Branding and Good PR: Coca-Cola Philippines

There are no words to articulate how badly the Philippines was destroyed by the recent typhoon Yolanda (internationally known as Typhoon Haiyan). Recorded as the strongest typhoon ever recorded in the world, surviving the typhoon is a feat in itself--but the more difficult part is recovering from the damage it has left the country with.

The world as we know it has shown its support for the Philippines by assisting us in this gravest moment for our nation--from individuals, NGOs, locally-owned companies, multinationals and countries everywhere. The help we have received, indeed, is something that amazes. The stories we see online are amazing--stories of little children giving their piggybank savings and even less-fortunate people donating whatever they can.

Not surprisingly, we see brands everywhere showing in their support for the Philippines as well. One notable brand I've seen online is Coca-Cola Philippines.

To those of you who may have not seen it yet, a story or article has been circulating online about Coca-Cola Philippines gigantic help for the victims of Yolanda: they have decided to spend their ad budget at this point in time to help the survivors.

WOW. JUST WOW.

I find this a brilliant move of Coca-Cola Philippines--a good initiative undertaken by both their Brand and Corporate Communications/PR. It's a fantastic move, really.

Think about what just happened: their Marketing/Brand gave up their ad spending in exchange for great PR!

See? It's a win-win decision. Why so? Well, here's stating the obvious:

• Rather than another quarter or so of heavily-branded ads on TV, Radio and Print, the brand was able to acquire good PR. As a brand person, I think PR is an important facet that marketers have to consider. It's not all about what you explicitly tell your consumers, it's also about managing what they think of your brand. In foresight, the end-goal of marketers is for consumers to LOVE their brands. And let's admit it, this sort of material reinforces and rekindles your love for Coca-Cola. 
• Newsworthy material such as this (admit it: brands donating a certain amount of money is very cliche right now) will naturally get great PR. I'd imagine this sort of material has a high possibility of being printed and released by media. Even more, it's viral-worthy in itself as consumers are SHARING it online. Look at this snapshot of one online article:

Article in Yahoo! Philippines about Coca-Cola's special way of helping Yolanda victims

• If you look closely, there are about 43,000 people who have recommended this article and 957 tweets. That is really a great response from consumers--considering that this was just published yesterday! It's only been ONE DAY and it was able to illicit fantastic response from consumers. 

I'LL SAY IT AGAIN: WOW. JUST WOW.

I think I just fell in love with Coca-Cola even more. 

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Source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/why-you-won-t-be-seeing-coca-cola-ads-for-a-while-103232831.html

Target Market and Lapsed Users: Yakult Philippines

Recently, we've been seeing Yakult's TV commercial (TVC) on local TV networks. This TVC revolves around the digital trend #ThrowBackThursday or #TBT--and we see fit women in their mid to late 20s reminiscing about their childhood days while enjoying Yakult.

There are a few things which I would like to point out in this post:

Yakult's material is clearly trying to reach out to its now adult target market--those that used to drink Yakult as a kid. In fact, it's trying to attract its lapsed users. Personally, I am a lapsed user of Yakult and although this commercial aired for some time, it did not generate that warranted interest for me to return to the brand. And that's where I think Yakult fell short for this campaign. Obviously, it was intended to be a tactical campaign to drive sales from lapsed users. However, its communication failed to give me that compelling reason to become a user once again. Let's dissect the elements in their material:

• Fitness
• Facebook
• Hashtag ("TBT", "ThrowBackThursday")

True enough, these elements are all relevant to the target market--but not enough to compel. They did communicate how Yakult is good for digestion, but it ends just there. This reason-to-believe would work for non Yakult users, but what about lapsed users? In targeting lapsed users, marketers should be able to address the main reasons why users switched.

In this case, is it simply just a matter of "I forgot how important Yakult is, therefore, I should drink Yakult once again" as what the campaign communicates?--I doubt it. Possibly, there are other factors that have not been considered. Say, the growing importance of wheat grass drinks, tea drinks, supplements, yogurts, and more. In the strictest sense, Yakult barely has direct competitors at present. I don't have the data to back it up, but my best guess is that Yakult has lost relevance to the market as people have forgotten the importance of good digestion which can be acquired from the Lactobacilli in Yakult. And if that's the case, one way of attacking this is by consumer education (tactical, but that would be a costly campaign). Another way would be by a thematic campaign--however, thematic campaigns should be one that connects the brand with a succinct theme. And so far, I think Yakult has to be clear on what it means to its target market.

Any other thoughts, anyone? :)

(Apologies for the late post. This was saved in my drafts for some time and I only managed to publish it right now.)

Why Digital? Is this the end of traditional media?

