VietNamNet Bridge - Despite tough negotiations and high advert fees, Vietnamese businesses are still willing to pay money to have their brands appear on Premier Leagues.

When the football match between West Bromwich and Chelsea late last week went to the 64th minute, Vietnamese fans were surprised to see the words “Ton Dong A – made in Vietnam” on the electronic ad board for two minutes.

Nguyen Thanh Trung, president of Ton Dong A Corporation, the sheet metal manufacturer, confirmed that a contract had been signed under which Ton Dong A would advertise its products at 10 football matches within the frame of this year’s British Premier League. 

The total value of the contract, VND2 billion, will be paid after every match.

This is the first time Ton Dong A has decided to spend money to advertise its images at such a big international sports tournament.

Explaining the ad campaign, Trung said the corporation wants to see its images popularized all over the world through football matches which have a high number of Vietnamese and international viewers.

Trung also said the advert campaign is part of the corporation’s plan to boost exports not only in Asian countries, but also to Europe and the US.

In fact, Ton Dong A is not the first Vietnamese business which has decided to advertise its products in the Premier Leagues. In 2007, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group of Doan Nguyen Duc, one of the richest Vietnamese stock millionaires, honored by VnExpress newspaper, once ran the logo “Hoang Anh Gia Lai Viet Nam” at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium throughout the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 seasons. 

Duc of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group said this was the group’s audacious strategy to bring the Hoang Anh Gia Lai brand to the public in the quickest way. At that time, no Vietnamese business thought of advertising its brand and products at the British Premier League and at the stadium of one of the ‘big four’ clubs - Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool.

Duc declined to reveal the expenses on ads, but said the ads were very costly. Having business logos at the stadium of top five clubs would require several million dollars at minimum, or tens of billions of dong.

Duc said even if businesses accept to pay big money, they may not be able to sign contracts with the famous football clubs.

“At that time, we could place our logo at Emirates because of the special relation with Arsenal GMG,” Duc said.

Nguyen Nhat Huy, a marketing expert, while noting that this was a good way to advertise businesses’ images in the world market, this is not the choice of the majority of Vietnamese businesses because of high costs.

VNE