On November 6, 2024, in Singapore, the 70th Anniversary Dien Bien Phu Victory Propaganda Campaign was awarded the Gold Award by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in the category of Best Marketing Strategy.
The propaganda campaign for the 70th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory was carried out in 6 months with 3 main products: Dien Bien Phu Special Page (dienbienphu.nhandan.vn), newspaper supplement dated May 7, 2024 and 2 interactive exhibitions of Dien Bien Phu Campaign (in Hanoi and Dien Bien Phu).
In particular, the Dien Bien Phu Special Page is a database jointly built by Nhan Dan Newspaper and the Military History Institute. The most outstanding feature of this Special Page is the data stream distributed over time with 56 milestones, recreating the 56 days and nights of the Dien Bien Phu campaign, providing comprehensive information about the campaign on each day. With internal resources, Nhan Dan Newspaper has built the Special Page in 6 languages (Vietnamese, English, Chinese, Russian, French and Spanish). This is also an important database for the printed newspaper supplement on May 7, 2024.
On May 7, 2024, Nhan Dan Newspaper published an interactive panorama supplement attached to the daily print issue, including 4 pages summarizing the progress of the 56 days and nights of the campaign and 4 pages printing the entire panorama of the "Dien Bien Phu Campaign".
Readers can cut and combine them into a 3.21m panorama and interact with it through augmented reality (AR) technology or QR code scanning. This technology allows users to view a dynamic panorama in physical space.
This supplement has created a "fever" among young people with 3 reprints, 300,000 supplements in just 15 days.
Journalist Thi Uyen (a member of the author team) shared: “The development team wants to create a product that combines technology and traditional print journalism. Personally, I hope that the augmented reality experience on the 7.5 publication will help Gen Z become closer and more attached to mainstream press content. Instead of using complicated glasses, the entire experience will be done through a phone application: Nhan Dan Newspaper - AR scanning”.
In addition, Nhan Dan Newspaper organized two interactive exhibitions at Nhan Dan Newspaper Headquarters, 71 Hang Trong, Hanoi and Dien Bien Phu Historical Victory Museum in Dien Bien Phu City. Within just one week, these exhibitions attracted nearly 30,000 visitors, most of whom were young people.
Previously, with the Dien Bien Phu Campaign panorama supplement, Nhan Dan Newspaper won the award for the Best Product category for young readers, the 2024 Sustainability and Print Innovation Awards, also organized by WAN-IFRA.
Commenting on the award results, comrade Le Quoc Minh, member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, commented: “Many Vietnamese press agencies are often caught up in current events that occur continuously every day and have not spent the appropriate time to design long-term, impressive campaigns. Although we always have press data available, to build quality works with innovative approaches, it still takes a lot of time, material as well as breakthrough ideas.
International awards are always a great source of encouragement, but the impact of the information channel on the public, especially on important events of the country, is important. The propaganda campaign for the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory has really created a new experience, attracting the attention of readers, especially young people, and has even been highly appreciated by international experts, and that is what helps us realize that we are on the right track in the new way of doing communication."
Founded in 1948, WAN-IFRA's network now includes 3,000 news and technology publishers and 60 member press associations in 120 countries and territories. WAN-IFRA is headquartered in France and Germany, with offices in Singapore, India and Mexico.
