In recent years, sport marketing in Vietnam has undergone a clear shift from traditional sponsorship to a model of building long-term experiences associated with participants. The rapid development of the community running movement and the trend of healthy living after the epidemic have contributed to making sports a noteworthy component in the field of experience economy, opening up more opportunities for businesses to approach consumers in a more sustainable direction.
Previously, sports marketing activities mainly focused on sponsoring images or appearing logos at events. However, recently, many businesses have switched to a multi-touch brand experience model, in which participants not only compete but also interact with cultural, music, tourism and local culinary activities. This approach is assessed to help increase brand recognition and promote the spread of content shared by participants on digital platforms.
In that context, Nexus Sport Events is expanding the model of organizing races in a direction associated with local experiences. Established in 2012, this unit orients each race as a sports product integrating professional, cultural and brand value elements to increase attractiveness to the participating community.
An example is the VPBank Dat Sen Hong Music Marathon held in Dong Thap, designed according to the "music run" model, combining jogging with music activities and local experiences. According to the organizing unit, the event reached more than 18 million media accesses, while contributing to stimulating tourism demand and service use during the tournament.
At the same time, Nexus Sport Events continues to implement a series of races in many different formats such as Smile Run in Ho Chi Minh City (May 24), Da Lat Music Night Run in Da Lat (June 6) and Mekong Delta Cross Country Marathon in Can Tho (July 7). The races are built in the direction of long-term development through many seasons, aiming to expand the runner community and increase the commercial value of the event.
According to some professional opinions, sport marketing in Vietnam is shifting from a simple sponsorship role to a form of accompanying and experiencing with participants. This trend is considered suitable for the context of sports increasingly associated with tourism, entertainment and local identity, thereby contributing to gradually forming an experiential economic ecosystem based on community sports events.
