Digital Out-Of-Home Media : The Education Should Continue

Lloyd Tronco, Convenor of the Philippine Forum on
Digital Out Of Home Media

Despite the growing acceptance of outdoor media as a mainstream medium, OOH still has a long way to go in terms of reaching a status of reverence.

Almost everyone in the circle of advertising and media are familiar with the blatant absence of regulation in the medium brings about a Wild,Wild West mentality among vendors.  By saying so, placements are not controlled in terms of position, size, and execution.  Take that further into Digital Out-Of-Home and everything gets even more confusing.

It is not just the rates and variety of packages that clients and planners need to contend with, it is also the understanding of the nuances of the medium which practically everyone in the industry, including creatives, need to come to grips with.

It was for that reason that in the early days of digital signage, the Philippine Center for Out-Of-Home Media Research and Science spearheaded the First Philippine Forum on Digital Out-Of-Home Media.  That took place in 2010 and a clear 5 months before there was even a Digital Signage World Asia in Singapore! 

At the First Philippine Forum on Digital Out-Of-Home Media, we were greatly elated to have DOOH guru Manolo Almagro to be with us.  At that time, he was still residing in the country doing his consulting for Jollibee and Globe.  Year after that, we had DOOH 2 which again was a big hit having Ricky Baizas of Nestle and no less than Bob Michaels of the Digital Screen Media Association.

DOOH.2 with Bob Michaels, Ricky Baizas, and Christian Besler

On the third year, it just got bigger.  Thanks to Willy Soong who was the newly appointed distributor of Daktronics, the DOOH 3 took place at the Jaguar Lifestyle Center in BGC.  Ron Graham flew in to Manila, as did the folk from Christie, Julianna Tong and the gents from Daktronics.  Research guru Jay Bautista also weighed in.

From there, we somehow slid back.  There was a DOOH 4 but it was not of the scale as DOOH 1, 2, and 3.  Zeno Martinez and myself know the reasons why the momentum tapered off, but it is not for us to discuss here.  Nevertheless, young as it is, there has to be a constant stream of "Learning Series" to feed and fuel the proper use of digital signage.

As it is, all we see are display ads which hardly maximize the full potential of the LED and LCD screens.  Yes, the images are moving, but that is all there is to it.

So the education must continue.  As usual, Bing Kimpo and I by default are the voices crying out in the wilderness trying our best to advocate good use of Digital OOH.

It is my hope that this year, 2016, the stakeholders of Digital Signage and DOOH will rally behind further educational events.  After all, once the clients/advertisers see that DS/DOOH works, anything invested towards the educational events will pay off.

Then DOOH ads will no longer be the mere moving displays of re-purposed TVC edits as we are so used to seeing.

The Eat Bulaga Plateau and How They Can get Out of It

Background:

In July 2015, after 36 years in Philippine showbiz, Eat Bulaga ‘reinvented’ their TV show with the Aldub segment. Based on data provided by Kantar Media Philippines, Eat Bulaga was able to more than double the number of household viewers. From a base of 2.5 million households last July 2015, it went up to 6.2 million on October 24, 2015, with the additional 3.7 million households watching on Saturdays (the highest for the week). These are mostly new viewers from the unserved market, and this excludes people watching via appliance stores or neighborhood, as well as overseas Filipino workers.

There are about 20 million total households in the Philippines. With some 15.5 million households owning a TV set, the market potential for noontime TV show viewers is still relatively high as not everybody is watching TV during noontime.

History Flasback:

The last major brand that was able to almost double their number of followers within a 3-month period in the Philippines was Pepsi in 1992. Unfortunately, Pepsi wasn’t able to sustain their efforts, having been affected by human error. This led to the infamous 349 crisis. They could’ve gained more if they extended their Pepsi Number Fever promotions. Coke got lucky as Pepsi sustained a self-inflicted injury.

Back track even further to 1977 and 1978, way before Eat Bulaga was born – John Travolta was the next big thing in Hollywood, starring in now-iconic musicals such as ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Grease’. He was certainly a cut above the rest as he did more than just the typical Hollywood roles. When he branched out from his usual image and repositioned himself to do other roles, his movies ended up becoming financial disasters. It actually took him 16 years to be considered “cool” again, thanks to 1994’s ‘Pulp Fiction’. He was finally able to garner attention again, for a role that reminded people of who he was in his two early hit movies.

