Within the framework of BSI Awards 2022, the True Love campaign helped PNJ win New Contributor in the Standard Categories and The Best Use of Social Media Content in the Competing Categories. The campaign’s success is reflected in a host of impressive numbers. So what were the key factors behind True Love 2021’s resounding success?

1. A campaign that harmonized real-world context with brand messaging 

True Love—“Tình Yêu Đích Thực”—is a communications platform PNJ has built since 2018, marking a brand shift to celebrate genuine values. By 2021, PNJ faced a major challenge in rolling out True Love: the outbreak of the pandemic.

Unlike earlier waves in 2020, the fourth wave that began in early 2021 caused a string of negative impacts on businesses: supply-chain disruptions, declining purchasing power, and temporary store closures. In that context, True Love had to cut its budget, with marketing spend reduced to 30% of the previous year.

On the user side, needs and behaviors also shifted dramatically: decreased attention to non-essential products like jewelry or fashion, and greater investment in essentials like food. This posed difficulties for brands in adjacent categories like PNJ in driving social media discussions.

Facing limited budgets and changing consumer priorities, True Love needed a new direction—a strategy aligned with the social context—while still conveying authentic love stories, the message the brand has pursued from day one.

To solve this challenge, PNJ tapped an insight that, while familiar, was highly relevant in a pandemic and easily overlooked: true love isn’t about numbers or age; it springs from unwavering belief in love during difficult times. From there, the brand defined the true beauty of love as “hands that never let go, overcoming every challenge together.”

Sharing about the campaign, Mr. Lý Thành Cơ — Creative Lead, PNJ Group — said:
“The pandemic helped us realize that beautiful love can be two people sharing a bowl of instant noodles in the cold rain, or giving each other a surprise gift. Or simply waking up and feeling we still love each other. Or simply seeing each other still alive.”

2. Skillfully weaving the brand’s role into user stories

With its definition of true love, PNJ demonstrated understanding and empathy for users amid the pandemic—an important factor behind the campaign’s success. At this stage, the brand had to answer key questions: How do we turn the initial idea into an emotional story? Where does the brand appear, and what role does it play within that story?

To answer those questions, PNJ chose an authentic, consumer-centric approach. The campaign unfolded in three phases:

Phase (1): Warming up the campaign
It began with a post by MC Quyền Linh expressing gratitude to his wife and celebrating love’s simplicity and resilience. The post garnered 16,000 comments, many echoing his perspective on love. This became True Love 2021’s first discussion peak, paving the way for subsequent activities. In parallel with Quyền Linh’s story, the campaign hosted Q&A sessions with couples in love, enhancing relevance (in the BSI Top 10 rankings, True Love also achieved the highest Relevance Score).

Phase (2): Campaign crescendo
Here, the brand created space for users to speak up. Through the “Nắm Tay Không Rời” (Never Let Go) contest, PNJ invited people to share memorable moments and stories of love. In tandem, PNJ introduced a series of visuals centered on “hands that never let go.” Each hand-in-hand moment was placed in a different context: by a hospital bed; between people facing social stigma; or separated by a quarantine glass partition, and more.
The wedding ring—the brand’s product—appeared in every clasped-hands image, becoming a symbol and witness of true love during the pandemic. These visuals were shared on community pages and attracted over 1,500 couples to join the contest.

Phase (3): Wrapping up — creating True Love from True Stories
Where many campaigns build a music video (MV) from a prewritten script, True Love compiled its MV from user-submitted images to the “Never Let Go” contest. The MV, titled “Ta vẫn nắm tay nhau” (“We Still Hold Hands”), allowed users to see and relive their own stories, lending authenticity and closeness. This was one of the factors behind the campaign’s win for The Best Use of Social Media Content.
Typically, discussion volume drops sharply during a wrap-up phase, and brands often summarize key numbers. MVs are usually released at launch or at the peak for viral effect. In True Love 2021, because the MV was built from user content, it was released at the end—yet it still sustained momentum, reaching 1 million views within 24 hours of premiere.

3. Closing

At Buzzmetrics, a strong social campaign is one that leverages social virality to earn media. PNJ — True Love 2021 is a textbook example. It was not a big-budget campaign, and it raced against time (just two weeks to prepare due to COVID-19, versus four months in prior years). Yet the team crafted a love message that truly resonated in the pandemic context and skillfully transformed user stories into content material for the MV. These creative choices made True Love one of 2021’s most memorable campaigns.