Biti's Hunter: waking a sleeping brand with one emotion
Biti's did not launch a new shoe and wait. It attached the brand to an emotion the whole country was living through - and woke up a name everyone thought had gone to sleep.
From 2017, Biti's Hunter staged a spectacular revival through the \u201cDi De Tro Ve\u201d (Go To Return) campaign: placing the shoes in Son Tung M-TP's \u201cLac Troi\u201d music video and Soobin Hoang Son's title song, tapping the Tet emotion of \u201cgoing far to come home\u201d. The Hunter Feast sold 3x normal, sales rose up to 250% by end of season two, topping YouTube's Ads Leaderboard 2017-2018 - followed by the #ProudlyMadeInVietnam series. The lesson: attach the brand to an emotion and a cultural moment, and measure in real sales.
What exactly did Biti's do?
Smart product placement: the Hunter Feast appeared naturally in Son Tung M-TP's "Lac Troi" music video, reaching tens of millions of young viewers. Attached to the Tet emotion: Soobin Hoang Son's song "Di De Tro Ve" turned "go far to come home" into the brand's Tet-season story. Measured results: Hunter Feast sold 3x its normal rate, sales rose up to 250% by the end of season two, and the campaign led YouTube's Ads Leaderboard in 2017 and 2018. Vietnamese pride: the follow-up #ProudlyMadeInVietnam series positioned Biti's as a Vietnamese brand worth being proud of.
Why did it work?
Biti's did not sell "a shoe" - it sold an emotion at exactly the right moment. Young audiences love music and idols, so natural product placement outperformed direct advertising. "Go to return" hit the precise Tet psychology of Vietnamese audiences. And critically: success was measured in real sales, not views. It is the essence of brand revival - waking a sleeping name with a new story, the same discipline that powered LEGO's turnaround in a different market.
What can your business borrow?
Attach the brand to an emotion and a cultural moment, not just the product: find the moment your customers are already living - Tet, homecoming, hometown pride - and let the brand become part of that story. Partner with the right influencers: one video whose audience matches your customer beats ten generic ads. Count revenue, not reach: views are a means; sales are the verdict. And note what made the emotion credible: the product itself had been quietly upgraded to deserve the spotlight - a revival stands on substance, the same lesson as the positioning discipline in the Vietnamese drink-chains case study.
Case study compiled from public campaign results and Vietnamese marketing-industry coverage of the 2017-2018 seasons. Figures are as reported at the time.
Frequently asked questions
What was Biti's Hunter's 'Di De Tro Ve' campaign?
Starting in 2017, Biti's revived its sleeping Hunter line by embedding the shoes in Son Tung M-TP's 'Lac Troi' music video and Soobin Hoang Son's song 'Di De Tro Ve' ('Go To Return') - tapping the Tet emotion of traveling far and coming home. The Hunter Feast model sold 3x its normal rate, sales rose up to 250% by the end of season two, and the campaign topped YouTube's Ads Leaderboard in 2017 and 2018.
Why did product placement work better than direct ads for Biti's?
Because young Vietnamese audiences love music and idols - a shoe appearing naturally in a hit music video reaches tens of millions without the resistance direct advertising triggers. The message 'go far to come home' hit the exact Tet psychology of Vietnamese audiences, so the brand became part of a story people were already living.
What can a small brand borrow from Biti's Hunter?
Three things: attach the brand to an emotion and a cultural moment (Tet, homecoming, hometown pride) instead of talking only about the product; partner with influencers whose audience matches yours - one right video beats ten generic ads; and measure success in real sales, not just views. Biti's counted revenue, and that discipline is copyable at any size.