It's not a surprise why advertisers nowadays are drawn to digital advertising or digital marketing. At this day and age, we have seen shifts in expenses among brands and advertisers from traditional media to digital. Some convincing reasons for this so-called shift would be:

1. Especially with the popularity of social networking sites--like Facebook, which is generally the top-most visited site in the world--advertisers can easily communicate with their market at a vital touchpoint. As a touchpoint, this can be utilized in different ways by advertisers--with a little bit of creativity, of course. 
2. Digital advertising can be very targeted. Digital ads, for instance, can be made for certain age groups and demographics--depending on who advertisers wish to tap. They only need to specify.
3. Digital placements are seemingly more cost-effective than  above-the-line (ATL) advertising. For instance, Facebook ads work on a cost-per-click basis, so you may have a big number of impressions but will only be paying for those that actually converted to likes. Even more, placements made before watching YouTube videos are actually targeted and at the same time, advertisers need not pay unless viewers see more than half the duration of the clip. So you can see that unlike ATL, which immediately costs millions for placement and production, you can work on a relatively lower budget with digital. 
4. Owning social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter for your brand allows you to control and regulate content regarding your brand--in a sense, it allows you to have good PR on your brand online where information is easily accessible.

So with digital in the picture showing itself as valuable medium--does this mean the end of traditional media? Or an even better question, is this the end of print advertising?

NOT AT ALL.

Undeniably, there has been a decrease in the relevance of traditional media. In fact, we've seen how much this has greatly affected print advertising. Here in the Philippines, we've seen in recent years that newspapers and magazines have been significantly affected by the increasing relevance of digital among consumers.

But that doesn't mean it's the end of traditional media, and especially print. In fact, if you look at Japan which has a highly digital-savvy market, it has been noted to have a stable demand for newspapers in recent years. Granted, this is just one example--but this gives us hope that traditional media will not die. If anything, digital media merely addresses what traditional media lacks and cannot entirely replace traditional media. For instance, some of the things that digital addresses are:

1. Digital is essentially free and easily accessible for consumers.  In a way, it is already a given among most households and individuals to have access to the internet. In fact, most consumers are easily online especially with easier mobile internet access and cheaper internet rates. Unlike print wherein there's a purchase requirement, digital is essentially free and readily available. 
2. Digital is engaging. Unlike traditional media (TV and print ads) where consumers are bombarded with static ads, digital engages with consumers. And engagement in this day and age can be a vital element in campaigns. 

Some of the things that digital cannot address, however, are:

1. Digital is not entirely accessible to the marginalised or those from lower social economic classes. And in a country such as the Philippines wherein more than 80% of its people belong to SEC DE, digital is not the most affordable medium given their pockets. On the other hand, free TV stations (since Cable TV here is paid via subscription) and radio are widely accessible.
2. Digital mostly involves the younger market. If your brand caters to an older market, nothing compares to traditional media. Older markets are merely adapters to technology. 

Traditional media, therefore, is challenged to look for unmet needs and opportunities to make it more relevant at present. My take is that there are things which digital cannot address but traditional media can. Digital media has indeed grown to be more relevant, but that doesn't mean traditional is at an end.

Marketing Fundamentals in a DJ Spiel

Everyday I come to work driving my car and listening to the radio. This morning, I was listening to 94.7FM, and the DJs were discussing random things on the air.

As I listened, their topic then changed to the dangers of commuting alone. Apparently, there was news recently of a girl who became a victim of a modus operandi here in Manila. What happened was that the lady hailed a taxi late at night all alone, and what she didn't know was that there was a man hidden inside the trunk of the taxi. The driver would then stop while on the road and claim that there's a problem with the car--and then the girl was robbed (and possibly even more than that).

Towards the end of their discussion, they then mentioned that there is actually an application you can download on your smart phones that would allow you to hail taxis that belong to certain taxi companies that are reliable. And then they begin talking about the application--GrabTaxi. The DJs go on discussing that you can buy it using your iPhone or smart phone, and the services has fees that are well worth it.

HOW SUAVE.

So here I was, listening to the radio and concerned with this modus operandi--only to find in the end that there's actually an application that we can use to make commuting easier and safer.

After a while, it sank to me that this simple discussion on the radio (as well as many others that we hear every day) actually reflects s some basic principles of Marketing.

What I heard today was a case of creating a CONSUMER NEED--a simple sales tactic. The spiel itself on the radio (the discussion of the said modus operandi) is one that was written for the purpose of stirring a need for us--and it made me worry of hailing a taxi late at night more than the usual. That's the thing with marketing, it's finding consumer needs that have not been addressed or creating a consumer need. 

Even more, this DJ discussion generated BRAND AWARENESS--it is a DJ spiel, after all. Immediately, I got familiar with this application called GrabTaxi that's already available in the Philippines. It's a common knowledge to all that Marketing involves advertising your brand to your target market.

Finally, we hear about the price of the GrabTaxi application. Of course. What's marketing without price? Margins are important to any company--in the end, brands need to be profitable. That's the reality of brand management. Aside from the frills that a big ad spend can provide, marketers should be able to  make their brands profitable. It's supposed to be a win-win situation between consumers and the company--consumers are highly satisified while the company is earning profitably.

