Tag: Philippines

Manila, Philippines – Prominent Filipino businessman Fernando Zobel de Ayala has resigned from all business positions under the publicly-listed holding company Ayala Group. The companies that he will be resigning from include Ayala Corporation, Ayala Land, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), and Globe Telecom.

In multiple filings made by all aforementioned companies at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), all stated that Zobel rendered his resignation over medical concerns, and said he will be focusing on his recovery.

Zobel held the following positions at these companies namely the vice-chairman of the board of directors, president and CEO at Ayala Corporation; chairman of the board of directors at Ayala Land and BPI; as well as co-vice chairman of the board of directors at Globe Telecom.

As part of the announcement, Ayala Corporation has appointed Cezar P. Consing as their acting president and CEO for the meantime.

Fernando Zobel de Ayala overtook the president and CEO role from Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala in April 2021.

Established in 1834, Ayala Corporation is one of the largest corporations in the Philippines and with a massive portfolio of diverse business interests, including investments in retail, education, real estate, and banking, as well as telecommunications, water infrastructure, renewable energy, and electronics.

Manila, Philippines – Advanced Media Broadcasting System (AMBS), the broadcast media company owned by Filipino billionaire businessman and former politician Manny Villar, has renamed its upcoming television channel AMBS 2 to AllTV. 

The rebranding also echoes the naming of other business endeavours by the Villar Group, including AllDay Supermarket and AllHome furniture store.

The new AllTV channel is set to officially launch this September 22, airing on the former frequency of ABS-CBN’s free TV channel. Willie Revillame, a game show host formerly affiliated with GMA, transfers to AMBS alongside his flagship game show Wowowin.

Furthermore, former ABS-CBN talents Toni Gonzaga and husband Paul Soriano also signed contracts with AMBS, according to reports from PEP and The Manila Times.

AMBS was granted by the national government a 25-year legislative franchise extension in 2019. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) then granted AMBS the former ABS-CBN broadcasting frequencies in January this year.

Manila, Philippines – As part of realme Philippines’ new strategy, the consumer electronics company has formally announced its partnership with FUSE, the PR agency under Omnicom Media Group – Philippines, to be its new PR agency of record. This partnership aims to further strengthen the brand’s top position in the local market. 

The adjustment to the PR agency will be supporting realme and narzo as two independent brands moving forward. With this, another agency will be reaching out to media partners for all narzo Philippines concerns. 

“We ask for everyone’s full cooperation with the changes so that we may have a smooth transition for all parties involved. For any clarifications and concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to the concerned agencies,” said realme Philippines, in a formal statement.

Manila, Philippines – Preview.ph, the local fashion magazine under digital lifestyle network Summit Media, has honoured fifty local personalities that are considered ‘movers and shakers’ of the Filipino local fashion scene.

Among the awardees who attended the event were celebrities Marian Rivera, Catriona Gray, James Reid, Kylie Verzosa, Vice Ganda, Michelle Dy, and Pia Wurtzbach

The recognitions were announced during Preview.ph’s latest event ‘#PreviewBall2022’ in a bid to usher into a new era of fashion and art defined by inclusivity, diversity, and creativity.

https://youtu.be/82IsDNxFWxg
Preview.ph brand manifesto

Marj Ramos-Clemente, editor-in-chief at Preview.ph, said, “We’re constantly pressured by the society to fit a certain mold. We’re expected to adhere by such standards if we wish to be accepted. Admittedly, even the fashion world tends to feel intimidating or alienating sometimes. But fashion should be for everyone.”

She further explains that for a brand like them that reaches younger audiences, they need to be aware that conveying the message of kindness and inclusivity to their audience is no longer just a privilege but rather a responsibility.

Preview.ph’s launch of first-ever video magazine cover, featuring Filipina actress Belle Mariano

“[Fashion] is not supposed to make you feel small, or make you feel like you don’t belong. It should do the exact opposite. In this often cruel world, fashion should be your friend. Fashion should help you celebrate your uniqueness and individuality,” Ramos-Clemente said.

She added, “It’s okay to just be yourself and own all those little quirks and nuances. It’s okay to create your own destiny and not follow the path that everyone else seemingly set up for you.”

Preview.ph also released its first-ever video magazine cover featuring Filipina actress Belle Mariano, and takes viewers on a behind the scenes look of conceptualising the magazine cover itself. The new video magazine cover format will also be advertised across social media platforms and digital billboards.