When success is phenomenal, brands and the people behind them may develop over confidence. There is a tendency to feel powerful and unbeatable, until a blunder or a roadblock happens and forces them to zoom out and look objectively from a different perspective. At the moment, people may still be gaga over Aldub, but marketing history (examples cited above) will reveal that they are not entirely invincible. Let me elaborate.

AlDub Decoded

Two past articles published by myself hypothesized that new viewers were mainly responsible for the rejuvenated Eat Bulaga that we are enjoying now. They were attracted because the show not just added the Aldub love team (albeit accidentally) within the ‘Juan for All, All for Juan’ segment, but values were also injected within the show via Lola Nidora’s antics. Eat Bulaga had defacto repositioned itself as an “entertainment + values” fusion category that became distinguishable from the purely noontime entertainment formula that other networks have been doing. Aldub attracted family-oriented households that felt like they shared the same values and sense of humor as Yaya Dub and Lola Nidora. It wasn’t hard to like because the segment showed familiar themes in Filipino culture. #SaTamangPanahon was popularized when Lola Nidora shared the importance of waiting for the right time to take the next steps in a relationship. It was a sure hook for households who wanted to stress the concept of proper “panliligaw”, something that is not so common in this day and age.

The many values of the Aldub segment not only differentiated Eat Bulaga from its peers, but more importantly, provided relevance versus pain points expressed by noncustomers — instead of going with the same deprecating humor demonstrated by other shows, Eat Bulaga went the opposite route and became a positive icon, beyond the usual ‘saya’ and ‘kilig.’ (Interestingly, Eat Bulaga also went the ‘trash talk’ route once and some of the hosts were even accused of more controversial issues. Imagine this case study as a 360 degree transformation.)

Data Review

A review of the latest total number of viewers watching Eat Bulaga, as audited by Kantar Media Philippines in November and December 2015 is disturbing, with a rapidly declining base of viewers. From a peak of 6.2 million households viewing last October 24, 2015, when Maine Mendoza, one-half of the Aldub love team, wished ‘sana di kayo magsawa,’ the number has deteriorated rapidly to only 4 million households viewing after a month on Nov 28, 2015; 3.5 million on Dec 6, 2015; 3.3 million on December 19, 2015 and finally at 2.65 million households viewing on Dec. 26, 2015. Eat Bulaga practically lost all incremental customers they gained, losing 3.55 million viewing households in two months while gaining only a measly 150,000 extra fans, despite the numerous product endorsements that aired during the same period.

Critical Changes

Most followers of Eat Bulaga may remember the two critical events that possibly explain the deterioration in the number of viewers — Maine Mendoza, then better known as Yaya Dub for her initial role as a caregiver (yaya) doing dubsmash, already met Alden Richards in their much publicized event of Oct 24 in the Philippine Arena. Prior to this event, Lola Nidora hindered them from meeting. Secondly, instead of doing only Dubsmash which she was originally known for before joining Eat Bulaga, Maine Mendoza stopped being mysterious, and is now using her own voice. She was transformed from an underdog, girl-next-door caregiver Yaya Dub to a more glamorous up-and-coming talent Maine Mendoza, the love interest of Alden Richards.

Aldub is still a formidable team to the segment they attract. They helped the ‘Pa Bebe Love: #Kilig Pa More’ movie to not just become a hit during the 41st Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), but also get the biggest opening day gross for all Filipino films. Even the movie title was named after the famous ‘Pabebe Wave’ popularized by Yaya Dub during one of the earlier episodes.

Perspectives:
‘Pabebe Wave’ was a limited run movie in Eastwood, a likely hangout of one of the show’s new viewers. The author watched it in the early evening of Dec. 29, 2015, their 5th showing day, and noticed how the cinema was far from full, and actually very quiet throughout the duration of the movie (except for a few parts).

