m25 Global Creative Series Episode 2: Dentsu Redder’s Livio Grossi on Vietnam’s vibe and verve and his blueprint for bold campaigns
The second episode of m25‘s Global Creative Series features Livio Grossi, Group ECD at Dentsu Redder, Vietnam. The Global Creative Series highlights international creativity and the impact of local cultures and technological advancements on creative production throughout the region. The series features interviews with key and exceptional regional creatives, illustrating how individual endeavors, when combined with cultural understanding and team building, shape successful advertising campaigns and real purpose.
m25, the global premium network, sat with Livio Grossi, Group ECD at Dentsu Redder, Vietnam (pictured) to uncover a profound perspective on the evolving Vietnamese advertising landscape. Grossi, a creative force “MadeInItaly and shaped by time” across continents, offers his view on the strategic brilliance that drives authentic, impactful work for brands on the global stage.
Grossi is a natural born creative with a career spanning fashion, lifestyle, and purpose-led campaigns across Europe, the United States, Indonesia, and Vietnam. He is known for crafting emotionally sharp and visually striking work, from repositioning a Vietnamese sneaker brand to designing ceramic storytelling for UNICEF.
“I don’t chase trends. I chase truth, emotional impact, and ideas that leave a dent.”
Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a creative director, what inspired you to pursue this career, what challenges you faced while carving your niche in an ever-changing creative landscape, and which project stands out as the most memorable for its impact on your market or region?
My journey to becoming a Creative Director started with the desire to live and work around the world. I studied languages in high school and have always been restless to see what’s beyond my own street. That curiosity has shaped everything since.
I didn’t grow up dreaming of advertising. I was pulled into design without even knowing it. Through skateboarding, punk scenes, gig flyers, album covers, and zines. It wasn’t a theory. It was instinct. At the same time, I was obsessed with sci-fi, George Lucas, and Spielberg. Stories that were emotional, imaginative, and built big.
There was no lightbulb moment. Just a slow collection of references and obsessions that eventually turned into a job. What I’ve learned is that you always bring yourself into the work, whether you mean to or not. Your past, your taste, your way of seeing the world. It all leaves fingerprints on the ideas.
The hardest part of the journey has been working in cultures that aren’t mine. As a foreign creative, you’re not handed trust. You have to earn it. That means proving you’re not just here with a preset aesthetic or a cut-and-paste formula. You have to show that you’re paying attention. That you give a damn. Curiosity helps. Sensitivity helps more. And when both are genuine, people feel it.
If I had to point to one project that proves that, it wouldn’t be a single campaign. It would be the long-term work we did with Biti’s Hunter. Not just for what it looked like, but for how it landed. It became a reference in the market. It showed what can happen when cultural respect is built into the creative ambition from the start.
How has the Vietnam advertising market transformed over the past decade, and what factors have driven this change?
Vietnam’s advertising market has clearly evolved, but I wouldn’t call it a full transformation just yet. There’s more creative ambition, better talent, and a growing appetite for ideas that feel culturally grounded. But the gap between what we want to do and what actually gets made is still real.
Social media, global exposure, and a sharper generation of creatives try to push things forward. Universities like RMIT are doing an impressive job preparing students with a global mindset, and it shows. They’re winning internationally and proving the talent is here.
That said, habits are hard to shake. There’s still too much formula, too much playing it safe, and not enough belief in original thinking. Change is happening. But hesitation still wins too often.
In what ways is Vietnam positioning itself on the global advertising stage, and what unique strengths does it offer that resonate with international brands?
I believe that for Vietnam to truly earn its place on the global creative stage, agencies, brands, and also production houses need to work harder to find their own voice. Too much of the work still feels interchangeable. You could swap logos, agencies, or production partners and the end result would look and sound the same.
If we want to elevate the industry, each part of the ecosystem has to stop blending in and start standing out. That means crafting ideas with intention, developing creative signatures, and building identities that are unmistakably our own.
In my view, the design scene has evolved much faster. Rice Studios spearheaded the movement with world-class work rooted in culture. The Lab Saigon and Fustic followed with a sharp, immersive, and experimental aesthetic. More recently, M_N Associates is gaining global exposure by giving Vietnamese brands identities that travel well.
On the advertising side, The Fridays are starting to shift things. Their work blends local relevance with a fresh, self-aware sense of humour that feels specific and smart.
That’s what Vietnam needs more of. More personality. And more belief that originality is not a risk, it is the only way forward.
While I’m here, I want to shout out a few others who are helping move the Vietnamese creative voice forward in their own way: Anti Anti Art Collective, FromAnother, Zorba, Tung Chu, Nodey, LaDung, Monkey Minh, and all the others we’ve had the chance to collaborate with along the way.
How do local cultural values and creative storytelling influence advertising strategies in Vietnam?
Local culture is everywhere in Vietnamese ads but too often it’s just wallpaper. Familiar symbols and visuals get recycled without fresh insight, so people scroll right past.
True storytelling happens when cultural values drive the idea, not just the styling. When campaigns tap into the push-pull of old vs. new, tradition vs. modern life, duty vs. self-expression, that’s when messages land.
