The ‘Techritage' campaign has won Bronze in Media, AI and Connected Live Experience, Silver in Entertainment & Consumer Technology, Silver in Media and Gold in OOH and Partnership or Collaboration at The Drum Awards, successfully bridging the cultural credibility gap for Samsung’s Galaxy AI in Vietnam, transforming everyday mobility into cultural experiences and significantly boosting brand and sales metrics. Here is the case study that impressed the judges as submitted.
Vietnamese is not just a language. It’s a tapestry of heritage and connection.
A simple phrase like “Con ăn cÆ¡m chÆ°a?” doesn’t literally ask “You eat rice not yet?” It’s a gesture of care, a quiet check-in between friends or family. Tone, hierarchy and implied meaning shape every conversation.
For technology, Vietnamese is among AI’s top tonal nightmares. Six tones can turn “ma” into “ghost,” “mother” or something else entirely. Humans take over a year to master this, while Galaxy AI tamed it in just four months.
Enter Galaxy AI. In just four months, it learned to understand a nation of 100 million people. Samsung became one of the first to launch Vietnamese as part of Galaxy AI’s initial 13 supported languages with Galaxy S24 – ahead of competitors. With 95% speech-to-text accuracy (outperforming rivals at 88–92%), the technology was not only functional, it was leading.
Challenge: Artificial Intelligence ≠Cultural Intelligence in the Minds of Vietnamese Users
Despite pioneering Vietnamese AI integration and achieving up to 85% emotional fidelity over two years, Samsung faced a cultural credibility gap in the AI smartphone category. Consumers questioned whether Galaxy AI could truly understand Vietnamese nuance – not just linguistically, but culturally.
Bridging the Cultural Credibility Gap
With the launch of Galaxy S25, Samsung set out to achieve three objectives:
- Drive awareness and understanding of Galaxy S25 and its AI capabilities.
- Demonstrate that Galaxy AI is culturally intuitive and locally relevant to Vietnamese users.
- Strengthen emotional connection to increase consideration and brand preference.
Our strategic approach was simple: embed Galaxy AI into moments of real cultural journeys to prove its cultural intelligence.
Insight
Vietnam had adopted AI. But AI hadn’t adapted to Vietnam.
The opportunity wasn’t in the majority who hadn’t adopted AI. It was in the minority who had, but didn’t feel fully understood by it.
There were two main insights we obtained from how things were working:
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- The artificial intelligence insight: AI adoption ranked #38 globally with 23.5% of the 100 million population already adopting it. That’s higher than tech-heavy neighbors like Japan (19.1%), China (16.3%) and Malaysia (19.7%).
- The cultural intelligence insight: Only 27% of culturally rooted Vietnamese believe it will benefit society (GWI).
The barrier wasn’t adoption of AI, rather the cultural connection.
To close that gap, connectivity had to lead, connecting language, place and identity in ways that felt authentically Vietnamese.
- Connecting through language: AI had to go beyond speaking Vietnamese. It needed to understand tone, sentiment, hierarchy and nuance so every interaction felt socially fluent and culturally aware.
- Connecting through place: Cultural intelligence had to exist in the real world, linking technology to Vietnam’s physical heritage, from museums and markets to monuments.
- Connecting through identity: Galaxy AI needed to become the natural companion whenever users explored or expressed something authentically Vietnamese, embedding itself into mindset, not just usage.
From Tech Leader to Cultural Connector
As Vietnam’s market leader with 26% smartphone share in H2 2025, Samsung seized the opportunity to reposition Galaxy AI, not just as an intelligent assistant, but as a partner in Vietnamese daily life, connecting people to their culture, their environment and themselves.
Idea
Welcome to the era of Techritage (technology + heritage).
To truly become a cultural enabler, the right ecosystem was critical. A trinity of technology, culture and movement:
- Samsung: Transforming Galaxy AI from a global innovation into a culturally fluent companion rooted in Vietnam’s language, nuance and everyday life.