From the point of view of loyal fans, they will continue to be passionate as themselves / “Aldubnation”. However, from the perspective of new viewers attracted to the fusion category, making them stay will be difficult for they are still longing for the same drama as the highly quoted #SaTamangPanahon. At best, some may still remain as occasional viewers, who sadly, can also turn into lapsed, burnt-out customers.

Most new viewers who originally got into Eat Bulaga because of the fusion category/concept may not exactly be attracted to seeing selected people from a barangay getting prizes from advertisers and sponsors. This was a formula that was done by Eat Bulaga even before the Aldub love team was concocted. Perhaps it was the reason why these new viewers never watched Eat Bulaga in the first place. They may not be attracted to senatoriable Tito Sotto engaging the recipients of these prizes. They may not be attracted to Maine co-hosting part of the show or performing a character where she is not a role model or Dubsmash talent/comedian. They may not be interested in the number of “#weeksary” tweets, even if another tweet record can be established. They may not be interested in the number of likes and shares in Facebook. All these things simply please the existing fans. The new viewers may fall out of the fad because they’ll eventually realize that they became new customers mostly due to a different value proposition, which is now not as strong as before.

In recent episodes, Lola Nidora is seen trying to revert back to their older entertainment + values formula, but it seems like the focus is not entirely there yet. Perhaps an increased consistent effort and commitment will bring back lapsed and non-customers.

Lessons:

At least eight lessons can be learned about the sustainability of market-driving innovation in service, formerly seen in Eat Bulaga. As mentioned above, the numbers have switched — from at peak viewing households of 6.2 million to only 2.6 million. These lessons are:

1. Distinguish market-driven strategy versus market-driving strategy, the former responding to the needs of the existing customers while the latter shaping the needs of new customers. These two types of marketing strategy are not mutually exclusive and can happen at the same time. Embracing true learnings on why an accidental success is key in order not to keep losing millions of household viewers who tried watching but are no longer interested to continue watching Eat Bulaga.

2. New customers are attracted to new features (i.e. Explicit emphasis on forgotten values (like #SaTamangPanahon), role model, unpredictability, etc.) of an offer and will be lost if the priority features they got attracted to in the first place will cease to exist. Over a period of time, these motivators become satisfiers. The problem with that is that it may become a dissatisfier if you remove or change it. New customers, one of the nine different types of noncustomers, tend to behave differently compared to loyal and screaming fans who are less sensitive to changes.


3. Understand different goals. For market-driving strategy, it’s acquisition and market penetration as reflected in the number of new viewers, while for market-driven strategy, it’s satisfaction and loyalty as reflected in comparative ratings. Never fall in love with ratings (market share) alone where a superior rating can still be attained while bleeding millions of new viewers as in the case of Eat Bulaga.

4. Dialogue partners are key. In market-driven strategy, it’s the loyal fans. In market-driving strategy, it’s the noncustomers. This is a usual culprit when brand owners listen to existing customers and assume that what satisfies loyal and screaming fans will also be valid for noncustomers.

5. Market-driving strategy’s first of seven principles — that being better is the enemy of being different. Eat Bulaga has attracted noncustomers by being different and being non-traditional. As the voice of the screaming fans went up, they became more traditional, addicted to market-driven metrics (ratings, number of tweets, number of likes) instead of market penetration and values shared or quoted in market-driving strategy (read two articles ‘Marketing and Strategy Lessons From Eat Bulaga’s Aldub‘ and ‘The Market-Driving Strategy of #Aldub‘)

6. Innovation is about two elements — offering something new but being commercially successfully. Success is about sustainability, the stickiness factor — making people try, retry, and repeat their behavior until it becomes part of their lives. To make Maine Mendoza co-host or do out of character roles at Eat Bulaga is not being different, and for now, not even being better, beyond her new found popularity. Aldub will just become another love team if this keeps up. Unless Eat Bulaga acknowledges the white space in the fusion category of entertainment plus values, they will end up trying to be unique in the same way as competitors instead of being unique in a unique way, a fusion category of their own.

