You Don't Know Vietnam

As a sports journalist and editor, Luu Thien knows all about the sports trends keeping Vietnam buzzing with energy. Today, he talks about the current sports landscape in Vietnam, the growth of Esports and niche sports and what's going on with Vietnamese football on the domestic and international stages right now. He also shares his tips for what global sports brands must do to engage a loyal following of super fans in this sports-loving country of 100,000,000 people.  

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Meet Jovel Chan, a food and beverage marketer turned blogger, founder and consultant. Jovel landed in Vietnam and quickly made her mark as the go-to authority of Vietnam's evolving food and dining scene in Ho Chi Minh City. She offers insider guides to Vietnam's F&B industry on her website jovelchan.com and is the founder of Saigon Social, the company behind Vietnam’s unique food and drink experiences such as the Saigon Supper Club and Cocktail Cinema. She's also the founder of Banyan Box - a subscription-based snacking box that shares Vietnamese and south east Asian snacks with the world. Today, Jovel explains what's going on in Vietnam's food and dining scene right now, why Vietnam's young and experimental chefs are writing the next chapter of Vietnam's food story, and what global F&B brands should consider when looking to launch in Vietnam.

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

"In Vietnam there's a joke... when you say something ridiculous online, people will say it's the consequence of watching more than three hours of TikTok a day," says Bao-Khanh Nguyen, the founder of social audio content platform OnMic.

Drained by his own experience with social media doom scrolling and superficial learning, Khanh decided to tackle it - with an app that entertains and educates with long-form audio content.

OnMic's users create and/or listen to voice-streaming sessions and exclusive audio series about common interests such as mental health, spirituality, travel, business, dealing with parents, and dating.

On the latest episode of #YouDontKnowVietnam, Khanh reveals:

🎤 What 200,000 young Vietnamese OnMic users are talking about right now

🎧 The type of long-form content they're diggin' (and why)

💡 Tips for hiring Gen Z talent in Vietnam

⚔️ Why Vietnam's Lunar New Year (Tết) is 'a bloody battlefield' for businesses trying to grab the attention of consumers

🇻🇳 What he's most excited about for Vietnam (and the country's drawbacks!)

Listen to episode 24 with Khanh - I've linked it in the comments 👇

#YouDontKnowVietnam #Vietnam #consumerinsights

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Nguyen The Cong, or Kelvin Nguyen, is a global talent acquisition expert. In his role as talent advisor at Vinfast, Kelvin is responsible for bringing global talent to Vietnam and hiring for Vinfast in its global markets. He is an angel investor and CEO at YouthPlus, a platform to help young people discover what they want to do, and connect with companies that are hiring. Today, he talks about what foreigners find hard when coming to work in Vietnam, his tips for recruiting and retaining Gen Z talent in Vietnam, and his thoughts on why Vietnam leads the way in Asia for the participation of women in the workforce.

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Dang Thuy Trang is the founder of Vietnamese sleep company RU9, which offers young people solutions for better sleep as they look to prioritise their wellbeing. Today, Trang talks about the importance of sleep in Vietnamese culture, how her customers are changing so quickly, the challenges of doing business in Vietnam, and what it's like to be a female entrepreneur here.

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

On today's episode of You Don't Know Vietnam, we're talking to Timen Swijtink, the Founder of Vietnamese coffee brand Lacàph. With Lacàph's coffee, coffee shops and coffee experiences in Vietnam, and grand plans to export high quality, branded Vietnamese beans to the world, Timen is on a mission to change the global perception of both Vietnamese coffee and the robusta bean. Today, he talks about what makes Vietnamese coffee culture extra special, traditional "Phin" brewing methods, and what types of Vietnamese coffee you should try. He also explains why the value of Vietnam's coffee is so low despite it being one of the world's largest exporters, what climate change means for Vietnam's robusta bean production, and what he's learned about doing business in Vietnam - a place he loves to call home.

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Entrepreneur Nguyen Son is the founder and CEO of electric two-wheeler start up, Dat Bike. He's on a mission! To convert 250,000,000 motorbike drivers in Southeast Asia from petrol to electric, starting right here in Vietnam - the land of the motorbike. Today, he talks about why the motorbike is so important to people in Vietnam, why Vietnam has become the perfect place to kick start his Southeast Asian takeover, the challenges he faces, and what Dat Bike must do to succeed.  

