Manila, Philippines – Snack food company Rebisco has recently announced the appointment of Kenneth Yu as its head of integrated sports marketing and communications, specifically leading its sports and entertainment arm, Action Republic Corporation.
This marks Yu’s return to Rebisco, having previously served as a digital marketing manager for three years until he moved to Allianz PNB Life as its digital brand management head, and more recently with Pru Life UK as its head of brand.
MARKETECH APAC caught up exclusively with Yu to discuss the inner workings of his new role, understanding Rebisco’s ramped sports marketing strategies this year–particularly in promoting Philippine volleyball, as well as understanding the outlook of sports marketing in the Philippines.
Rebisco at the forefront of promoting sports in the country
For Yu, he enters Rebisco at an exciting time, as it is at the forefront of helping advocate the promotion and development of Philippine volleyball.
“Rebisco believes that through volleyball, and through working with other like-minded stakeholders from the public and private sectors, we can do either of–or both–of the following: inspire many Filipinos to take up the sport and find education, careers, and hope for a brighter future through it; teach them the values of teamwork, sportsmanship, resilience, hard work and effort, camaraderie, and intelligent play–values which people can ingrain into their lives even if they are not volleyball players, coaches, or officials,” he explained.
When asked asked about Rebisco’s focus on sports marketing this year, Yu states that they will be focused on particular pillars to help not only bring product-brand and company-brand awareness to the market, but continue to help build volleyball in the country. These pillars include grassroots and countryside development, the university-level, the professional, the development of coaches and officials, and even support of the Philippine national teams.
For its grassroots and countryside segment, Rebisco has the yearly Rebisco Volleyball League. The months-long league has the involvement of high school teams from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao that culminates in a week-long semifinals and finals tournament where the champion can take the crown of best high school team in the country.
Meanwhile, Rebisco, through its packaged cake brand, Fudgee, supports the Ateneo Blue Eagles, but is also a sponsor and advertiser of the university tournament, the UAAP, or the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.
Lastly, through the professional league, the Premier Volleyball League, Rebisco has been an active participant through its two teams: the multi-titled Creamline Cool Smashers, supported by the Rebisco ice cream brand, Creamline; and the up-and-coming Choco Mucho Flying Titans, named after Rebisco’s chocolate bar and cookie products.
“The viewership of these games has increased dramatically over the years. And Rebisco will soon expand into a third professional team as well,” Yu said.
On bringing back new leadership lessons to Rebisco
For his return to Rebisco, Yu said that he hopes to offer not only his broadened skills from Allianbbut a deeper understanding of customer needs and wants because of my stint with insurance and how customers can be treated as individuals.
“I am grateful for my stint in insurance because I can now bring broadened skills and experiences back to Rebisco. Though I have always been involved in branding, writing, content and digital marketing in some form or another, while in the insurance industry, this expanded to activations, internal and external communications, PR, employer branding and engagement, CSR, and even customer experience and journey-mapping,” he said.
Yu added, “One difference between the two industries is that in FMCG snack foods, the company does not necessarily know each customer independently, while in insurance, you need to know them on a personal level.”
Trends and opportunities for sports marketing in the Philippines
For Yu, the biggest opportunity in sports marketing in the country is in the deeper and further development of the stories of the players and teams. In the case of Philippine volleyball, each of the players and teams have their stories to tell no matter what stage of their volleyball arcs they are in.
“Competition in sports is a natural field for authentic drama to develop, and each team and player, and even coach, has their own perspective and involvement that can be of interest and can add to the popularity of any sport, in this case, volleyball. Of course, the main challenge is vying for the market’s attention versus other sources of interest (be it music, films, video games, other sports, etc.), which is why the volleyball stories and the characters involved must be well-presented and told, and easily accessible,” he explained.
He recently shared how Rebisco ended 2023 with the record-breaking gate attendance of nearly 25k live viewers for the finals between the Creamline Cool Smashers and the Choco Mucho Flying Titans. With this, he added that there is much interest in volleyball that during the short offseason, social media was still very active with anticipation for when the next tournament will start.
“The UAAP season is currently ongoing, and the Rebisco Volleyball League will start later in the year, so we are sure that the local high school teams are already preparing for this year’s competition. The Rebisco Volleyball Academy, too, has upcoming programs to develop more Filipino coaches and officials. And of course, the national teams continue to progress and train for their competitions,” he said.
Outside of volleyball, Yu said that he is also keeping an eye on the biggest international sports event of the year, the Olympics. He added that he is interested not only in the sporting event itself, but also in the various marketing and communication campaigns that are going to be done by various companies and even by the Olympics itself.
“Some of these campaigns can be quite creative and innovative, and I hope to learn from them. Personally, I’m wishing all Filipino Olympians “good luck”, particularly our country’s top pole vaulter, EJ Obiena, who, by the way, is also Rebisco’s brand ambassador for Rebisco Extreme Choco Coated Sandwich Cracker! I am rooting hard that he does well in Paris,” he concluded.