7. Adopt different lenses in marketing – market-driven vs. market-driving, growth marketing vs. defensive marketing, the latter should be anticipated as alert and progressive competitors may decide to pick up the white space abandoned by the innovator. Imagine that ABS-CBN has more resources and a greater market reach and they may fill in the values void within a new segment, after all over 3 million lapsed viewers will be hard to ignore as market potential, learning from three successive incorrect responses (three top love teams guesting, Coliseum event, Pastillas Girl) catering to needs of existing viewers instead of new viewers. Who knows, TV 5 may just get a headquarter mandate to jump in and tap the synergies of their sister companies in media, telecom and related businesses.

8. The right vision makes the difference. No doubt making fans happy is important, ensuring that the show is a stress reliever is a given but having dual vision entails humility to learn and a innovator’s paradigm — sharing more weekly forgotten values explicitly like #SaTamangPanahon to a country where close to half of its households have no parents at home because they are working elsewhere entails not just wanting commercial success but making a difference. A TV show, like or unlike Eat Bulaga, can be so powerful and effective to have the ability to address social issues and influence the mindsets and behavior of its citizens via entertainment. That’s the most exciting market-driving strategy in show business, a true fusion of entertainment and values. Di lang saya at kilig, but Saya, Kilig at Laman!

(For Josiah Go’s seminars in Market-Driving Strategy or Business Model Innovation, please visit www.mansmith.net)

Source: http://josiahgo.com/the-eat-bulaga-plateau-and-how-they-can-get-out-of-it/

Where is Media Headed? : Media Outlook for 2016

Media Outlook for 2016
Three Part Series.

The Media Outlook for 2016 was presented last December 15, 2015 at the Fairmont Makati. The Outlooks were in three parts.

1.    Redefining Television by Mr. Gabriel Buluran, General Manager of Kantar Media Philippines.
2.    Outlook for the Out of Home (OOH) by Mr. Lloyd Tronco, Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Out-of-Home Media Research and Science (PhilCourse)
3.    2016 Media Insights Study Highlights by Mr. Jay Bautista. General Manager of Strategic Consumer and Media Incites, Inc.

For this posting, Out of Home media will be tackled. This is done with regards to the advertising aspect and the media utilized.

Mr. Tronco cited historical precedence with regards to OOH. That as far back as the 1930s. This was evidenced by the OOH of the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company 9MERALCO) notwithstanding the various billboards of Chesterfield and even Botica Boie during the pre-war years. The moving Cafe Puro billboard at Binondo also lays testament on the heritage and the efficacy of OOH advertising in the Philippines.

Going by the Philippine Golden Highway wich is called EDSA, the presence of OOH along the 24 kilometer strectch lends credence on how effective and also lucrative the OOH industry is. Currently, EDSA has 1,500 billboards, 26 LED billboards on its northbound leg and 25 LED billboards on its southbound lane.

With regards to exposure and reach that drives sales and purchases, statistics disclosed that only 14% stay at home and 86% are exposed to OOH. Most importantly, the current largest market segment, the Millenials have statistics that only 3% of them stay out home and thus within the reach of OOH.

Thus, the future market of Philippine OOH remains bright.

The challenges in the business situation remains.

Several factors point tio challenges, threats but more so on the opportunities. That trend of unbridled construction of billboards on 2015 continued the trend. What is partly considered as a threat is that there is a combination of billboards being considered as a real estate transaction by property owners thus selection and even strategic placements of billboards are defeated by placing as many ads as possible in a single contiguous space. This clutters and diffuses the messages being conveyed by the placements.

 Another is that Local Government Units (LGUs) who are among the owners of the most strategic locations have realized that OOH is  a good source of revenues.

This factor also is included in various concerns such as cost of maintenance, the media cost is projected to increase and OOH media inflation.

The resistance to OOH is also attributed to the grey area between OOH and merchandising, the rising popularity of digital media and the lack of understanding on the fuill potential of OOH.

OOH cannot be treated as an adjunct of what is on print and on video. Its content must be unique in itself since it is visual media but the dearth of knowledge on harnessing OOH that is integrated  with digital media campaigns.

The forecast for OOH are the following.

The main users of OOH are:

Politicians
Financial Services
Tech products
Website, apps and tech startups

What is needed are more LED and LCD screens and digital, mobile integration.

