Tag: Philippines

Philippines – Global merchant platform for SME, yufin, has partnered with Singapore-based insurance provider, Gigacover, to enable Filipino small businesses on the platform to access Gigacover health insurance products tailored to their needs at the touch of a button.

Under the partnership, the small businesses will also be able to access business protection and offer customised insurance products such as family and health insurance to their customers.

The platform said that the announcement comes as it has exceeded 15,000 merchant sign-ups since launching in Davao City, in the Philippines end of May 2022.

Shubhrendu Khoche, chief strategy and product officer at yufin, said, “Small businesses are the lifeblood of Southeast Asian economies and communities but many are underserved. Our partnership with Gigacover helps us bring insurance to last-mile merchants to give them peace of mind and to help them offer their customers much-needed access to insurance protection.”

Meanwhile, Chesca Figueroa, country manager and partnerships lead at Gigacover Philippines, noted, “With this partnership, we aim to further support yufin’s efforts in financial education, planning, and protection to their respective small merchants.”

Gerald Chua, head of merchant acquiring at yufin Philippines, commented, “We are delighted and humbled by the welcome yufin has received so far from our community merchant partners. We help small businesses manage their transactions through a suite of tools, products and services that help them grow and prosper.”

Liz Servañez, head of business development and partnerships at yufin, noted, “With partnerships such as our partnership with Gigacover, much-needed financial services products, like insurance protection can also be sacheted to make them accessible and affordable for the yufin merchant network and their customers.”

Manila, Philippines – YouTube has announced the winners of its 2022 YouTube Works Awards in the Philippines, celebrating the ingenuity and impactful storytelling of brands on the platform.

The awards ceremony of the Philippines was held on October 25 and was the first on-ground YouTube Brandcast event in two years.

There are seven recognitions in total including The Best Personalization award, which remains unclaimed for two years in a row. The said award recognizes the brand that is able to demonstrate creative ways in customising its message to the audience. 

The Grand Prix, which is the highest recognition given to a campaign that is “not only effective,” but also creative, innovative, and data-driven, was won by Accenture’s ‘StoriesofAccenture Vertical Film Festival: Gravity’. The same campaign also bagged the Force For Good award which honours campaigns that best demonstrate brand values and proven impact on social issues. 

Using an immersive rotating screen experience, the poignant video highlighted the character’s inner turmoil. The chaotic scenes simultaneously highlighted the importance of having a workplace that provides a dynamic environment while providing emotional support for its workers to thrive and get through life’s challenges.

Meanwhile, the Best Collaboration award, which celebrates the best strategic and creative collaboration between brands and YouTube Creators, was given to Orocan’s Ms. Hurt campaign. This features host and drag queen Paolo Ballesteros as the titular Ms. Hurt, bringing her audience to a vlog-style tour of her house and bags including the Orocan Ice Box.

The Best Storytelling award, which as the name suggests, lauds brands that are able to deliver a compelling story through their campaign, was snared by Union Bank of the Philippines’ Heaven. The bank featured a commercial where a man named Dante enters the underworld of inadequate bank practices, showcases all of Union Bank’s solutions, and creates a better banking experience for consumers. 

Jollibee’s much-talked-about Now Showing: Love for a Perfect Pair took home the Brand as Creator award, which is given to a campaign that best demonstrates brands as creators and strategically uses YouTube formats to tap into consumer trends and growing communities. 

The 36-minute short film was, in fact, a triumph for the beloved world-class Filipino fast-food chain as it heralded the return of the well-renowned love team, Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz. 

Last but not the least, rounding up this year’s awards is Diskartech’s Carabao which won The Challenger award, given to SME brands that were able “to do more with less.” The Carabao showed how easy it is to get loans from Diskartech by presenting it in a fantastical and humorous way via a person popping out of the backside of a carabao.

This year’s winners were determined by an esteemed jury composed of marketers, digital experts, directors, creatives, and content creators from all over the country.

Gabby Roxas, country marketing manager for Google Philippines and South Asia Frontier Markets, said, “This year’s YouTube Works journey showed us how brands took their storytelling a notch higher to engage with consumers as we move from the shadow of the pandemic.”

He added, “In addition, the return of YouTube Brandcast as an on-ground event after two long years feels great! We get to award each brand in-person and showcase YouTube Works as a celebration of what brands and agencies in the country can achieve with YouTube as their video platform.”

