Thought Leadership
Open for Registration
Opening Remarks
The New Luxury: Human Connection in an AI-Driven World
As AI increasingly acts, decides, and transacts on our behalf, businesses are racing to automate every interaction. But in removing friction, are we also removing something people increasingly value: genuine human connection?
This session explores the emerging tension between efficiency and empathy, and why the next frontier of innovation may not be more automation, but designing experiences that make people feel understood, valued, and genuinely connected.
Vietnam’s Next Growth Curve: From Marketing Investment to Enterprise Value
Vietnam’s next phase of growth requires marketing and finance to operate from the same value agenda. This boardroom conversation examines how leaders connect brand investment, customer demand, pricing power, retention and resource allocation to long-term enterprise value. It explores how companies can balance immediate commercial performance with investments that build future demand, brand strength and sustainable competitive advantage.
CMO Panel
What CMOs and CFOs Get Wrong About Profitable Growth, and How to Fix It
CMOs and CFOs often evaluate marketing through different time horizons, evidence and definitions of value. Marketing may focus on customer demand and brand growth, while finance prioritises margin, risk and financial return. This debate examines how both functions can align on investment decisions, measurement and resource allocation. Speakers will discuss which marketing metrics belong in the boardroom, how to evaluate long-term brand investment and what both functions must change to create profitable growth.
Break & Networking
CEO Panel
Earning Attention at AI Scale: Context, Creativity and Trust
AI enables brands to create, personalise and distribute more content, but greater volume does not guarantee greater impact. As consumers face an unlimited supply of messages, attention must be earned through relevance, creativity, context and trust. This keynote examines how marketers can use AI to improve creative effectiveness while protecting brand distinctiveness and human connection. It also addresses the role of strategic judgment, responsible AI and consumer trust in AI-powered advertising.
Vietnam’s New Discovery Journey: Search, Social, Creators and AI Answers
Vietnamese consumers no longer follow a linear discovery journey. They move between search engines, social feeds, creators, marketplaces and AI assistants that can surface, compare and recommend brands in real time. This panel explores the moments that shape consumer preference and how AI is transforming discovery, consideration and decision-making. Speakers will discuss how brands can strengthen visibility, relevance and credibility across these connected journeys while balancing personalisation, human judgment and consumer trust.
The Retention Dividend: Turning Experience, Loyalty and Community into Lifetime Value
Acquisition creates a customer. Retention creates durable value. This panel examines how brands can connect customer experience, loyalty, first-party data, service and community to reduce churn, increase repeat purchase and grow customer lifetime value. Speakers will explore how marketing leaders can move beyond campaign-based engagement and build customer relationships that contribute to sustainable revenue and long-term business growth.
Lunch Break
Afternoon Welcome Speech by MC
From Transformation to Orchestration: Making Creativity, AI, and People Work as One
A inspiring session on how modern brands are building connected content supply chains that unite creativity, data, and technology. It reflects on what changes when people and AI collaborate within one orchestrated ecosystem. Take away key lessons learned from scaling AI-powered creativity into real marketing impact.
SMARTIES Vietnam - Best Campaigns in 2026
The Margin Engine: How Marketing Improves Pricing Power, Mix and Contribution
Growth without strong economics does not create durable value. This panel examines how marketing contributes to margin through pricing power, portfolio mix, media productivity, customer acquisition payback and smarter resource allocation. Speakers will discuss how brand strength can reduce price sensitivity, how marketing can improve the quality of growth and how CMOs can demonstrate contribution beyond revenue. The session connects marketing decisions with the financial outcomes that matter to CEOs and CFOs.
SMARTIES Vietnam - Best Campaigns in 2026
Beyond AI: Building Connected Intelligence for Customer Growth
Marketing intelligence is bigger than artificial intelligence alone. It is the ability to connect consumer insight, media signals, customer journeys, commerce data and human judgment to make faster and more effective decisions. This panel examines how brands can move beyond fragmented tools and isolated data sources to build a connected intelligence system for customer growth. Speakers will discuss how connected intelligence can improve audience understanding, personalisation, journey design, customer experience and retention while keeping technology aligned with business priorities.