How brands can improve their strategic planning for 2016

December of this year and January of next year is the time for companies to do their strategic planning.  For those working in the overwhelming majority of corporations, the annual planning process plays an essential role. In addition to formulating at least some elements of a company’s strategy for the next 12 to 18 months, the process results in a budget, which establishes the resource allocation map; sets financial, operating, and marketing targets, and aligns the management team on its strategic priorities. The operative question now is as companies go for the preparation of the strategic planning event, how can they plan properly for the brands they are pushing and the markets they are trying to conquer if they don't begin with understanding the media habits of their target audience and consumers?

This is where the input of Media Outlook 2016 comes in.

2016 will be an interesting and exciting year for the media industry in the Philippines as the National Elections and ASEAN integration take center stage in the country.

The Media Outlook 2016 will present more than the usual economic forecasts we get from different media groups. Very few forums touch on the topic of marketing communications, particularly trends and forecasts for the coming year. These relevant questions should be addressed – Will TV continue to be the dominant consumer touch point?, What is the future of TV?, What is the state of out-of-home and billboard advertising? How fast are Filipinos becoming digital? How’s uptake for radio and print media?

These are just some of the questions that a Panel of Experts will answer and provide information in the Media Briefing.
Who Should Attend

CMOs, Managing Directors, Advertising/Marketing Managers, Brand Managers, Category Managers, Product Managers, Corporate Communication Managers, Media Planner/Managers, Publishers, Advertising Suppliers, Entrepreneurs, Academics, Students, Government, and those involved in media, advertising and marketing.

Discounts and Payment Scheme

PHP 5,999 + VAT inclusive of meals and kit

- Package of 5 Delegates + 1 Free
- 10% Discount to Past Delegates
- 20% Discount to Academe/Students/Government


----
The Resource Speaker and Experts:

1) Gabriel V. Buluran

General Manager
Kantar Media Philippines

Gabriel has close to 25 years experience in Media and Market Research, designing studies, managing data collection, and panel homes and data production.

He is currently managing the Client Servicing Team and National TV Audience Measurement (TV Ratings) Service in Mega Manila, Urban and Rural Philippines, where he is responsible for the overall management and direction of Kantar. He launched Kantar Media Philippines’ Radio Audience Measurement Service for KBP and the Radio Research Council in 2013 and developed the first Internet Audience Measurement Service for the Philippines 2014.

Before joining Kantar Media Philippines, Gabriel worked with ACNielsen Philippines. He joined the company as Associate Director of Nielsen Media Research, then went on to become the Director for Customized Research Operations.

Gabriel earned his degree in Bachelor of Arts major in Philosophy from Ateneo de Manila University.

2) Lloyd Tronco

Executive Director, Philippine Center
for Out-of-Home Media Research and Science (PhilCourse)

Lloyd Tronco is a stalwart in outdoor advertising in the Philippines. His first brush with outdoor advertising and Out-Of-Home media, started 30 years ago having grown up in a family business which provided billboard space in the Visayas and Mindanao. Having worked his way up in the family business, he became the General Manager of Tronco Advertising which is based in Bacolod by 1994.

In 2001, when Out-Of-Home media began gaining popularity in the Philippines due to the advent of digital tarpaulin printing, Lloyd Tronco was hired by McCann Erickson Philippines’ media unit, UniversalMcCann to be part of a team specializing in out-of-home media. At UniversalMcCann, he handled the Out-Of-Home media requirements of the agency including that of Coca-Cola, Cathay Pacific, Mastercard, and Globe Telecom, until early 2005.

Following the stint with UniversalMcCann, he set up a consultancy which developed the business of OOH media vendors and at the same time serving the Out-Of-Home media needs of various media agencies.

3) Jay Bautista

General Manager
Strategic Consumer and Media Incites

Jay is currently the General Manager of Strategic and Consumer Incites, Inc. (SCMI) which is a market and media research Start-up Company.

Prior to setting up his own company, he was Managing Director for Media at The Nielsen Company where he spent 19 years honing his skills in media research particularly in the field of advertising information and audience measurement covering traditional media (TV, Print, Radio, Cinema, Out of Home) and digital media (online and mobile).

He is currently a director of the Marketing and Opinion Research Society of the Philippines (MORES) where he was past President (2010) and co-chair of the Digital Measurement Board (DMB) of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) to which he served as director in 2013.

