Communication’s working conditions in ‘developing country v developed country’

How does an international view on communication working conditions in Australia? How do communication working conditions in Vietnam look like? My journey will give you a view.

Fall in love with advertising at six years old, quit the fashion university to follow advertising dream, study English for two years to get in Communication program at an international university in Vietnam, work as volunteer and freelancer in any communication areas to get experiences and finish the last year of study plan in Australia, after all of those things, I pretty sure that I have much interesting experiences that you can take from this article. Let’s see how working conditions differences in two countries, one is developing country — Vietnam, one is developed country — Australia.

In Vietnam, communication was strongly developed together with the internet in 10 years back to now, its’ history could be around 50 years. In the past, communication was brought to Vietnam by Western people; it was started with banners on the streets and print ads on newspapers. Most print ads and banners in the past focused on words-creative and all of them were drawn by hand. Advertisers at that time were journalists and painters.

Nowadays, thanks to the developing of technology, Vietnam communication has developed. First period is television commercial (TVC), I fall in love with advertising in this period when most of big brands aired their TVC on television every day; there were many creative TVC that still stand up and famous after so many years. One of my favorite TVC is Dumex milk TVC in 1990s’, in order to show the intelligent of children who drink this milk, a father askes his son to say “flowers” when he pointed at the orchid, then the son surprised him by saying “orchid” instead of “flowers”. After 10 years knowing that TVC, I finally found out that the idea was created in a party, according to Son Huynh (2013), a copy writer had to bring his son to the party while his wife was busy, his friends asked the son to say “beer” but then the son said “Heineken”. He believes that the creative ideas could be come from any events anywhere outside the agency office; it is the reason why copy writer in some agency in Vietnam could go out for work.

Copy writers in Vietnam could go for a holiday with their briefs or sitting at the coffee shop for the whole working day, whatever they do, wherever they go, all they need to bring back is some useful ideas for the agency. Moreover, most offices of advertising agencies in Vietnam is boring, they do not décor the offices for creative activity, it looks like financial or bank offices with four white walls, therefore, copy writers can choose their own place to work. Compare to Western countries, many agencies made their offices creative; for example, there was a study that said we have best ideas while taking a shower (Widrich 2013), then an agency make their brainstorming room into “rainstorming” in which the whole creative team working in a bathroom.

The second period of advertising development in Vietnam goes together with the internet. People nowadays like to read news on Facebook or websites rather than newspapers. The writing style for the internet also has some different compare to writing style on newspapers; it has to be shorter, simpler, and to be updated faster. Journalists do not need to go out to get news or go to the office, some just need to do research on the internet, copy others news and make it belong to them, and then publish on their website. The copyrights in Vietnam are not strictly so the creative work does not be protected under the laws. So, the writers only need a computer and the internet connection to do their job.

However, thanks to the globalization, there were many great creative campaigns in Vietnam now, international brand events have been ran in professional ways. The international brands usually hire local agencies and suppliers to make their plan come to real life; some also work with international communication agencies such as Ogilvy Vietnam, DNA Digital and BrandUp. By working with those agencies, professor have to join the international law of creative, in which their creative work will be protected and they cannot steal others’ ideas.

The third period is linked with smartphone, by using new technology in the modern world, digital marketing has been developed in five years back to now. Most company now using the digital marketing to create a close connect with their customers, for example, Vinasoy (a Vietnamese brand) has run a campaign that give away their milk to the customers who register email and real address through their website.

Overall, copy writers in Vietnam could work at home, at the coffee shop or go to the holiday to get new useful ideas, some still has to work in the offices. Freelancers in Vietnam are not being protected under the creative laws; their work could be stolen easily. Newspaper is not popular as well as online news and some journalists just stay at home and copy other work, ethical is going down. Moreover, in Vietnam, there are many international agencies, hundreds local agencies and thousand suppliers; some big agencies get contracts and secretly pass the contract to the other smaller agencies; those small agencies pass the contract to suppliers (that is my own experiences after working in a small agency, big agency even stole my TVC idea without any payment).

Compare to Australia, Vietnamese people are not protected under working laws. In Australia, the government has Fair Work to protect all employers by the laws. The working offices are also bigger, more beautiful and more modern, more conveniently. For example, Leo Burnett Advertising Agency’s office, which located in Sydney — Australia, has been designed by firm Hassell; it is a dream office with copy writers in Vietnam.

In addition, working time in Australia is very valuable; in which an hour working in Australia is more productive than in Vietnam. People here focus on their work, they take the job seriously and the payment is fair. In Vietnam, some work very hard but their works are stolen, some just go to the office eight hours every day for copying other work. The creative work is also protected in Australia.

In my opinions, working in Vietnam is not as stress as in Australia, people live and work more slowly and less seriously. Creative work in Vietnam is not protected as well as in Australia and payment is not much. Fair work in Vietnam is not protected seriously. However, advertising, especially TVC in Australia is not interested me as much as in Vietnam; sometimes working with serious strategy and professional mindset created too many similar and boring TVC. Australian copy writers need more “rainstorming” to get crazy creative ideas as well as TVC in Vietnam and Thailand, where creative ideas come from real life, not the offices.