VietNamNet Bridge – The short stay of the famous British football club Arsenal was enough for Vietnamese businesses to get big benefits.

Since the official opening in April 2010, the InterContinental has never been listed among the most famous hotels in Vietnam.

The hotel, which is considered a “new comer,” proves to be inferior to the other hotels with the long history such as Sofitel Metropole, or the ones which have going abreast with the Vietnamese “doi moi” (renovation), and have built up their strong brands, such as Daewoo, Melia Hanoi or Nikko.

Being recognized as a five star hotel with 359 hotel rooms and a series of high end service works, the hotel had been “quiet” and “humble” like the lotuses on the West Lake, where the hotel is located.

However, after the hotel was chosen as the accommodation for Arsenal’s footballers to stay during their tour to Vietnam, it has become better known. Especially, from now on, the InterContinental would have a “trump card” it can use effectively for its media campaigns.

Experts have commented that the name “Arsenal” could be the “guarantee” for the success of the hotel in the future thanks to the intangible value it can bring to the hotel.

Meanwhile, other Vietnamese enterprises had to spend a lot of money and time to take full advantage of the “Arsenal effect” to advertise themselves.

CTX Holdings organized a two hour meeting with Arsenal footballers at CTX’s head office, just one day before the legendary club had a friendship match with the Vietnamese national squad.

Prior to that, CTX Holdings caught the special attention from the public when launching the program on giving the readers of an online newspaper the tickets to the meeting.

Over the last many days, the banderole welcoming Arsenal’s footballers was hung on the website of the company, temporarily covering the news about the construction projects and the real estate markets, the main business fields of CTX Holdings.

It’s still unclear about the expenses for the meeting, but it’s sure that the Arsenal effect would help make CTX Holdings more popular throughout the country.

The other two brands which can get big benefits when they act as the fellow travelers of Arsenal are Eximbank, a commercial bank, and Hoang Anh Gia Lai, a real estate, rubber, hydropower investor.

While Eximbank is believed to have a close relation with the Vietnam Football Federation VFF, Hoang Anh Gia Lai has been the Arsenal’s partners for the last many years.

The white and red colors of Arsenal have also been dominating Hoang Anh Gia Lai’s website, though the group did not organize any official activities.

Analysts said that the stock assets of Doan Nguyen Duc, President of Hoang Anh Gia Lai, soared by hundreds of billions of dong just within one week from the “Arsenal effect.”

Together with Hoang Anh Gia Lai, Eximbank was the sponsor for the event of bringing Arsenal to Vietnam.

Eximbank seemed to be quiet after the sponsorship agreement signing ceremony took place in May 2013. However, Le Hung Dung, Vice Chair of VFF, who is also President of Eximbank, has stated that Arsenal is just the first step in the implementation of many big plans.

Sources said Dung is a promising candidate for the post of VFF Chair. A conference of the federation would be organized in October.

TBKTVN