Jay earned his degree in AB Communication Arts from the Ateneo de Manila University and a Master’s in Business Administration degree from the University of the Philippines.

Tamang Panahon: AlDub Lessons in Marketing Strategy

On October 24, 2015, the AlDub Tamang Panahon Benefit Presentation garnered 41 million tweets. It was a world record that surpassed the previous record held by the World Cup Finals between Germany and Brazil. Add to that the phenomenal sales of McDonalds’ Chicken a la King meal and sales of McDonalds rose 470%.

This is a confluence of traditional media and new media (social media). It marks a paradigm shift in marketing and advertising. It also points to the Law of Marginal Utility wherein a tired old formula although working cannot beat a new idea. That Eat Bulaga had the “Fingerspitzengefuhl”  for the served, unserved and importantly the underserved segments of the market was proven correct.

Despite critics who would say that those who participated in the tweets had nothing better to do and were the unproductive sectors of Philippine society, Twitter unveiled its Twitter Map and the results disclosed that only 33.33% of the tweets emanated from the Philippines. That 66.66% of the tweets came from all around the world wherein many OFWs were based.

Eat Bulaga hit the jackpot on this one. In fact, it had even anthropological underpinnings. Two factors can be gleaned from this.

1.    OFWs can relate to the split screen relationship. They are in a relationship of that kind every day. The advent of technology now allows them real-time conversations with their loved ones in the home islands. But they are limited to such a 2 dimensional interaction. The frustration of not touching the loved ones is no stranger to OFWs

2.    Values. That the corny way that Lola Nidora would use traditional values in restricting the relationship might be a hindrance in the observation of most the viewers but it also harks back to something that was hopefully not lost. The Filipino has a dichotomy in himself that he will embrace new notions and modes but at the same time, when loved ones and family is the object, the Filipino tends to adhere to traditional values as a form of security. To have these traditions presented in a manner by the reverse and mutant reincarnation of the Three Stooges (JoWaPao) struck a nerve in the Filipino.

The current success of AlDub not only in entertainment but also in marketing, advertising and promotion can be likened to a social organism driven by the confluence of the factors mentioned above.

The following is an analysis of Josia Go and was published in the PDI on October 23, 2015, a day before the record breaking event that had even international marketers and advertisers observing the so called phenomenon. My own words end here.

The “AlDub” phenomenon has attracted many new viewers to the 36-year-old noontime TV show Eat Bulaga since July 2015.

Kantar Media Philippines said viewers nearly doubled to at least 4.8 million by September 26, 2015.

“AlDub” is a play on the names of celebs Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza, better known as “Yaya Dub.”

They rose to fame as a love team in the “kalye-serye (street series)” segment of the TV show.

The unconventional “antagonist” in their love story is the conservative Lola Nidora, whose take on the traditional Filipino values provide another comedic backdrop.

The formula has created a new fusion category of entertainment with values education.
Marketers can learn many lessons from the phenomenon:

1.    Are you trying to be unique in the same way?

Strategy is a choice. Before making a marketing strategy, the marketer must be aligned with the business strategy and recommend changes to management.

Many firms operate the same way. They follow the same logic based on best practices and benchmarking.

Best practices, however, are good only until the next practices are discovered. Benchmarking, on the other hand, makes you look more like your competitor.
Interestingly, Eat Bulaga did not follow the traditional ways in creating “Aldub”—which are to hire fairer-skinned celebrities, get sexy backup dancers, or create humor that may be potentially offensive.

In many ways, competition tries to be unique in the same way by following the logic of the industry. Eat Bulaga was courageous enough to inject values education to a noontime show.

2.    Is your unserved market bigger than your served market?

Kantar Media reported TV ownership in the Philippines stood at 15.5 million households. In July 2015, Eat Bulaga and Showtime had 2.5 million and 2.9 million households viewing them, respectively.

By Oct. 3, 2015, Eat Bulaga began to take the lead with 4.3 million households viewing, while Showtime’s dropped to 2.5 million.

A look at past data from market research leader TNS revealed that among teenagers and tweens, Showtime was the favorite TV show in 2011 among 30% of respondents versus only 8% for Eat Bulaga.

