Tet is one of the most competitive communication periods for the FMCG industry. From minigames and gift-giving promotions to seasonal campaigns built around emotions, brands continuously create touchpoints to attract consumers.
But does a high volume of mentions really reflect campaign effectiveness?
An analysis of 326,210 discussions across six FMCG categories from December 2025 to February 2026 reveals a notable gap between generating conversations and building meaningful connections with consumers. Minigames contributed significantly to mention volume, while organic consumer responses revealed deeper needs and emotions during the Tet season.
With Social Listening, brands can go beyond counting mentions to evaluate discussion sources, conversation quality, and actionable insights for their Tet 2027 campaigns.
1. Mention Volume Is Rising, But What Is Driving the Conversation?
During Tet, minigames are among the most common mechanisms brands use to quickly boost engagement. However, when discussions depend heavily on participation and prize incentives, using total mentions as a measure of campaign effectiveness may not fully capture the campaign's ability to generate organic momentum.
The data shows that 13.6% of posts featuring prizes generated 43% of total mentions in the analyzed dataset. In the laundry and cleaning category, online games accounted for 81% of discussions; the figure reached 63% in the seasoning category.
This indicates that campaign mechanics can generate substantial mention volume within a short period. However, these discussions need to be interpreted in the right context before campaign effectiveness can be assessed.
For Marketing Teams, the question is not simply how many mentions a campaign generated, but also:
How much discussion came from minigames versus organic content?
What are consumers voluntarily sharing beyond their participation in prize-winning activities?
Do conversations continue after the campaign mechanics end?
Social Listening helps distinguish discussion sources, track mention trends, and assess conversation quality, providing a more comprehensive view of communication effectiveness.
2. Behind Engagement Lie Consumer Needs That Remain Underexplored
If minigames explain a significant portion of discussion volume, organic consumer voices reveal another layer of insight.
During Tet, consumers do not talk only about gifts, promotions, or good fortune at the beginning of the year. Their conversations also reflect financial pressure, busy lifestyles, a desire to care for family health, and nostalgia for past Tet celebrations.
Expressions such as “a healthy wallet and a full salary,” “racing to meet deadlines right before Tet,” and the desire to replace beer and alcohol gifts with health-conscious products reveal specific consumer concerns during this period.
These are important signals for brand content and proposition development.
A familiar Tet message may help a campaign appeal to a broad audience. But to stand out, brands need to identify which needs are most relevant, which emotions resonate most strongly, and which approaches best fit their target consumers.
By analyzing topics, context, and discussion sentiment, Social Listening helps Marketing Teams uncover the motivations behind conversations and develop messages that better reflect consumers' everyday lives.
3. Everyone Is Talking About Tet. Where Should Brands Look for White Space?
Family reunions, good fortune, and welcoming prosperity are familiar themes in Tet communications. However, when multiple brands explore the same messaging territory, differentiation depends not only on reach but also on how effectively brands connect seasonal themes with specific consumer needs.
The data recorded approximately 17,000 discussions around welcoming prosperity and attracting good fortune, with 36% of posts in this group featuring prizes. Meanwhile, La Vie's “Chúc Yên” campaign generated approximately 7,200 mentions, despite only 5% of its posts featuring prizes.
These two cases should not be treated as a direct comparison of campaign effectiveness. However, they point to an important analytical direction: mention volume must be interpreted alongside the mechanisms driving discussion and the content consumers actually respond to.
Rather than simply identifying which themes are popular, brands need to investigate further:
Which themes have already been widely used by competitors?
What approaches encourage consumers to actively participate in conversations?
Which emerging needs remain unmet by relevant brand messaging?
Which propositions could help a brand establish a distinctive position?
Social Listening provides a basis for identifying discussion trends, comparing how brands approach the same themes, and uncovering potential content white spaces.
4. Measuring Tet 2027 Campaigns: From Mention KPIs to Actionable Insights
A campaign performance report should not stop at total mentions, engagement rates, or positive and negative sentiment. These metrics become truly useful only when interpreted in the right context and connected to communication objectives.
Drawing on data from the 2025–2026 Tet season, brands can develop a four-layer measurement framework for Tet 2027:
01. Volume - Measure Discussion Scale
Track mentions over time, identify peak periods, and monitor conversation trends before, during, and after the campaign.
02. Source - Identify What Drives Discussion
Distinguish between minigame-related discussions, brand-generated content, and organic conversations to understand which mechanisms contribute to mention volume.
03. Conversation - Analyze Response Quality
Explore discussion topics, sentiment, behaviors, and context to identify what consumers genuinely care about rather than focusing solely on engagement numbers.
04. Insight - Identify Optimization Opportunities
Connect discussion data with campaign objectives to uncover promising propositions, content white spaces, and elements that should be adjusted in future plans.
This approach helps Marketing Teams distinguish between campaigns that generate high mention volume and campaigns that create meaningful conversations around the brand.
From Performance Measurement to a Competitive Advantage for Tet 2027
Tet season data shows that minigames can generate substantial mention volume, but more discussions do not automatically translate into stronger brand connections or differentiation in consumers' minds.
Therefore, the measurement challenge for Tet 2027 is not simply to set a higher mention target than the previous season. More importantly, brands need to understand what drives conversations, assess their quality, and uncover insights that can inform communication decisions.
Social Listening helps brands look deeper into what consumers are saying, understand why they respond, and identify opportunities to create greater value through their next Tet campaign.