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Meet retail expert Quang Thai, the CEO of direct to consumer (D2C) company DTX Asia. Since moving back to Vietnam from studying in the U.S, Thai has set up a handful of lifestyle brands in everything from fashion, watches and jewellery to men's cosmetics and temporary tattoos. He's seen Vietnam's retail sector move rapidly from social selling to e-commerce and most recently shoppertainment.  Today, he talks about the spending behaviours of Vietnam's Gen Z and Millennials, his tips for selling products on TikTok Shop, and what he thinks about the world class mega malls popping up in Vietnam. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Ha Chu is the founder of Cooked.VN - a rapidly growing F&B school that helps its students learn about branding and marketing in the restaurant business. In today's episode, Ha shares what Vietnamese people really mean when they ask "Have you eaten yet?", why she thinks "phở" won't be Vietnam's poster dish forever, and also shares her three must-try dishes. She talks about the importance of communal eating, the changing landscape of home-cooked meals in Vietnam, and the rapidly evolving F&B scene, which she says is unrecognisable from 10 years ago. Ha shares tips on successful marketing strategies for restaurants in Vietnam, and uncovers how global brands can win the hearts and tastebuds of Vietnamese consumers. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Ivy Nhi Chau is the CEO and founder of Ivy + Partners - a PR agency based in Ho Chi Minh City that helps global brands share their stories in Vietnam. Today, she talks about how the PR industry in Vietnam is changing. She also shares her tips for winning brand love in Vietnam, what can go wrong, and her five steps global brands should take when entering the Vietnam market to share their brand story and build an audience. I also asked her what she thought about Heineken's global #Ken campaign in Vietnam - a country where Barbie didn't actually make it to the big screen. Was this a wasted campaign by the beer brand? Should they have localised it more? Or not run it at all given the context here? I loved her answer! 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Thue Quist Thomasen is the CEO of market research agency Decision Lab in Vietnam. If there's anyone who knows about the trends driving Vietnam forward, it's him. Today, he talks about how the challenge of working in Vietnam is what attracted him to start a business here, what excites him most about Vietnam, and what global audiences tend to misunderstand about this country on the move. He also digs deeper into the results from Decision Lab's most recent financial trends report, which drops amid the 2023 blip in Vietnam's GDP growth story. He uncovers the latest consumer spending, saving and investment behaviours, and how financial brands are responding. He also talks about the upcoming Connected Consumers Report, which looks into all the ways Vietnam is using social media to stay connected, be entertained and make purchases.

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

According to studies, more than a quarter of young people in Vietnam are depressed and almost 6% have attempted suicide.  In this episode of You Don't Know Vietnam, We Create Content's cofounder Ian Paynton speaks to Hanh Ha, the CEO of a new mental health app, SoftenMind. Hanh talks about her own journey with depression and therapy, the state of mental health as a taboo topic in Vietnam, and the pressures facing young Vietnamese people today. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Linh brought the menstrual cup to Vietnam. And she had a real challenge on her hands: how to sell menstrual cups in a place where nobody talked about periods? 8 years later, almost 3,000,000 women in Vietnam have bought a Lincup and Linh says they're just getting started. Today, Linh talks about the entrepreneurial spirit and consumer habits  of Vietnamese women, the pressures faced by women in Vietnam today, and the importance of brand-building in Vietnam.

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Since coming back to Vietnam from studying and working overseas, serial tech entrepreneur Dave Bui has absolutely smashed it. He grew a healthcare information platform called ViCare and sold it to VinGroup in 2018. In 2019, he founded an interactive and super engaging presentation software called AhaSlides, which has more than a million users worldwide. His achievements in a short space of time are really impressive. Today he talks about why trust is so important when doing business in a country as unique as Vietnam, why Vietnam is a great place to build tech products and he also sheds some light on the work that's still to be done for Vietnam to compete on a global scale. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

In a country where the go-to music is love songs, Flow.D uses only his mouth to produce growly drum n bass with the goal to get Vietnamese audiences out of their comfort zone. Today, he talks about his personal development as a professional beatboxer, his experience working on commercial projects in Vietnam, and what the phở Vinahouse is all about.  You will also discover the potential for incorporating traditional Vietnamese music into electronic dance music, and the promising new generation of Vietnamese musicians who are producing their own beats. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