Manila, Philippines – Global digital payments company Visa has appointed Jeff Navarro as its new country manager for the Philippines and Guam. He succeeds previous country manager Dan Wolbert, who has moved to a new role for Visa North America.

Navarro was previously the regional vice president for the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indochina at Western Union. He also served as the president and chairman of the board at Western Union Processing Services Inc. Prior to joining Western Union, he has also worked with SMART Communications and Shell across sales, brand, and business development roles.

Speaking on his appointment, he said, “It is a great pleasure for me to join Visa, a global leader in payments and money movement, areas which are near and dear to my heart. I am excited and honoured to have the opportunity to lead a team of seasoned professionals, who share the drive and passion to further widen financial inclusion for all Filipinos.” 

He added, “I look forward to working closely with our clients, fintechs, the regulator, and all stakeholders to grow digital payments in the country, and enable individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive.”

Meanwhile, Tareq Muhmood, Visa’s Group Country Manager for Regional Southeast Asia, said, “I am delighted to have Jeff lead our team in the Philippines and Guam as the country manager. Jeff’s regional experience and in-depth knowledge of the financial services industry will be an asset for Visa and will serve him well in leading our team.”

He added, “Jeff and the team will drive our business agenda with clients, consumers, and regulators in the Philippines and Guam, in line with our purpose to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.” 

Manila, Philippines – Leading recommerce group in Greater Southeast Asia, Carousell, recently held its Caroupreneur Awards in the Philippines. The Caroupreneur Awards recognises a wide variety of outstanding achievements of ‘Carousellers’ over the past year, ranging from entrepreneurs who started or scaled their businesses online, to brick-and-mortar retailers who digitalised their businesses, and everyday casual sellers who wanted to find valuable use for their pre-loved items and supplement their income.

This is the second iteration of the Caroupreneur Awards where the pioneer awards was held in its home country, Singapore, last year. The regional awards event, which now includes the Philippines and Hong Kong, will be recognising a total of 182 users on the platform’s wide array of product categories for their outstanding achievements throughout 2021.

A physical awards show for the Philippines was held in Manila on 1 September. Winners of the awards were determined through a judging panel made up of Marcus Tan, co-founder of Carousell; Djon Nacario, GM of Carousell Philippines, and Vishal Salunkhe, VP of Seller Success Operations at Carousell.

On the importance of the recognition exercise, Djon Nacario, GM of Carousell Philippines, shared with MARKETECH APAC, “We wanted to recognise the best of the best in Carousell because we recognise that Carousell is not simply a platform in order for sellers to sell, but it’s actually a platform of ‘possibilities’. We’ve seen throughout the years, even during the pandemic, that a lot of our sellers actually resorted to a lot of creativity, and really translated to passion in order to get, I would say, sources of revenue or sources of funds, especially during the difficult time.”

He added, “And we just really wanted to celebrate that type of ingenuity, and also at the same time, recognise the best practices that our top sellers have been doing on our platform in order to inspire more people to start selling and learn from them.”

The Carousell Group lauded the winners and finalists in the categories of Autos, Property for Sale, Property for Rent, Home Services, Men’s Fashion, Women’s Fashion, Electronics, Furniture and Home Living, Toys and Games, and K-Wave. Meanwhile, the Group also named the seller for its top award – Caroupreneur of the Year 2021 – as well as a special award for the Most Meaningful User Story of the Year. The shortlisted sellers were identified through a mix of qualitative and quantitative criteria, such as quality of listings, reviews, creativity, and brand story.

Seller Katherine Mae A. Cipriano, who sold electronics and gadgets through her Carousell page, @TekiCashGadgetsph, was the one who won the Caroupreneur Award of the Year for Best in Carousell: Electronics.

Cipriano shared with MARKETECH APAC her tips for aspiring sellers, and said that it’s all about just making the jump and carving out your first step in selling.

“Actually, I can’t believe that I won, I even thought that it was a dummy account who was chatting with me [about the win], because ever since I started selling gadgets, it’s really my first time receiving an award like this and to add to that – 2 awards,” she said.

Cipriano, whose main source of funds is through the platform, added, “Carousell is really a big help, especially if you just start selling because you will learn to like what you’re doing especially when you’re already earning.”

Full list of winners can be found on Carousell’s website.

Manila, Philippines – The Philippine-based buy-now-pay-later platform, BillEase, has partnered with OpenFabric, a technology company that builds infrastructure for payments and financial services, to launch its new integration stack for large enterprise merchants and payment gateways looking for same-day integration of BNPL service. This will allow any business to rapidly offer instalment payment plans for their customers. 

