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Campaign: Speak Your Mind

Group Name: The 20+

I. Executive Summary
It takes little time to show gratitude by saying thanks; however, in this modern
industrial society, we hear less and less people say thanks to others. Through
extensive research, reasons for this issue have been identified. Some people argue
that life has been so busy that people forget to say thanks. Some others think the
standardized code of behavior has been loosened, so the phrase thank you has
been belittled. Actually, a key factor that makes people thank less is social pressure,
i.e. when someone wants to say thank, they hesitate because others do not and they
do not want to be a weirdo. Recognizing this, our team decides to conduct a
campaign to help them see how cool saying thanks can be.
This paper will provide some insight into the background information and
communication challenges, along with a description of the target audience. The
objectives of the campaign are also clearly defined. Most importantly, a creative
concept and its execution will be proposed. Additionally, details about the use of
various media channels, including media flowchart and budget, are provided.
II. Campaign Background
Saying thank you is one of the most basic codes of behavior that shows someone is
cultured, civilized, and polite in social relationships. When someone says thanks, he
is showing his own value and helps foster a healthy relationship (Ha Anh 2011).
People who express their gratitude, i.e. saying thank you, often receive various
benefits for themselves and people around them (Thank You Project 2011) such as:
They feel generally happier in their life.
They make greater progress towards their personal goals.
They help more people
They have better relationships with people around them.
In many cases, simply saying thank you can bring joy to the recipients and make
them want to provide help more often. However, nowadays, people are more
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reluctant to express their gratitude: we hear thank you less. Because the
consequences of not saying thanks are not too obvious and severe, not much
research has been conducted to explore why this problem happens. Nevertheless,
some reasons can be drawn from common sense: social standards are loosened;
industrialized life style makes people become less thoughtful; or they are not familiar
with the phrase thank you (Ha Anh 2011). Moreover, when someone does not hear
people say thanks, they will be more reluctant to do so because of peer pressure,
which means they follow the majority so that they do not appear as weirdoes.
Recognizing the effect of thanking on each individual and the society, our team
(NAME) decides to run a social marketing campaign that persuades the audience to
express their gratitude more.
III. Strategic Communication Challenge
One of the reasons why people say thank you less is because they are too busy with
their excessively fast-pace life (Dilenschneider n.d.). Therefore, though our
campaign may make the target audience think that it is good to thank someone, they
tend to forget to do so since they have something else to worry about.
People are also likely to imitate people who they admire, i.e. celebrities, and when
the celebrities do not express gratitude, the target audience may ask why they have
to do so. The media has reported several cases in which the celebrities do not or say
thanks in a poor manner:
Huong Tram, the winner of The Voice Vietnam Season One forgot to say
thanks to her coach Thu Minh despite Thu Minhs presence right at the stage
of the Contribution Award (Zing News 2013).
Actor Hoa Hiep, when eliminated from Dancing With The Stars, thanked the
judge panel because they eliminated his team. He complained that the judges
had treated his couple poorly so eliminating them made him feel relieved
(Zing News 2013).
Another communication challenge is that people may consider the problem of not
thanking either trivial or leading to no harmful or visible consequences, so they will
not take our campaign very seriously. As communicators, we need to effectively
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generate the target audiences empathy and make them feel identified with us so
that we can convey the message more efficiently.
Last but not least, we are challenging the target audiences beliefs and daily habits,
both of which are very difficult to change and cannot be changed in a short time. Our
campaign might just act as an initial step to help gradually change the societys
perception of expressing gratitude by saying thank. This challenge also makes us
tailor our key message and deliver them in a way that can affect the audience in the
long term.
IV. Objectives
80% of the target audience is aware of the campaign after 6 months.
60% of the target audience understands the important of saying thank you after 6
months.
40% of the target audience feels that its good to say thank you more after 6 months.
10% of the target audience actually says thank you more after 6 months.