If anyone knows about lovers in Vietnam, it's Thao. Along with her team, she's planned more than 500 weddings - most of which in the up-and-coming wedding destination of Danang. Today, she talks about how the traditional wedding is changing in Vietnam, the conflicts Vietnamese couples have with their parents when planning weddings, the evolving tastes of Vietnamese lovers and how Tik Tok is finding its way into Vietnamese ceremonies. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Hanoi Rock City has been giving musicians in Vietnam a platform for more than 12 years. It's an institution that DA has proudly kept alive despite the financial difficulties associated with such grassroots endeavours. Today he talks about how Hanoi Rock City has changed during the years, the newfound success of indie bands in Vietnam, and what his dream is for Vietnam's wealth of talented up and coming musicians. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Quang moved from Vietnam's northern mountains to Hanoi to follow his dream in documentary filmmaking. He created a film about Grindr that was shortlisted for awards - and also banned. Since then, he's produced multiple shorts about Vietnam's queer scene and is now working on a documentary about his sister's journey from mental health challenges to motherhood, which has recently won a grant from Bangkok-based film fund Purin Pictures.In this episode, he talks about why the Oscar-shortlisted documentary  "Children of the Mist" is so important for Vietnam (and well worth watching!) and recommends other Vietnamese documentaries to look out for.  

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

If there's an electronic live act to catch coming out of Vietnam, it's Tiny Giant - a genre-defying music duo made up of Linh Ha and Tomes. Their live sets really take you on a journey, with a mixture of electronic beat productions, layered vocal looping, analogue synths and an acoustic instruments. Today, they talk about the influence Vietnam has on their music, being sensitive to cultural appropriation, Vietnam's festival scene, and how they want to evolve their sound and live performances. Image photograph of Tiny Giant by Nicki LaPierre. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Annie Possible is the cofounder and CEO of tech startup Tubudd. It's a local concierge platform that connects Vietnam's foreign visitors with locals to ensure guests have a unique and pleasant experience during their stay. Today, she talks about why people can have a bad time in Vietnam and what it's like to be a woman in Vietnam's growing tech startup scene. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Justin Mott has been living in (and photographing) Vietnam for 15 years. He's shot more than 100 assignments for the New York Times and owns a commercial photography business.  Today, he talks about why he chose to make Vietnam home, the changing tastes of clients, and what he's most excited about for Vietnam's future. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Dung's been at the heart of Vietnam's hip hop scene for 20 years. He's witnessed hip hop culture trickle into Vietnam in the form of breakdancing, graffiti and emceeing over American beats, to the vibrant, popular and commercially viable rap scene that can be found in Vietnam today. In this episode, he talks us through the origins of his project Dunkare Magazine, underground rap artists to be looking out for, and what popular TV shows like Rap Viet means for Vietnam's hip hop culture.  

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Uyen Ly has been at the heart of Vietnam's arts and culture scene for more than 20 years as a journalist. Now, as editor of arts and culture platform Hanoi Grapevine, Ly is witnessing a seismic shift as Vietnam's leaders look towards art and creativity as a resource for growth. Today, she talks about the challenges and opportunities this holds for artists and brands and what you should be looking out for in Vietnam's art scene right now. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Joshua Zukas is the go-to guy for everything travel in Vietnam. Today, he talks about what people overseas misunderstand about Vietnam, the issues with Vietnam's tourism brand, and what business travellers can do to really get to know the country when they visit. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

Hoang Pham moved from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to pursue a career in advertising. He's absolutely smashing it.  In this episode, he talks about the state of advertising and creativity in Vietnam, which foreign brands are getting it right, and his experience with gender transition. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.

From a small skate shop to a multi-million dollar fashion brand, Do Viet Anh has been on a 20-year journey with his company BOO in Vietnam.  But it hasn't always been easy. In the very first episode of You Don't Know Vietnam, Viet Anh talks about how appealing to the younger generation saved his business, the pressures facing young people in Vietnam today, and some of the trends making the Vietnam's fashion scene tick. 

This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content - the content agency for global brands in Vietnam. Thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the badass soundtrack, and to you for listening.