luck”) challenge: users interacted with packaging to find a hidden image or guess a lucky number, and received limited-edition gifts.
Beyond YouNet, there is an announcement from VietKings itself. According to the Vietnam Records Organization (VietKings), 36,498 people registered for the lộc hunt on a digital platform at three Tiger Remix 2026 locations: Dong Thap, Ho Chi Minh City and Dak Lak (Kỷ lục Việt Nam). According to the organisers, cited by VnExpress, Tiger Remix began in 2015 (VnExpress).
What Tiger shares with Red Bull is structure. The slogan word “grit” was turned into a verb: hunt. The record gave participants a reason to sign up, and gave the press a number to report. Tiger also didn't have to build a new playground for Tet 2026: by the organisers' account, Tiger Remix had existed since 2015.
Photo by RahulPandit on Pixabay
Where should a small brand start planning Tet 2027?
Without the budget for an A-list singer or a national record, a small brand can still copy the mechanism. Three things are worth settling early:
- Pick one verb. “Grit” is a word anyone can borrow. “Charge” (húc) and “hunt” (săn) are things people do. Suppose you run a bakery in Da Nang: asking customers to “wrap” or “send” gives them more to do than a wish for “prosperity”.
- Design one thing users do together, with something to show off afterwards. It could be digital lucky money, a small challenge, or an object attractive enough to photograph. 126Insights once analysed Jollibee's reindeer campaign, where what customers bought was a gift to show off, and the logic is the same. Red Bull's trailer works this way too: what users made was a short film about their own new-year goal.
- Launch early and set a deadline. According to YouNet, 26 of the 31 Tet 2026 music videos and songs, about 84%, were released four to seven weeks before the first day of Tet (YouNet Media, republished on Brands Vietnam). Counting back from that window, the main content has to be done before it opens. For a moment that makes people join immediately, see how VinFast used a 66-hour window to turn curiosity into VF 3 deposits.
There is a fourth, hardest task: keep it. If you pick a verb this year, plan to hold it for at least three Tets. In our view, changing the slogan every year means paying to make viewers learn it from scratch. What to show off in the ad visuals is covered in a separate piece, Prada and Levi's show handmade: what should Tet 2027 ads learn? (in Vietnamese).
A question for the Tet 2027 brief meeting
When the team presents Tet 2027 ideas, cover the slogan on the slide and ask: what will the viewer do in the thirty seconds after watching? If the answer is “feel warm” or “remember the brand”, the campaign is standing at the same stall as a hundred others.
If the answer is a verb, such as hunt, charge, send or photograph, you have the same starting point as Red Bull and Tiger. 126Insights bets on the verb: Tet greetings sound alike every year, while what viewers do with their own hands is harder to confuse.