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| Arsenal's private jet lands at Noi Bai International Airport, Hanoi, Vietnam |
It took US$2.4 million to turn Vietnam into a stop in their 2013 Asia Tour. Arsenal is the first club from English Premier League to ever play in Vietnam. This marked a historic sporting event for many Vietnamese people, who love football more than anything (literally). But looking from my personal point of view, this match leveled up everything Vietnam knows about viral and tourism marketing.
Vietnam certainly learned their lesson after Heineken Star 2012, an exhibition tennis tournament with the participation of the world's No.1 Victoria Arazenka. Arazenka ended up staying in her hotel all day and only went out for a press conference and her matches. This time, everything changed. The entire Arsenal team came to Vietnam and the organizers knew exactly what to do to make the most of their mass media exposure just when the British were stepping off their flight:
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| Vietnamese traditional hat on DailyMail. Wicked! |
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| Now everybody wonders what he is wearing on his head |
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| Not the best, it's "THE BEST" with !!!!! |
Out and about in Hanoi! pic.twitter.com/auTAv5F81X— Jack Wilshere (@JackWilshere) July 15, 2013
Their Vietnamese fans also gave them a taste of how it is like to be well known in the nation, a warm welcome at the airport:
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| A celebrity treatment.... |
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| ...just like Tyra Banks's or any other celebs from the entertainment industry |
"Quel accueil ici aussi !
Such a welcome here too !"
Seeing popular players from a popular football club is not something that usually happens in Vietnam, it is understandable to go a bit... crazy for them. That is exactly the reason for Vu Xuan Tien - now dubbed as The Running Man - to run 3 miles, keeping up with the Arsenal bus, sweeping through Hanoian roads and chaotic traffic just to see his favorite player. There the exposure for Vietnam on international media peaked. His video chasing the bus went viral with more than one million views in just one day
The fact that all the players were telling Wenger to "sign him up" and that the video was retweeted by several famous people that I followed on Twitter really did a good job at presenting Vietnam's image to the world. And let's not forget his six packs really did Vietnamese men justice, or so I hoped.
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| I mean, even professional footballers don't have six packs |
The match result helped #Arsenal became a worldwide trend on Twitter: Vietnam 1 : 7 Arsenal. The reason for the Twitter trend was simply because a lot of Indonesian people were a little bit surprised as they were previously crushed seven to love a few days ago as Indonesia Dream Team, knowing Vietnam actually scored against Arsenal. Of course it's a win-win situation: more attention for Vietnam, and fans erupted in joy with the dream goal as if they just won World Cup, something Tahitian can relate to.
As I'm checking Twitter while writing this, everything is working like a charm, people talk about the game (not even from Vietnamese), praise the match and want to go to Vietnam. Isn't it nice to see how much Vietnam has surfaced the world press these days thanks to Arsenal FC? No event in Vietnam has had such a remarkable appeal to the international media and press like this. Next time someone bringing a celebrity to Vietnam, they've got a path to follow.
"Last day of our stay in Hanoi. Its been an absolute pleasure seeing our fans in Vietnam!
Wojciech Szczesny
(that's either a very British way of emphasizing, or a very grateful feeling)
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