Manila, Philippines – In an attempt to break the norm of failing grades equates to the end line of learning, Philippine-baed educational non-government organization Silid Aralan, Inc. (SAI) has partnered with local-based independent creative agency GIGIL to launch a new campaign to encourage academically-challenged students to rediscover their love for learning.

Titled ‘75under75’, the campaign encourages students who have a grade line of 75 and below to join their Ground Zero Program, an educational strategy that customizes their education to their passions, hobbies, and learning style, as well as immerse in supplemental learning methodologies that make underachievers excellent in school.

‘75under75’ draws comparison to well-known lists like from Forbes and Fortune where they publish their most influential and impactful achievers under the age of 40 and so on. For SAI, they would like to focus their resources on helping low-performing public school students, who are the bulk of the student population.

For SAI Founder and Chief Motivation Officer Arcie G. Mallari, uplifting the lives of children and their families requires “malasakit” and excellence. “Poor performing students, especially those who are from underprivileged communities, must be empowered to become not only achievers in school but more importantly productive citizens of our nation,” said Mallari. 

He explained that when education stakeholders work together, transformation in the lives of students happen. 

“Working with children, parents and partners for more than 10 years taught us the importance of having a common goal and of continuously innovating the way we implement our programs,” Mallari added.

As the submission of entries ended last 12 May, the students will be selected to a final list of 75 by a board of judges composed of: Diosdado M. San Antonio, DepEd undersecretary for curriculum and development; Ivan Henares, assistant professor at the University of the Philippines; and Reynaldo Antonio Laguda, president at Philippine Business for Social Progress.

Various individuals from the private sector will also join in the board of judges as well, from Smart Telecommunications, ABS-CBN and Monark Equipment.

Manila, Philippines – In a move to merge quirky relevancy to millennial viewers and communicate the brand’s messaging, Philippine oil company Unioil has tapped the talents of independent local creative agency GIGIL to launch a new campaign depicting a ‘mockumentary’ on saving the environment.

Titled ‘You Don’t Have To Go That Far’, the ‘mockumentary’ follows the quirky story of Bart, an environmentally-conscious person who takes his vision ‘seriously’ by storing all of his farts in jars. For him, he earlier learned that our farts, which contain the harmful gas methane, can be bad for the environment.

The ‘mockumentary’ continues with a slew of moments Bart would pause to fart into his prepared jars and place them in a cabinet with other farts he stored. As light-hearted the campaign is, Unioil stresses in the latter part of the campaign that we don’t need to go far in our endeavor to save the environment, and instead paying patronage to environmentally-safe products, like Unioil’s line of clean fuels, is already a meaningful step forward.

The latest spot by Unioil echoes the company’s vision to be more environmentally-aware through its ‘Doing Our Part’ campaign back in 2018, where they vowed to encourage Filipinos to make a difference in society through the small, everyday actions and responsible decisions they make, including the decision to choose a cleaner fuel.

Speaking about the campaign, Jake Yrastorza, managing partner at GIGIL told in an interview with MARKETECH APAC that they are proud of this recent campaign and are quite optimistic that it will create a positive difference for the brand—and its customers.

“Unioil is currently a challenger brand in the Philippines. But they are the oil company that’s probably the most serious with regard to its commitment to the environment and sustainability. However, to communicate a rather serious message to its target audience-the millennials-we all agreed that we needed to make it funny and light so they’d sit up and notice,” Yrastorza stated.

On a similar note, Jeano Cruz, associate creative director and head of social at GIGIL told MARKETECH APAC as well that they admire their client’s willingness to ‘bravely embrace the younger audiences’.

“The creative team just shared to them how millennials and Gen Z’s now really go out of their way to live out their beliefs. We just added a creative magnifier on that insight. Thanks to their risk, their film is now helping them stand out in the gasoline category that just keeps on looking like each other everyday,” Cruz stated.

An independent local creative agency, GIGIL has been well known to create quirky and tongue-in-cheek ad campaigns such as those of local soft drink brand RC Cola and plasticware brand Orocan.

Manila, Philippines – As the company celebrates its 40th anniversary, Filipino bakery Julie’s Bakeshop has launched a new campaign with local-based creative agency GIGIL, centered around the theme of dealing with ageist remarks toward middle-aged women, or the so-called ‘tita shamers’ – tita being the Filipino equivalent of an aunt. 

The campaign opens as two titas are seen doing exercises in a gym. They are then mocked by a man who begins to blurt out discriminatory remarks such as telling them that the aerobics section is on the other side of the building, or chiding them to take care of their manicured nails, as well as mocking them to take their prescribed medication. Then Auntie Julie, the face of Julie’s Bakeshop, enters the scene and ‘kneads’ the man to become dough and then baked into bread.

Ending with a message of #StopTitaShaming (#StopAuntieShaming), the campaign aims to remind that that despite being relatively in their 40s, the titas are still capable of doing things, just like how Julie’s Bakeshop is committed to baking fresh bread after 40 years since its establishment in 1981.

“When you say ‘Auntie,’ it doesn’t automatically mean you’re talking about women who are stuffy and formal. Aunties can be cool and very dynamic. Our founder, Mrs. Julie Gandionco, was already in her 50s when she decided to start her own bakeshop. Now it’s grown to a network of more than 450 stores all over the Philippines,” said Marc San Juan, national marketing head of Julie’s Bakeshop.

To date, the film has garnered more than 1.8 million views on their Facebook page alone, with 20k shares across the platform.

Manila, Philippines – Digital bank CIMB in the Philippines has recently posted a new Christmas-themed video advertisement, focusing on the theme of family breadwinners.

Aptly titled “Breadwinner”, the video centers between an interaction of a mother and her “breadwinner” son. The mother opens up the conversation, asking the son as to when his 13th month pay will arrive, as it will be used to spend on Christmas essentials.

However, the question was responded with silence, as the “breadwinner” son refuses to open up to her mother on what’s bothering him. Finally, after a long silence, the son breaks up and says that he was removed from the job, and that the plans for Christmas won’t be feasible anymore.

Her mother breaks a smile, and leaves for a minute. When she returned, she showed the bank’s app and saying “Nakapagtabi ako” (I have saved some).

The video concludes with the mother and son enjoying time together by dancing, and with a message: “This year has been a challenge like we’ve never seen before, but we will rise and get through this together”.

The “Breadwinner” video advertisement is produced by GIGIL, a local-based advertising agency.