V. Target Audience
The target audience for this campaign is Vietnamese male and female students of
middle class and above families from 14 to 22 years old living in Ho Chi Minh city.
We believe that teenagers and young adults are those who can easily be educated
about this issue and are the future of Vietnam so they can have great impact on the
society. Also, as 95% of them use the Internet while 55% use social media (Cimigo
2011), we can communicate with them through online tools to save cost. Through
social media, the target audience, said to be expressive (Cimigo 2011), can discuss
and help spread the key message. Moreover, they seek new knowledge and
entertainment by watching TV, reading newspaper and magazine, going to the
cinema. In their daily life, many of them use public transport, i.e. bus.
Strategically speaking, there are three main reasons why teenagers and young
adults are the most appropriate target audience for this campaign. Firstly, they lack
life experience and are in the process of learning new things, therefore, are curious
about things happening around (Raising Children Network n.d.). As a result, we can
persuade them more easily than adults whose personalities are firmly built and
difficult to be changed. Secondly, the target audience is those who will grow up
becoming the new thought leaders and influential figures who will shape and redirect
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the trend of the society. This means that if we can influence them, we might
potentially influence more people later on. Last but not least, with the information
presented above, they are accessible through various media, so we can deliver our
key message more easily.

VI. Key Insights
Extensive research shows that peer pressure is one of the significant factors
contributing to the audiences reluctance to say thank (Ha Thanh n.d.). To be specific,
as they observe others way of behavior, the target audience are likely to act the
same way, in this case, not saying thank you because they are afraid that others will
judge them for acting differently. Moreover, less people care about thanking, leading
to the fact that they are not aware of the benefits of thanking as well as the
disadvantages of not showing gratitude to others (Ha Thanh n.d.). Therefore, the
advertising concept proposes an idea to persuade the audience to say thank more
while subtly shows the drawbacks of not saying thanks and the advantages of
thanking.

VII. Advertising Concept
Our research has shown that Vietnamese people say thanks infrequently due to
social pressure and underestimation of the need of this word. Also, they do not know
the disadvantages of not saying thanks. To solve the problem, we will persuade
them by showing dramatized images resembling their life so that they can reflect on
their own experiences and decide to change by themselves.

VIII. Proposition
Key message: Thanks - small word big worth.
The purpose of the proposition is for the public to realize the benefits of saying
thanks for themselves and for the people who help them. They may also think about
getting over barriers holding them back of saying thank after someone helping them.

IX. Key Visual
Thank you is a simple but forgotten word. Sometimes people hesitate or even forget
to say thanks when they receive help from others. Thats why we use the concept of
the crossword as a portrayal of peoples pondering thoughts of figuring out whether
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to say thank you or not when they get help with petty things. Also, the crossword can
help the audience to recall the existence of the word Thank You and to double check
whether they have used this word recently.

X. Media Strategy
1. Advertising:
Out-of-home advertising:

Research has shown that many Vietnamese teenagers frequently go outdoors for
entertainment and friends gathering, thus out-of-home advertising is appropriate
(FTA 2012).
Type Time, Place and Duration Rationale
Advertising on bus stops



Duration: 3 months, May, August and
September 2014
Place: Ads to be placed on 20 selected
bus stops (District 1 and 3)

Our target audience
is more likely to use
bus as their main
transportation.
Cinema ads


Showing before films time
Venue: CGV Cinemas at Crescent Mall
and Parkson Hung Vuong.
Teaser: 3 times a day, in April
TVC: twice a day, for 3 months (1 May
to 1 August 2014)

Many Vietnamese
teenagers go to
cinemas with their
friends, and cinema
ads also have a
higher recall rate.
Elevator ads
Duration: 3 months, May August
2014
Place: Crescent Mall, Vincom, Parkson
shopping malls
Many Vietnamese
teenagers use
elevators inside
shopping malls


3. Internet marketing:

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Channels Time & Duration Rationales

YouTube



Throughout the
campaign



- YouTube is the most popular video-sharing sites in
Vietnam.
- The teasers and videos will be posted on the official
YouTube channel.
Online
banners

Many Vietnamese are tech-savvy and frequent Internet
users. The Internet allows interaction and multimedia
materials.

Media Flow Chart

XI. Budget
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27%
26%
20%
1%
26%
Budget Allocation
Bus stop ad Cinema ad Elevator ad YouTube Online banners
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