Nestlé Milo was awarded APAC Effie Awards 2019 – a prestigious regional award of marketing and communication. It is the first brand from Vietnam to receive this award for two consecutive times. 

Ali Abbas, Head of Dairy Business, Nestlé Vietnam, speaks to VnExpress about the pride and constant effort of Nestlé Milo to achieve this recognition. 

Ali Abbas, Head of Dairy Business, Nestlé Vietnam,
at APAC Effie Awards 2019 ceremony.

This is the second time Nestlé Milo has been awarded APAC Effie Awards. What does it mean to you and the team?

We are extremely proud and honored to receive APAC Effie Award for two consecutive years. This is a great achievement for our continuous effort to understand and build trust in Vietnamese consumers.

Nestlé Milo's great mission in Vietnam is to inspire and encourage children to participate in sporting activities through which we can contribute to building a dynamic and healthy Vietnamese generation.

By being awarded APAC Effie Award two years in a row, a prestigious award in the marketing industry in the Asia-Pacific region and the world, Nestlé Milo has set a new standard in the media industry and helped place Vietnam in the world map.

What have you done to build trust and improve consumers' health through sports? 

Milo is a social movement - a movement to learn life skills and become successful individuals. The "Activ Vietnam" campaign was based on societal changes, new trends and the need for kids to learn the practical lessons of life that sports can teach very well. The expectation is for parents and kids to dedicate at least 30 minutes per day to sports, 2-3 times per week. 

We have collaborated with the Ministry of Education and Training and the General Department of Sports and Physical Training to launch the "Activ Vietnam" program since 2016. This program is being run as part of the National Project 641 for "Enhancing the stature and endurance of Vietnamese in the period 2011-2030". 

6,000 students participating in morning exercise made a Guinness record.

We have partnerships with different sport associations to organize annually multiple events in basketball, football, swimming, vovinam, and running to enhance the physical stature of kids. Over 25 years in Vietnam, we have coordinated and organized various sports events which attracted the participation of more than 2.5 million kids. 

One of our biggest events is the Energy Run and Energy Camp which attracts more than 10,000 kids each year. In 2016 Nestlé MILO signed a global partnership deal with FC Barcelona football club to send five Vietnamese young football talents to get world class football coaching at the FC Barcelona stadium in Spain every year.

We have received a very positive response from the public to our message and heard from more than 200,000 parents last year who are committed to this mission.

Partnership with FC Barcelona (Spain) since 2016.

How does Nestlé Milo get to know Vietnamese consumers' needs?

We interact with consumers in many different ways. We talk to millions of children and mothers every year because Nestlé MILO has a lot of grassroots sports programs which help us interact with a lot of people. We also go to their home, get understanding how they live and what their problems are, how we can bring solutions. 

We also do formal research through a very specialized research agency to understand the issues, problems and solutions. Combining the formal and informal ways, we are able to understand the behavior of Vietnamese consumers. Based on that, we develop marketing programs and nutrition and other products.

What is your long-term marketing plan after "Activ Vietnam"?

Vietnam is a very specific market with rapid development compared to neighboring countries. In addition, this is also a market with great potential. There are 24 million households in Vietnam and Nestlé MILO only has access to less than half of them. We have a long way to go, especially in rural areas.

Regarding "Activ Vietnam", we are expanding the program to more provinces.