What happened in between is a very interesting case study of a lesser known strategy practice—the market-driving strategy.

Thus, the marketer needs to consider ways to attract the bigger unserved and underserved markets. Instead of doing the usual market-driven strategy that focuses on simply satisfying customers in the served market, the marketer needs to expand by exploring from a set of nine potential unserved and underserved clusters, collectively known as “New Demand Wheel” in Mansmith’s Market-Driving Strategy program.

3.    Do you understand the pain points of the unserved and underserved markets?

Many marketers are in love with their usage, attitude and image (UAI) annual ritual, but that is not the right source for the market-driving strategy.

Blame it on inadequate key performance indicators (KPI) that marketers are so engrossed with to keep their preferred-brand status.

Just look at the multi-vitamins category. They started by giving out one piece free, and then later, two pieces extra for a one week’s supply.

Brand preference is important, but it can’t be sustained without attaining brand relevance. The latter focuses on the right target market and their unmet needs.

The common factor in the unmet needs of noontime shows appears to be the thirst for clean, wholesome family fun.

4.    What new truths do you have that can help create a new category beyond mere brand-switching tactics?

Different categories now exist as Eat Bulaga has repositioned itself not just to entertain but to introduce values.

Companies can, of course, create more game-changing ideas before competition catches up. After all, ABS-CBN is not known to be a passive competitor as evidenced by their leadership in the primetime.

To create innovation, solving pain points is basic, but solving it in a pioneering way makes all the difference.

Eventually, even the served market patronizing competitive offerings would be willing to shift.

5.    What should you stop spending on that does not really add value?

The key to a pioneering market-driving idea is to challenge existing practices.

Why should a TV show hire celebrities instead of ordinary-looking people? Why is trash talk needed instead of encouragement?

Simply look at the list of what made winners win in the served market and begin from there.

Starbucks made its customer area bigger by at least 30% by removing the kitchen, an important part in the restaurant industry. Expertise in the served market can be a barrier to thinking out-of-the-box because it’s hard to stop practicing something that has been assumed as a given.

6.    Have you exhausted your options in formulating your strategy?

7.   The principle of selectivity is telling the marketer not to fall in love with the same marketing plan over and over again.

If Eat Bulaga creates a Twitter campaign, should its competitor have a counter campaign? If Eat Bulaga has a social media personality, should competition create one, too?

An inquiry with top executives of top retailers in the Philippines showed only a handful of their suppliers have category-growth strategies during business reviews. On the other hand, 99% have brand-growth plans based on brand-switching tactics.

This has become so bad that in many companies, marketing is actually no more than a promotions department. They forget that opportunity-seeking is the first step of the marketing management process.

In order for marketers to be more strategic, their existing market-driven world view must be balanced with a newer, market-driving strategy perspective through a fourth KPI—market penetration. This new KPI will create a longer-term view in the marketer’s orientation.

It’s time for marketers to go back and re-learn marketing. Remember, facts in a market-driven strategy are merely assumptions in market-driving.

(Josiah Go is chairman and chief marketing strategist of marketing training and advocacy firm Mansmith and Fielders Inc. He will be conducting the 28th Market-Driving Strategy executive bootcamp on Nov 25-26, 2015 to help marketers learn what has not been taught in schools. Follow his blog at www.josiahgo.com. He can be contacted at josiah@mansmith.net)

Events and BTL Companies Seen Adapting To The Digital Shift

With the rise of digital media and smartphone usage, the demands for a digital component within brand activations and below-the-line activities are more evident.

Gone are the days when Events and Below The Line companies were simply tasked to do sampling and promo.  Even Barangay level activations now require a digital twist.

To make BTL and events companies fully understand the shift in media consumption and the corresponding behavior of the audience, some BTL agencies have resorted to calling on media gurus like ex-Nielsen guy, Jay Bautista, and Kantar GM, Gabs Buluran for In-House talks which help the attendees grasp the impact of today's media environment.