Meanwhile, Golda Roldan, CEO of Wunderman Thompson Philippines and head of the 2022 YouTube Works Awards jury, commented, “I believe that brand campaigns can always make a difference beyond business results. This year’s YouTube Works winners strategically used the platform in crafting creative, effective, and meaningful campaigns that will inspire the next generation of brand storytelling on YouTube,” 

To name a few, the jury included Angie Tijam-Tohid, executive creative director at Havas Ortega Group; Dan Villegas, director for TV and film; Digs Dimagiba, CMO and head of the Analytics, Brand, Communications & Marketing Technology (ABCMT) Group of Metrobank Philippine; and Dave Drilon, chief digital officer of total Publicis Groupe PH.

Manila, Philippines – SME-centric financial platform Investree in the Philippines has announced that it will be extending its reach beyond Luzon, expanding recently to Central and Western Visayas and Davao Region in Mindanao. 

The move seeks to serve and empower SMEs in the said regions by providing accessible and affordable financing solutions that can help their businesses thrive as the economy reopens. With its expansion in the Visayas and Mindanao, which began this September, Investree Philippines is now fully equipped to support enterprises in the regions’ various industries, including manpower, security services, F&B, school supplies, pharmaceuticals, and medical sectors.

Investree Philippines optimises data and technology to connect businesses with institutional investors that share the same mission of supporting SMEs. Its SME clients, including new ones in the Visayas and Mindanao, can now fulfil larger order volumes, deploy and train manpower, develop their business to cater to new target markets, and implement geographical expansion. They can likewise look to fast-tracking business growth in terms of product and/or service development.

“Our mission since day one has been to support SMEs through accessible and secure financing solutions and, in so doing, contribute to the country’s growth one SME at a time. We are broadening our reach outside of Luzon and are now building relationships with more entrepreneurs in Visayas and Mindanao to help more businesses across the country keep up with the changing times. We at Investree Philippines are here to work and grow with them,” said Kok Chuan Lim, Investree’s co-founder and CEO.

In addition, the company said it has aggressive growth plans for the near future, to further penetrate other regions in the country.

Manila, Philippines – Following Filipino actress Yassi Pressman‘s launch of a play-to-earn (P2E) platform, ‘Players Elite Guild’ (PEG), the actress has jumped next to influencer marketing, unveiling a platform in the space called BrandNation.io. The latest venture of Pressman is said to be backed by a ‘dream team’ of top investors and technologists.

BrandNation.io connects influencers, brands, and their fans all on a single platform that will serve as the hub for promotion, exposure, partnerships, and revenue-generating activities in the space. The features were said to be made robust and advanced for each stakeholder.

For example, brands will be able to automate the campaign creation process for influencer marketing in just a few clicks, gain access to real-time data about each campaign, and achieve mainstream adoption through collaborations with even A-list celebrities, including Pressman herself.

According to Pressman, influencers and celebrities will be drawn to BrandNation.io because it will be a channel to work in a future pillar of the economy, the Web3.

“There’s a lot of noise in the web3 space, so it’s difficult for influencers and celebrities to find legitimate brands to work with. Some in other markets mistakenly endorsed projects that were later proven untrustworthy. BrandNation.io eliminates this problem: We connect with only the best, most trusted brands in the industry,” said Pressman, who added that the core mission of BrandNation.io is to be a bridge into Web3.

BrandNation.io will be offering multiple features that benefit all stakeholders, such as complete integration with all social media platforms, such as Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter, as well as real-time rewards and payments via PEG Token, the native token of Players Elite Guild.

This PEG Token is notably backed by BLX, the native token of BLOX, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) registered in Wyoming, United States.

“Every country has its flagship startup. I think BrandNation.io can really represent Filipinos well on the global stage, as it plays to our strengths: Our country, after all, is the social media capital of the world. It’s about time that we show the world how brands, influencers, and consumers can more efficiently perform our influencer marketing,” added Pressman.

BrandNation.io is set to start in the Philippines during its phase one launch this fourth quarter of 2022, and expand into Asia Pacific as part of phase two.

Manila, Philippines – Disney+, the subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service under The Walt Disney Company, is finally coming to the Philippines on November 17.

Disney+ coming to the Philippines comes after a year of the platform announcing its added expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.

The platform first appeared in APAC through its ANZ launch in November 2019, followed by the Indian launch in April 2020 through Disney Star’s Indian SOV Hotstar. It then launched in Japan via a deal with NTT Docomo in June 2020, in Indonesia in September 2020.

