Unilever Vietnam embraces machine learning and AI in marketing

Identifying digital transformation as the fuel for the future, Unilever Vietnam's brands and customer development teams have constantly promoted the digitalisation process in their marketing activities and distribution channels since 2018.

Based on data collection, analysis and application, brands at Unilever Vietnam have been transforming from a traditional marketing model to a data-driven marketing one.

Accordingly, the model will help brands focus on performance, directing accurate messages to target customers in a real-time and personalised way. Data is the key foundation to putting those goals into practice and facilitating increased predictability through instant data.

Unilever's CLEAR brand, for instance, pioneered to use AI in marketing activities by launching a digital version of female singer Toc Tien in 2020 with the character’s appearance created by 3D technology and a brain developed with Natural Language Processing technology.

This initiative helped CLEAR be awarded the gold award for Best Data-driven Display Creative at the MMA Smarties APAC 2020 and the silver award for the Machine Learning & AI category at the Global MMA Smarties X 2020.

Digital version of female singer Toc Tien

In another case study, Dove Vietnam used machine learning and AI in the Dove Hair Rewind Women's Day campaign, helping users create their own journey videos, thereby spreading the message “Your hair, your choice”. This also helped Dove be honoured with Vietnam's only gold award at the Global MMA Smarties X in 2021 for the Machine Learning & AI category.

Vietnam's only Gold award at the Global MMA Smarties X in 2021 went to Dove

In a world with diverse and fragmented consumer needs and trends, digital transformation is an inevitable trend, and Unilever started this journey very early in Vietnam.

Unilever Vietnam’s brands, thanks to this, received a range of awards at Smarties x Global and Smarties Asia Pacific, including the most important award – Marketer of the Year in 2021.

Channels of the future

Vietnam's retail market is shaped mainly by traditional and modern trade channels. However, the shift to online distribution channels has been around for a long time.

This not only affects the way we distribute our products but also requires leaders to come up with ideas for renewing themselves, even in traditional trade channels. Therefore, Unilever Vietnam has constantly focused on transforming digital distribution models.

This is a revolution that Unilever Vietnam has been significantly determined on. The company has developed and deployed the OrderUNow mobile application, helping more than 170,000 grocery stores and retailers across the country directly import goods from Unilever, which creates a B2B business model between the company and its retailers.

Besides this, Unilever Vietnam is also leading in many other distribution models, through the UShop e-commerce ecosystem, specialising in selling Unilever products.

The e-commerce ecosystem by Unilever Vietnam

Those efforts all go towards efficiency in marketing, business operations, and above all, better experiences and services to Unilever Vietnam's customers and consumers.