- Tourism Vietnam: The cultural authority, reshaping how heritage engages a modern generation through more relevant and experiential storytelling.
- Grab: The behavioral bridge. With our audience of Gen Z and millennials relying on ride-hailing to access daily and cultural spaces, Grab’s 54% e-hailing market reach connected tech-savvy audiences directly to real-world heritage moments.
Every passenger’s ride became a step in the ‘Techritage’ experience:
Experience 1: Booking a Ride Leads to Discovering Culture
- Grab in-app digital advertising: A full ecosystem takeover across the Grab Superapp – from HomeFeed to in-transit screens – ensuring cultural discovery started at the moment of booking. By featuring trusted local celebrities like H’Hen Niê and Tóc Tiên, we anchored Galaxy AI in familiar Vietnamese voices, building credibility and emotional relevance before the journey even began.
- Incentivized cultural tourism: Geofenced ride vouchers (GALAXYAI15 & GALAXYAI20) redirected everyday mobility into purposeful cultural exploration. By rewarding trips to curated heritage landmarks, we transformed routine transport into a catalyst for rediscovering Vietnam’s history, making AI not just smart, but socially meaningful.
Experience 2: Activating Galaxy AI Leads to Understanding Vietnam
- In-car AI education showrooms: Instructional placards inside Grab cars invited passengers to actively test Galaxy AI en route to their destination. This turned idle commute time into immersive product demonstration, proving that Galaxy AI doesn’t just understand language, it understands Vietnamese context, culture and place in real time.
- Roving OOH: 100 fully wrapped Grab cars operated as moving cultural billboards across Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Beyond scale and visibility, the fleet symbolized mobility with meaning by reinforcing that wherever Grab goes, Techritage travels with it, embedding Galaxy AI into the rhythm of urban Vietnamese life.
Experience 3: Reaching the Destination Leads to Experiencing and Sharing the Experience
- TikTok & influencer content: Travel creators extended the journey beyond the passenger to the broader digital community. By documenting how Galaxy AI enhanced their heritage visits, they reframed AI from a technical feature into a travel companion, ensuring Techritage wasn’t just experienced, but shared, celebrated and culturally amplified nationwide.
By turning every Grab ride into a gateway to heritage, Samsung shifted AI from passive technology to active cultural participation. Techritage proved that when artificial intelligence understands people, language and place, it can move more than passengers – it can move a nation closer to its roots.
Results
Techritage proved that when artificial intelligence connects with culture in real life, perception changes.
Reach: Bringing Galaxy AI into Everyday Vietnamese Life
By embedding Galaxy AI into everyday mobility, the campaign delivered millions of impressions across Grab’s digital ecosystem and the physical streets of Vietnam. Our fleet of roving OOH vehicles covered over 400km across Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, bringing Galaxy AI into the rhythm of daily urban movement.
Engagement: Turning Cultural Curiosity into Interaction
The campaign transformed Grab rides into a new retail and experiential touchpoint for Galaxy AI. Through our in-car AI education showrooms, thousands of passengers experienced Galaxy devices hands-on during their journeys, turning everyday rides into moments of discovery.
At the same time, 10,000 ride vouchers were redeemed, redirecting everyday journeys toward cultural landmarks while encouraging users to actively interact with Galaxy AI.
Brand Impact: From Technology Feature to Cultural Relevance
As users experienced Galaxy AI within real cultural contexts, curiosity around the technology surged. Search for “Galaxy AI” increased by +56% during the campaign period compared to the previous month. At the same time, purchase consideration for the Galaxy S25 rose compared to the S24 launch, signaling stronger emotional and functional resonance with Vietnamese consumers.
Business Impact: Driving Upgrade and Sales Growth
The shift in perception translated into tangible commercial results. Upgrade rates increased, while Galaxy S25 sales grew compared to the S24 launch, demonstrating how culturally relevant technology can convert engagement into real business momentum.
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