In 2021, Disney+ launched in Singapore (February 2021), Malaysia and Thailand (June 2021), as well as the countries of South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in November 2021. Meanwhile, launch in Vietnam is slated for early 2023.

The Philippine launch also comes months after Disney+ has announced an adtech deal with The Trade Desk in its move to offer ad-supported plans for its subscriptions in the future.

Manila, Philippines – Aitana Moira Burgos, formerly of Intrepid Group Asia, has been appointed as the new country head in the Philippines at LEAP Commerce, a subsidiary of Asia-Pacific retail and e-commerce network Luxasia.

She was previously the head of merchandising at Intrepid Group Asia, where according to her LinkedIn, aided in executing merchandising strategies across various categories that aim to optimise the user experience across customer touchpoints.

In addition, her previous role included her collaborating with the commercial team, design team, and customer service team in order to execute campaigns. In addition, her role utilizes reporting (conversion, sales funnel, etc.) data and analytics to improve business growth.

LEAP Commerce is a partnership enabler between the recent deal of foodpanda and the LEGO Group to expand quick commerce for toys in APAC. The company offers an integrated end-to-end solution for online commerce covering all digital channels – online marketplaces, mono and multi-brand sites, and social commerce.

LEAP Commerce was formed in August 2021 as Luxasia’s e-commerce enabler arm, aiming to cover end-to-end solutions for enablement on all digital channels for brands.

Singapore – Global financial services company Mastercard and superapp Grab have joined hands to launch the ‘Small Business, Big Dreams’ regional programme to digitally upskill gig economy workers and small businesses in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This collaboration is part of Strive Community, a global philanthropic initiative developed by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and Caribou Digital that aims to support the resilience and growth of five million small businesses around the world.

The new regional programme includes the launch of two online business courses for Grab’s driver and delivery-partners aspiring to start new businesses, and small business owners seeking to grow in a competitive digital economy. It aims to enable small businesses to reach their full potential by supporting them to digitise their operations, unlock their access to financial services, and more effectively participate in the digital economy.

The two new online courses, namely the ‘Driver Entrepreneurship Toolkit’ and the ‘Small Business Toolkit’, were created based on survey insights from over 34,000 driver-partners and 600 small businesses in the region. Although almost all small businesses surveyed use smartphones for their businesses, 42% still rely solely on paper and pen to manage their businesses.

“Many Southeast Asians working in the informal sector aspire for more, but the reality is that a lot of them do not have the means or the opportunity to access quality training programs. Through our partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, we hope to give gig workers and small businesses a boost to get started. Our ‘Small Business, Big Dreams’ programme will equip them with business knowledge and practical skills through a structured learning journey tailored to their needs and interest areas,” said Cheryl Goh, group head of marketing and sustainability at Grab.

Meanwhile, Payal Dalal, SVP of social impact, international markets, and centre for inclusive growth at Mastercard, commented that they are delighted to work with Grab on this initiative that will boost digital capacity and inclusion amongst aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses post-pandemic.

“Mastercard has globally committed to bringing a total of 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025. Today’s announcement follows the success of Mastercard Academy 2.0 in Indonesia, Business Cell in the Philippines, BSR’s HER Project Digital Wage in Cambodia, and Care Ignite in Vietnam, which have empowered millions of small businesses to access technology, training, mentorship, and financial services,” she said.

Manila, Philippines – The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) has unveiled its new brand communications today – a straightforward ‘Choose PDAX!’.

PDAX was the first virtual currency exchange operator licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) back in 2018. The platform enables Filipino consumers to easily buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies.

PDAX said the new ‘Choose PDAX!’ tagline reflects the new and improved services it offers and the upgrades it has applied to the PDAX app and web exchange.

A recent brand refresh gives its web app a more easy-on-the-eye palette. The change coincides with the upgrade of the mobile app which saw several changes to the app interface such as new screens for its dashboard and in its trade and cash-in and out functions, amongst others.

Trading has now also been made easier with the previous Primary and Exchange wallet, which is now consolidated into just one PDAX wallet. Furthermore, all cryptocurrencies are now accessible on the web exchange, similar to the mobile app.

Presently, PDAX gives one-stop access to 34 cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year, it launched its prime service, PDAX Prime, which gives clients access to 21 in-demand digital assets across its platform and through Treasury OTC.