Take our Biti’s Hunter dragon trilogy: we didn’t just plaster a dragon on a billboard. We built a three-chapter narrative around it, using mythology and local archetypes to explore Gen Z identity. It wasn’t about nostalgia, it was a forward-looking take that felt emotionally alive.
That deep cultural integration even sparked new product lines, so the story lived in the shoes themselves. Blending tradition with progression gave the work real weight and yes, it sold a lot of shoes.
With the rapid adoption of digital tools and AI, how is technology reshaping creative processes and outcomes in Vietnam’s advertising industry?
Technology has definitely reshaped how we work, but it hasn’t replaced the need for original thinking or emotional relevance. In Vietnam, AI and digital tools are being adopted fast. But most of the industry is still figuring out how to use them with clarity and intent. The upside is speed. The downside is that speed often replaces depth.
You start to see campaigns where the execution is slick, but the thinking is thin. Just because something looks or sounds good doesn’t mean it actually says anything.
What role does social media play in the advertising strategies of Vietnamese brands, and how are these strategies evolving to meet global trends?
Social media plays a huge role. Vietnam has one of the highest penetration rates in the region, and younger audiences live on these platforms. But the pressure to react quickly and perform well often leads to a race for attention that sacrifices brand consistency, strategic clarity, or even common sense.
Add to that the local instinct to jump on every trend, and you start to question whether brands are using social in the right way. Instead of reinforcing who they are, most are just pumping out more noise.
Speed is addictive. But speed without intent leads to sameness, not standout.
Data is everywhere now, and AI is only accelerating it. But more data doesn’t mean better ideas. You still need to see through the numbers and feel what’s right. Same goes for focus groups, research, testing. Helpful? Sure. But the moment you rely on them to make the creative decisions, you end up with the blandest campaign in the room.
What advice would you give to young talent aspiring to enter the advertising industry in Vietnam?
The industry doesn’t need another art director or another planner. It needs thinkers, challengers, cultural translators, and people who know how to take an idea from fragile to real. That means having taste, curiosity, and resilience.
In Vietnam especially, there’s so much creative energy. But the challenge is bringing that energy into advertising without flattening it. That takes brave talent, and even braver leadership.
How does the vibrant creative landscape in Vietnam encourage innovation compared to more traditional markets?
In the context of communication and advertising, I see innovation not just as using new tools or technologies, but as finding new ways to create meaning, connection, and impact. Especially in a market where budgets are tight and timelines are brutal.
In Vietnam, innovation is too often mistaken for trend-chasing or platform gimmicks. But if a campaign still says the same safe thing every other brand is saying, that is not innovation. That is just noise with shiny packaging.
Real innovation, to me, means carving out a voice that is fresh and distinctive in a market that often defaults to safe. It means turning what is local and specific (the truths, the tensions, the texture) into something sharp, emotionally real, and creatively unexpected.
It does not have to be big. But it does have to be honest.
And if the goal is to make work that resonates globally, the answer is not to mimic what is trending elsewhere. It is to dig deeper into what is real here and express it in a way that feels intentional, personal, and emotionally true.
Can you describe an early moment in your career where a pivotal experience or mentor changed your perspective on advertising?
There wasn’t one mentor or moment that shaped my path. It was a long stitching-together of lessons: from creative directors, CEOs, peers, strategists, directors, and producers. Everyone had a different way of seeing the work, and I took notes.
Honestly, some of the most useful lessons came from bad examples. The toxic egos. The self-proclaimed gurus. The leaders who talk brave in public and play it safe behind closed doors. The ones who preach collaboration but dictate every move. The ones who sell empty propaganda with a straight face.
Sometimes building your creative identity isn’t about imitation. It’s about subtraction. You learn by watching what not to become.
What are the key challenges that agencies face when expanding into the Vietnamese market, and how have they overcome them?
One of the biggest mistakes global agencies and brands make when entering Vietnam is assuming they can just transplant their model here. Vietnam doesn’t work like that. It’s hyper-social, emotionally driven, and shaped by deep-rooted customs.
Another challenge is building trust. This is still a relationship-driven market. People don’t just buy the idea, they often buy who’s behind it. Humility and cultural fluency matter.
The third challenge is finding the right talent. Vietnam has an incredibly creative generation coming up, but the industry isn’t always great at nurturing them or giving them space to lead.
But the real challenge isn’t entering Vietnam. It’s earning the right to be taken seriously once you’re here.
Looking to the future, what trends do you predict will shape the Vietnamese advertising industry in the next 5 to 10 years?
I don’t know exactly what the next five or ten years will bring. But I can tell you what I hope for and what I’m focused on. I want to see a shift toward ownership of voice. There’s a generation of creatives, designers, strategists, and storytellers beginning to shape something that feels locally made and globally relevant. They just need the opportunity, the space to grow, and brands that are willing to back it.
Cultural specificity should be a strength, not a checkbox. The best work won’t just reference Vietnam. It will come from it.I also believe the lines between advertising, design, entertainment, and culture will keep blurring. The best work won’t feel like advertising. It will feel like something people want to spend time with. Something worth caring about.
Personally, I’m focused on helping build ideas that feel true to this market, but strong enough to resonate beyond it. That means backing local talent. Challenging safe thinking. And making work that earns attention, not just buys it.
The next decade isn’t about catching up to the world. It’s about giving the world something only Vietnam can offer.