Campaign Summary

Facing category stagnation and evolving consumer priorities, MILO sought to reinvigorate its brand position in Vietnam by launching a new product look and communication platform focused on endurance — a critical unmet need for 92 percent of Vietnamese mothers concerned about their children's stamina throughout long, activity-filled days. After partnering with Vietnam's National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) to establish a scientifically proven claim about MILO's benefits for children's endurance, the brand needed an innovative way to shift mothers' perceptions about dairy nutrition. MILO pioneered Vietnam's first real-time personalized advertising approach using AI-powered YouTube TrendJacking, which combined Google Trends API with Ads Creative Studio to identify daily trending videos and rapidly produce tailored creatives that seamlessly integrated endurance messaging into mothers' viewing contexts. Complemented by a comprehensive omnichannel campaign featuring expert voices, social media engagement, and offline activations, this AI-driven approach successfully reached 80 percent of Vietnamese mothers, increased top-of-mind awareness by six points, and delivered tangible business results with a 6 percent increase in consumer off-takes and 8 percent uplift in volume sales.

Strategy

Objective

MILO aimed to spread awareness of its product relaunch with a new look and endurance communication platform, convincing Vietnamese mothers to choose MILO over other nutritional drinks.

The campaign's key objectives included:

1. Maximizing campaign awareness through integrated online and offline platforms, measured by reach, impressions, and views.
2. Building trust and enhancing brand credibility by leveraging authentic mothers, NIN experts, and healthcare professionals to showcase real discussions, testimonials, and stories.
3. Driving brand connection through Vietnam's first-ever real-time personalized advertising, encouraging interaction and talkability, measured by brand lifts and consumer surveys

Context

MILO faced several challenges: category stagnation in volume growth and daily usage occasions, new dairy competitors entering the market, and mothers' conventional mindset of prioritizing nutritional milk products with functional benefits for growth and height. To differentiate itself, MILO partnered with the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) to establish a scientifically proven claim about the importance of endurance and the benefits of daily MILO consumption with exercise. While this provided a trustworthy and powerful message, MILO needed an extra effort to shift mothers' existing perceptions. The brand made a pioneering move to leverage AI and marketing technology to orchestrate a campaign delivering highly customized, nearly real-time personalized messages to mothers.

Target Audience

The campaign targeted progressive Vietnamese mothers aged 25-44 who understand the pressure their children face with packed schedules including school and extracurricular activities. Research revealed that 92 percent of Vietnamese mothers want to improve their children's endurance to excel in all activities throughout the day. Among multiple nutritional dairy options, these mothers typically prefer products focusing on their children's weight, height, and holistic development. MILO sought to enhance its functional relevancy by addressing this critical unmet need for endurance.

Creative and Media Strategy

The creative strategy focused single-mindedly on communicating that the new MILO is scientifically proven, together with exercise, to give children more endurance for optimal performance during their long days. MILO's new packaging featured a battery icon stamp symbolizing endurance, which became a consistent visual identity across all communication channels.

The media strategy centered on reaching mothers at scale through trustworthy channels, including TV featuring nutritionists and healthcare professionals, while leveraging digital platforms to educate about endurance. MILO dedicated significant investment to YouTube, a key platform for Vietnamese mothers. Beyond standard YouTube solutions for mass awareness, MILO became the first brand in Vietnam to use YouTube's TrendJacking, an AI-powered solution that leverages Google's trending API to place targeted messages on top trending video categories, engaging viewers with contextualized content about children's endurance and MILO's benefits.

Execution/Use of Media

MILO executed a comprehensive, AI-driven campaign with several innovative components:

AI-Powered YouTube TrendJacking

MILO pioneered Vietnam's first-in-market TrendJacking approach, combining Google Trends API and Ads Creative Studio to identify daily top trending videos and quickly produce tailored creatives. This system delivered over 40 creative variants across 1,250 trending videos in real-time, creating a seamless ad experience with perfectly personalized messages in the right context on mothers' most viewed content. By integrating YouTube's user interface within the creatives, MILO embedded its endurance message into the viewing experience, ensuring it remained relevant and memorable regardless of the content mothers were watching.

Strategic YouTube Placements

The brand strategically used YouTube masthead and AI video reach campaigns (VRC) to maximize reach and create a dominant share of voice. MILO ads captured attention through AI video view campaigns (VVC) bundled with First Position, ensuring they were the first ads mothers saw during their sessions. The campaign also leveraged the growing popularity of YouTube Shorts, placing ads alongside relevant videos in the Shorts feed, with YouTube's AI ensuring they reached the right target audience.

Omnichannel Integration

The campaign began with roundtable TV programs featuring nutritionists to educate about endurance. This was amplified through social media with authentic mothers, experts, and key opinion leaders sharing their experiences. MILO further activated the message through search, PR, and a series of offline events branded as "Giant Charging Station for 24H Endurance." Customized notification and broadcast messages about endurance and offline event invitations were delivered to the target audience and MILO's first-party data via the Zalo platform.

The sophisticated use of AI and marketing technology enabled MILO to orchestrate a campaign that delivered highly customized, contextually relevant messages to mothers at nearly real-time, seamlessly matching with their state of mind and viewing context. This approach not only captured mothers' attention but also educated them on the relevance of endurance by wittingly becoming part of their video viewing experience.

Business Impact

The AI-powered campaign delivered impressive results across awareness, perception, and business metrics:

Awareness and Engagement

• Successfully reached 80 percent of Vietnamese mothers with the relaunch campaign
• Increased top-of-mind awareness by six points
• Generated 2.1 million mentions within just three months of the active campaign
• Drove discussions about endurance needs and MILO's message at 2.3 times higher than MILO's competitor (the second-ranked liquid milk brand in the market)
• Increased search volume for "endurance" keyword on Google by 25 percent

Brand Perception

• Improved market perceptions on key brand attributes: up five points for "value for money" and up eight points for "providing kids with more endurance"
• Over 50 percent of mothers picked up the endurance message: "MILO has been scientifically proven by NIN to help children improve endurance."

Campaign Performance

• The TrendJacking personalization created market benchmarks by achieving a video view rate (VVR) of 92 percent against a 90 percent target.

Business Results

• 6 percent increase in consumer off-takes
• 8 percent uplift in volume sales compared to pre-campaign

These impressive achievements validate the effectiveness of MILO's innovative AI-driven approach in convincing mothers to embrace a new nutrition mindset for their children and choose MILO as their preferred product. By relevantly educating mothers, MILO successfully positioned itself as an endurance improver, setting the foundation for long-term contribution toward more enduring future generations in Vietnam.

The campaign's success demonstrates the power of combining scientific credibility with cutting-edge AI personalization to create contextually relevant messaging that resonates with the target audience, driving both brand perception shifts and tangible business results.