La Tuong Vi (26 years old, Hanoi) is currently a senior creative strategist at Rethink New York (USA) - the advertising company honored as top 1 at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2024.
A typical day at Rethink New York for Tuong Vi revolves around writing briefs to guide the company's creative department on how to realize the brands' business goals, then working with the Creative Director on those ideas.
Vi’s job is to package the specific features and objectives of the product into a suitable message, and to deliver this message to the audience in the form of an advertising campaign that can influence their emotions and behavior. According to Vi, a strategist always faces two challenges: ensuring that the creative department understands the strategist’s approach, and convincing the client of the proposed idea.
Tuong Vi believes she chose the right major from the beginning.
Sharing her journey to the advertising industry, according to Vi, it was not a struggle of the ego. “Advertising” was the first choice on the list of desired majors when Vi applied to American universities in 2016, and she immediately felt that this choice reflected her strengths in topics related to people and creativity. With a full scholarship to major in advertising from Temple University (Philadelphia) and later a 50% tuition scholarship from Fordham University (New York), Vi spent many years in the classroom absorbing advertising theories as well as immersing herself in competitions and internship projects.
In 2020, Vi graduated from Temple University and landed her first full-time job at advertising agency Noble People, a job she is still grateful for. “It was a time when I had the opportunity to develop myself by leaps and bounds while working and studying for my master’s degree,” Vi shared. According to Vi’s observation, although the US is a country with a very competitive labor market, not everyone is willing to spend more time on work than the standard. “Many colleagues around me only need to work within the framework of office hours. They choose to balance work and personal life instead of investing more time to become more excellent in their careers,” she said.
During her time at Noble People, Vi typically worked from 9am to 5pm, then left the office to go to school until 10pm. On weekends, Vi continued to study and researched the psychology of American consumers. By 2022, Vi became Noble People’s youngest senior creative strategist. Later, in many interviews, recruiters often wondered why it took Vi only two years to go from intern to her current position – much faster than most people in the industry. She explained: “Although I have two years of experience on my resume, the actual time my mind is present for work is much longer than that.”
Tuong Vi (middle) at Yankee Stadium (New York), the studio for a brand's advertising campaign.
Vi's efforts were also fueled by timely empowerment. Vi admits that there were opportunities that came her way, through which she was recognized and acknowledged by industry veterans. For example, at Noble People, Vi was once assigned by her boss to organize a workshop to present her understanding of the NFT and cryptocurrency markets to the most senior staff of partner companies and clients. The request was made after her boss noticed Vi discussing the topic enthusiastically with her colleagues in her free time. Or in her current job, Vi is often entrusted with large advertising projects that, according to Vi, she sometimes doubted whether she could do well.
In addition to dedication and empowerment, according to Vi, two other factors that helped her achieve her current success are her proactiveness and curiosity about life. Talking about her memories of finding her ideal job now, Vi recalls: “At the end of 2023, I proactively sent an email to my current boss at Rethink New York, making an appointment to meet her in person to discuss job opportunities. In the US, senior managers often receive up to 10 such messages a day. That means my email would be 'lost' in the list of several hundred messages my boss receives each month. So, I decided to make a unique and somewhat humorous presentation about myself. As a result, she contacted me back and agreed to meet. Right from the first conversation, we felt that our ways of thinking and approaching problems were very compatible.”
Vi's initiative also lies in the fact that she does not hesitate to express her thoughts in front of experienced people, such as "having won 30 awards in the advertising field". Vi admits that she has a rather 'student' demeanor and is not too dignified, but her solution is always to try to present her ideas in the most confident and inspiring way possible.
Tuong Vi and colleagues
Talking about the biggest challenge when she first started her career, Vi said that it was still how to understand the psychology of American consumers when she was Vietnamese. However, this gradually improved when Vi took the time to watch and analyze all types of American advertisements, or surf TikTok in a targeted way to find out "What are Americans out there interested in?". In particular, Vi once participated in a comedy performance on the Gotham Comedy Club (New York) stage. According to Vi, a successful advertising campaign does not come from colorful frames, but from profound discoveries about the psychology of people around us - something that only individuals who are always 'curious' and try to look deeply into everyday slices of life - can realize.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/co-gai-viet-ghi-danh-trong-nganh-quang-cao-the-gioi-185250226145708287.htm
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