The recent brand ambassador announcement by Shopee Philippines has caused a wide range of reactions amongst Filipinos online, with the majority turning against Shopee for tapping local celebrity Toni Gonzaga who is known for her controversial support of now-president Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. 

As of this writing, Shopee has defended its decision, stating that Gonzaga was chosen for her ‘mass appeal’, and not for her ‘political views’.

Despite this, clamour and discussion regarding Shopee Philippines’ announcement remained. In light of this, MARKETECH APAC has tapped social media monitoring Digimind to learn more about how the negative flak unfolded–as told by social media data.

Are Social Mentions Equal to ‘Boycott’ Sentiment?

Digimind noted in its data that social media mentions of Shopee spiked following the brand ambassador announcement, peaking at 286,495 on September 29. Said day was the time Shopee Philippines uploaded a teaser video of Gonzaga as the new brand ambassador.

However, despite the large volume of tweets mentioning Shopee, social media mentions, specifically those suggesting the boycott, only took 0.4% of all social media mentions. Despite the small percentage, this still amounts to a fairly sizeable volume of4,000 netizens expressing their opinion to boycott Shopee.

According to Olivier Girard, head of Digimind for APAC, influencers will always be on the verge of receiving scrutiny, especially when being associated with a partisan group or cause. 

“While consumers are familiar with the concept of influencers or celebrities endorsing brands, brands now need to have a more stringent process in place when assessing each influencer’s fit for their brand or campaign. Any brand, large or small, runs the risk of facing some level of social scrutiny or backlash when announcing a public figure with uncertainty over the public might receive them,” he said.

Was There a Spillover to Rival Platform Lazada?

 Following the negative flak to Shopee, numerous citizens have shown interest in moving to rival e-commerce platform Lazada, which is also one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the country.

However, Digimind notes that the social media conversations around Shopee still eclipse those about Lazada, showing that resentment towards the former is much stronger than renewed support for the latter. Over the course of September 26 to October 3, Shopee registered around ~2M social media mentions while Lazada only managed to get around ~145k social media mentions. In addition, Shopee’s mentions reached around ~11m users while Lazada reached around ~5.2m.

“Where brand reputation is concerned, it is therefore critical that brands evaluate potential ambassadors closely in the domain of social media,” Girard said, related to how brands should pick their next brand ambassador.

Who and Where the Discussion is Coming From

Digimind noted a great number of discussions related to Shopee come from sellers themselves and users that are greatly concerned about the welfare of the sellers.

A handful of small businesses and online shops have decided to create a business account, with some saying that they would not support a platform that ‘enables [political lies]’, as well as ‘unjust termination of employees’. Netizens have pointed out the irony from Shopee Philippines’ side in retrenching employees in order to ‘optimise’ operations and then contracting a new brand ambassador afterwards. 

Girard said that it’s important for brands to obtain consumer sentiments to help them prepare communication contingencies ahead of time, as in the case of Shopee. 

“[This] can help brands identify influencer profiles that match their target community and sieve any negative sentiment your marketing and social teams might otherwise miss out on in the macro analysis,” Girard explained.

In the end, the brand ambassador announcement for Shopee Philippines went on as usual, albeit social engagement against them has diminished over time. Time will only tell how these media social sentiments truly play out in the longer run.

Manila, Philippines – Earlier this year, GrabFood in the Philippines launched a discoverability feature ‘Indie Eats’ which aims to tag small to medium restaurants in the platform that are proven of quality and good taste.

The platform is moving further with its goal to help merchants and consumers benefit best from each other by launching an engaging 3-episode series on Facebook. Called ‘Totoong Sarap’ (Truly Delicious), the goal is to put the high-rated ‘Indie Eats’ to the test and cast out foodies’ reservations around their hype.

‘Indie Eats’ ambassador and social media personality Sassa Gurl will host the series and will be accompanied by different celebrity guests for each episode. Sassa Gurl and the guest will be trying out ‘Indie Eats’ restos and give their honest and no-holds-barred feedback.

The mini-series has already kicked off with pilot guest, Kiray Celis, a popular Filipino comedian. In the second episode, Sassa Gurl will be with kid guests, while the third and final episode is teased to showcase ‘queens’. The mini-series can be viewed on GrabFood PH’s official Facebook page.

In June, the ‘Indie Eats’ feature has been expanded nationwide to accommodate merchants in provincial cities Pampanga, Cebu, and Davao.