There is no need to further discuss just how hot the Born Pink concert in Hanoi at the end of last July was. News and posts mentioning the event flooded social media platforms from Facebook and TikTok to news sites. On average, more than 140 discussions about Born Pink were posted each day from 6/26 to 8/1.

Alongside the emotional highs, fan devotion, and controversial discussions surrounding the Born Pink concert, through discussion analysis, Kompa has drawn additional communications and marketing takeaways that brands can refer to.

Join Kompa in taking a deeper look into the event and drawing useful lessons for brand practitioners through the report below.

Overview of discussions about Born Pink

From 6/26, when Vietnam’s online community was stirred by the news that BLACKPINK would hold a concert (part of the BORN PINK world tour) in Vietnam, until the concert ended, Kompa’s Big Data measurement system recorded 4,017,516 discussions related to the Born Pink topic, attracting 140,522,810 interactions.

Facebook and TikTok were the media channels with the widest spread of discussion, accounting for a dominant share of discussions, Facebook 74.2% and TikTok 18.3%. Specifically, most discussions on Facebook came from engagement on posts from fanpages such as BLACKPINK, HÓNG 24/7, and Blackpink Fans.

The most discussed positive and negative topics revolved around the issue of the concert organizer allegedly supporting the nine-dash line, ticket & ticket price issues, rumors of show cancellation before the performance date, and the blazing moments of the show night, along with the super adorable “lửa hận thù” fanchant from Vietnamese fans. Although there were many negative discussions, the community still closely followed the journey of the four girls, as shown by the sentiment index reaching a high threshold of 80.8%.

The audience participating in discussions was mainly concentrated in the two major cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi, where the concert took place, accounted for 38.8%. The profile of social media users interested in the Black Pink show night consisted of Gen Z and Gen Y youth, university-age students and office workers, with a characteristic love for K-pop.

Event timeline

As soon as information appeared on 6/26 that Black Pink would come to Vietnam, the online community buzzed with discussion. In the days that followed, a series of negative pieces of information about the show appeared, drawing community attention and interest with 2,595,068 discussions around topics such as: suspicions that the BlackPink event organizer was a Chinese company supporting the nine-dash line; “the number of performances in the playlist changed close to showtime, from 13 songs previously announced to 23 songs”; and ticket issues such as “ticket prices are too expensive” and “ticket scalping.” There were 337,670 social media user accounts participating in discussions and 80,157,159 interactions across the above topics during the period from 6/26 to 7/28 before the opening night.

On the peak event day, with 1,586,006 total discussions from 187,370 social media accounts attracting 48,998,245 interactions, My Dinh Stadium was packed with spectators, all doubts were completely erased, and the concert was an unimaginable success. Social media was flooded with concert images and videos, along with livestreams of the Born Pink event. Topics attracting discussion in this stage included the opening fireworks, the Vietnamese “lửa hận thù” adaptation of Jisoo’s Flower, Jennie dancing to See Tình, and Lisa’s top-tier “silent” moment.

After the concert night, Born Pink was still not out of the spotlight, attracting 335,642 discussions around topics of “post-concert syndrome,” leaving many emotions for young audiences—happiness at being part of the music night and some regret over its ending. In particular, images of the trash-filled stadium after the show sparked much controversy and attracted a series of negative discussions.

Conclusion

The Born Pink concert in Hanoi was a resounding success and at the same time a case study in media crisis handling that brand practitioners can draw lessons from and apply. In addition, the event also showed Vietnam’s tourism potential & helped boost tourist arrivals from many countries coming together to attend the concert, creating an opportunity for travel and tour companies to seize by building tours and itineraries combined with concert attendance.

Register and download Kompa’s detailed report to immediately pocket key figures on the Born Pink “fever,” along with Kompa’s conclusions that can be further applied to brand marketing plans.