For queries on bespoke In-House seminars, you may email martinezeno ( @ ) gmail.com

Digital Out-Of-Home Media Lectured At Nestlé Brand University

Out-of-home media veterans Bing Kimpo and Lloyd Tronco recently shared their expertise on Digital Signage and Digital Out-Of-Home media at the Nestlé Brand University, which took place at EDSA Shangrila Hotel on July 27, 2015.

Digital Signage and Digital Out-Of-Home media is the least discussed among digital channels despite the fact that most award winning digital campaigns employ DOOH as a component.

In attendance were the various brand managers of Nestlé Philippines, Inc.

Click here for OOH Marketplace:

 

Starcom Is Media Agency Of The Year

Congratulations to Starcom for winning 2014 Media Agency of the Year and winning the Media Excellence Award!  Great start for Leah Besa-Jimenez and team.

Photos from Oyie Pingol.

A New Media Agency Alliance Emerges With Venus at the Helm

There was a time when we thought that resurfacing from retirement was the domain of one man - the late Meckoy Quiogue.  Now, it seems like we're having a deja vu.  Venus Navalta is definitely on the scene and there is no better time to do the same as what Meckoy has done than now.

Two big events take place in Venus' life this month.  The start of something new at Interpublic in the Philippines, and of course, her birthday at the end of June.

The highly respected Venus comes out of retirement (again) to move into a role as technical advisor of Interpublic Group Philippines, in what could prove to be one of the biggest people moves for 2015 in the Philippines.  Venus comes full circle as she returns to the company where she spent 17 years of her career.

We all recall the influence Venus had for many years in a number of senior roles at IPG-owned McCann Worldgroup, arguably the Philippines the most powerful agency, where she oversaw both creative and media.

Venus' last agency position was as president of Zenith Optimedia Philippines which she left in February last year after a three-year stint to take a break from the industry and spend time with the family.

In an exciting move which will create a force to reckon with, the agency Venus will oversee partners with TouchDDB in order to create a new entity to blaze the trails in media marketing.

With all eyes trained on this new alliance, the industry expects the emergence of ex-UniversalMcCann veterans gravitating towards the new power team.

Now, advertising is really more fun in the Philippines!

Cool digital signage execution in Australia by Coke

Coca-Cola and OOH vendor JCDecaux recently won the award for "Best Use of a Special Build" as part of the Australian Outdoor Media Association’s Q4 Creative Collection Competition.  According to an announcement from JCDecaux, the winning campaign made use of a novel digital signage screen/Coke dispenser to deliver audiences a cold drink during Australia’s hot summer months, according to the outdoor advertiser's website:

Despite being one of the most well-known brands in the world, Coca-Cola wanted to drive the knowledge and popularity of their global brand in an increasingly hard to reach youth market. To engage this audience and get them talking, drastic changes to the original can were made — the cans shrunk to a smaller 250 ml size and became available in six new colors.

To promote this campaign UM, Coca-Cola and JCDecaux teamed up to create a first in Australian OOH with a Digital, Fridge Dispenser all in one panel. The multiplatform approach played into the social media hype by the use of a hashtag #colouryoursummer.

Through social media and the use of the #colouryoursummer hashtag, the changes to the brand were shared and drove momentum behind the word-of-mouth campaign.

The digital screen engaged by asking the audience to interact and rotate the colorful cans located on the screen — the reward was an ice cold Coke in one of the new smaller-sized cans.

Watch the digital signage drink dispenser in action in the video below:

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That Creepy Billboard On EDSA

People have been talking about it.  It is there.  It is real. 

Netizens have been getting the creeps from a short footage currently being shown on an LED billboard on the northbound lane of EDSA.  The footage is a silhouette of a little girl on a swing.

It's as creepy as seeing a rocking chair rock on its own without anyone on it.

Both the Manila Bulletin and Adobo Magazine have consulted with Lloyd Tronco, an industry expert in outdoor advertising to get his opinion on what this really is.

Tronco says, "It could just be filler material inserted to use up the gaps between ads and other public service announcements". He continues to say, "Either that, or if you see that there are other TV networks currently advertising on that same LED board, it could be a teaser for a new program for the advertised network."

Then again, we called the owner of the LED board and they said that they didn't know about it!  So did this material just pop up even without the owner knowing?

Talk about a really interactive billboard!

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