Recent years have seen Vietnam attract significant international attention for its role as a key manufacturing hub. As global supply chains shift and companies reassess their regional footprints amid geopolitical uncertainty and renewed U.S. tariffs under President Donald Trump, Vietnam has become an increasingly important destination for foreign investment across technology, infrastructure, professional services and sustainability.

Vietnam’s rise is driven by its ambition and opportunity, and while its media landscape has been significantly rationalised, it remains large and vibrant, with 733 licensed outlets. More than 80% of these are specialised journals and sectoral magazines. The number of newspapers has also dropped from a bloated 127 last year to a still-substantial 98 today, while broadcasters have been trimmed from an oversized 72 to a leaner 38. At the same time, the revised Press Law, which took effect in July 2026, introduces new provisions on artificial intelligence and state management of journalism.

A more structured media environment means accuracy and editorial relevance will increasingly determine which stories earn attention. This does not mean there is less appetite for business, technology, or investment stories. It just means that a regional announcement or translated press release needs to connect with editors by demonstrating why the story matters to highly sophisticated and discerning Vietnamese business audiences.

Why global messages need local narratives in Vietnam

Many multinational companies enter Vietnam with strong global content and regional research. Those assets are valuable, but they are not ready-made stories. Strategic localisation means understanding what is changing in Vietnam, how audiences interpret those changes, and where an organisation’s expertise contributes genuine value.

You cannot simply translate announcements for the Vietnamese market and expect them to resonate. The message can be the same as it is globally, but the narrative needs to be truly informed by local realities. An investment announcement may need to move beyond expansion figures and demonstrate skills development, technology transfer, or local capability building.

A technology story may need to connect more directly to Vietnam’s priorities around digital transformation and business resilience. A talent campaign may need to shift from recruitment towards knowledge exchange and professional development.

The strongest communications strategies begin before the pitch, requiring deep knowledge of policy direction as well as the wider conversations shaping Vietnam’s business environment to give a story the strategic narrative localisation that really resonates with the target audience.

That cannot be done with just an extensive media list. You need the know-how to assess if the story itself is positioned for Vietnam. Our approach combines market understanding, editorial judgement, and narrative development to help multinational organisations bridge the gap between what they want to communicate and what Vietnamese audiences are ready to engage with.

Communications success requires Vietnamese market understanding

We did this recently with a global enterprise technology and cybersecurity brand, with a campaign that moved beyond product messaging by building thought leadership by tying Vietnam’s ambitions for digital transformation to robust data protection and secure infrastructure.

Meanwhile, working with a foreign trade organisation seeking to engage Vietnamese technology professionals, we recognised that a conventional recruitment message could be perceived as facilitating talent poaching. Instead, we repositioned the story around skills exchange, international experience, and cross-border innovation.

In both cases, the objective was not simply to secure attention. It was to create narratives that served both the organisation’s goals and Vietnam’s wider development priorities.

To be clear, Vietnam remains full of opportunity, but it does not reward imported narratives. The stories that succeed are those that connect global expertise with Vietnam’s own challenges and development priorities, with less global messaging adapted at the final stage, and more communications built with local understanding from the beginning.

Every market has its own policy priorities, media landscapes, and business contexts that shape how stories are received. The common mistake is assuming a successful regional narrative can simply be replicated market by market.

That is why our approach has always centred on strategic narrative localisation, led by experienced in-country teams with deep local knowledge and long-standing relationships in the markets they serve. It is this combination of local judgement, cultural understanding, and regional perspective that helps multinational organisations build communications strategies that resonate where they matter most.

If you are planning to enter Vietnam or adapt your regional communications strategy for the market, speak with our team about how strategic narrative localisation can help your organisation build relevance and influence.