The Grab Taxi application for iOS and Android phones.
Photo source: Rappler.com

So the next time you hear a DJ spiel on the radio, try to see what other marketing fundamentals you can find. I'll keep you guys posted on my other finds and thoughts.

Digital Asia Conference in Manila

I was fortunate to have been able to attend "The 2013 Digital Asia Conference: The Orient Rising" today which was held in Manila. Overall, it was a good, big event that gathered various speakers from around the world who are experts in their specialized fields. Together, they were able to form a big picture on the importance of digital mediums--particularly out-of-home (OOH)--as well as some global trends.

It's actually the first time this sort of seminar was organised in the country, and I do think succeeding conferences after this will be more interesting. Frankly, I think this is a conference that marketers should  consider attending in the future. As marketing professionals and advertisers in Manila, we've only scratched the surface when it comes to executions outside of traditional media (TV, Radio, Print)--that is, digital media which is taking other countries by storm.

I'm sure some people would think: "Seriously, digital media placements in the Philippines? Is that even feasible?"--which was one of my questions in mind.

Granted, the Philippines is a 3rd world country with roughly 10% of its population belonging the ABC social economic class. However, we have learned today that digital media is indeed an avenue that still has potential in our country. To explain:

(1) majority of internet users in the Philippines belong to those below 30 years old--and this population grows year on year,
(2) internet is the 2nd medium next to TV--performing better than radio and print,
(3) as a whole, social networking is the top activity done by Filipino users on the internet, and
(4) access to internet through smart phones are seen to increase as prices of these gadgets are dropping (Best of luck to Apple, then!).

As a marketer, I do believe in the potential of digital media in the country. And when we say digital media--this isn't just social networks. It also involves utilizing smart phones and its applications, as well as digital or interactive OOH. Digital media is seen to grow in our country--and I am honestly hopeful for the upcoming developments in the Philippines given our good economic standing this year compared other Asian countries.

In foresight, it looks like marketing here in Manila will be very dynamic and more exciting in the near future.

The 2013 Digital Asia Conference: The Orient Rising - held in 1Esplanade

Thought I should share this photo of my ticket to the conference. 

One of the speakers, Sec. Sonny Coloma

Music as a Mnemonic Device

For marketers, the use of mnemonic devices help make campaigns memorable for consumers. It's those mnemonic devices that allow brands to have a cut-through material in spite of the array of commercials that consumers are bombarded with.

For what appeared to be the longest commercial break I've experienced this year, it dawned upon me that almost every commercial is now using MUSIC as a mnemonic device--especially for new TV commercials (TVCs). To name a notable few that are currently airing:

1. Rejoice Shampoo "Haba ng Hair"
View commercial by clicking here.

If you were able to watch Magandang Gabi Vice a few weeks back, rising hip hop singer "Abra" was interviewed by no other than Vice Ganda. After his interview, a 2-minute TVC material aired for Rejoice showcasing its Haba ng Hair mo MTV. Kim Too--a famous impersonator of Kim Chiu is seen singing and dancing in the MTV and towards the end it features Abra himself.


2. Solaire Resort & Casino
View commercial by clicking here.

Prior to revealing the opening of Solaire Resort & Casino in Manila, we were bombarded with a teaser TVC material accompanied with a song "Brighter than the Sun" by Colbie Caillat. It was an unbranded material at first that only hinted that "the game is about to change." A few weeks later, the full-length 60-second TVC was aired--revealing the opening of Solaire. Throughout the material, the song was utilized and we see people cheerfully walking throughout the commercial until the big reveal. More so, this was viral on the radio as well.

3. Lewis & Pearl "You are Here"
View commercial by clicking here.

With Jasmine Curtis as its latest endorser, the French song "Tu es La" (a.k.a. You are Here)  by Moira dela Torre is played in the background. Similar to Solaire, this was also aired on the radio--in which after the song is played we hear that "This song was brought to you by Lewis & Pearl..."

These are just a few examples, but the list can go on and on. In fact, for one of our agency pitches, a number have recommended what they informally call "Music Marketing". But really, it's a mnemonic device that allows us to associate ourselves with the brand.

You can think of it this way: you commute to work every day or you're driving to work, and you hear the song in commercial. You like it a lot. And when you try to recall it, you find yourself saying "It's the song in the Solaire commercial."--exactly the point. That's what mnemonic devices do. They allow us to associate brands and increase brand awareness. Just a caveat though--one has to be very particular with the type of song being associated to the brand. You wouldn't want a rock-and-roll song associated to Lewis and Pearl if its aiming to elevate its brand identity as a premier cologne brand, right? That would explain why they chose a happy-feeling French song.

What interests me more is that almost every material on TV nowadays has an element of music that plays a very significant role. More so, these are songs that are already popular on its own.  Gone are the days when jingles were the auditory elements used in TVCs--except maybe for Rejoice and Beam Toothpaste.

Of course, there are other mnemonic devices aside from music, too.