Through this solution, merchants can use BillEase’s agnostic software development kit (SDK), which is powered by OpenFabric, to easily add BillEase to their platform. The new stack allows merchant technical teams to deploy a BNPL solution in just one to three days, versus the usual integration that takes months to complete, hence saving about 95% of developer time.

Georg Steiger, CEO and co-founder of BillEase, commented that they are excited to launch this integration solution with OpenFabric to further smoothen the integration work for merchants looking for an instalment option at checkout.

“We continue to develop and launch new ways for merchants to easily launch point-of-sale financing without spending too much time and effort integrating our platform,” said Steiger.

Meanwhile, Soma Ramasamy, CEO and co-founder of OpenFabric, shared that at OpenFabric, they help fintech companies to accelerate their merchant acceptance footprint at scale via simple and quick integrations.

“We’re excited to introduce this solution with BillEase and accelerate their merchant onboarding process by providing a quick and easily implementable solution for all kinds of merchants’ shopping carts and payment platforms,” said Ramasamy.

Manila, Philippines – Courier delivery services Flash Express in the Philippines has launched a local campaign to offer sustainable business opportunities for local MSMEs as well as long-term commitment to its employees.

Through the Flash Express’ ‘Juan Asenso’ Campaign, Flash Express’ partners and customers will have better support in terms of business training and access to the Flash Home Branch System and Flash Express Key Account (KA) System, respectively.

Flash Express announced in August that it has reached a total of 1,000 Flash Home Partners across the country after eight (8) months from its soft launch last December 2021.

Flash Home is another business opportunity opened by Flash Express to enable budding entrepreneurs and MSMEs to generate income at a minimal investment cost. Through Flash Home, Filipinos intending to start their own business could utilise their residential or commercial spaces as drop-off points. 

During the internal launch of Flash Express’ ‘Juan Asenso’ Campaign, Flash Express’ Consultant Alvin Chew, said that one year is not enough to showcase what Flash Express can bring. He reiterated that this year is just the beginning of a more promising future for the company including its stakeholders, customers, clients, business partners, and its employees. 

“Within a span of one year, Flash Express was able to achieve several milestones within the frame of the company’s vision and goals. We were able to expand all over the Philippines in just a couple of months after we kicked off our operations, we were able to disrupt the market, and most importantly, we were able to improve the logistics industry in the country”, Chew said.

Flash Express aims to further improve its overall operations by putting in extensive support to its manpower, expanding business tie-ups, and acquiring more customers to increase more parcel volume by utilising its resources to continuously provide more employment and business opportunities among Filipinos.

The Philippines – MARKETECH APAC‘s What’s NEXT returns this year with a stronger push to bring the industry together through a variety of knowledge-sharing activities. MARKETECH APAC will continue to feature thought-leadership articles written by renowned marketing leaders to cover various marketing areas, as it did last year.

With MARKETECH APAC‘s ongoing push to create relevant video content, we will gather the best in the industry this year and sit down with them to discuss how marketers can prepare for the upcoming year of marketing opportunities and challenges.

On November 3, 2022, What’s NEXT 2023 will kick off with a regional webinar, What’s NEXT: Events in Asia Pacific, in collaboration with event tech platform, Hubilo. On November 8, in partnership with influencer marketing platform Vamp, another regional webinar, What’s Next: Influencer Marketing in APAC, will be held.

True to its mission of creating a well-connected marketing community in Asia Pacific, What’s NEXT 2023 concludes with a two-day hybrid conference, What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific, on February 21-22, with at least 120 physical attendees in Manila and 1,500 virtual attendees from various markets in Asia Pacific.

The conference will spark offline and online discussions about digital, e-commerce, customer engagement, CX, esports, research, B2B, metaverse, and other relevant topics that will help marketers future-proof marketing strategies.

MARKETECH APAC’s What’s NEXT 2023 will be a go-to platform for checking out the marketing industry’s new trends, opportunities, and challenges to be explored in the region through this holistic approach.

Keep an eye on our website and social media pages for updates on the hybrid conference.

Please contact Joven Barceñas at [email protected] if you are interested in becoming a partner.

Manila, Philippines – Uniquecorn Strategies, a PR agency based in the Philippines, has launched a new PR and marketing arm called ‘Blockceler8’, as part of a larger effort to expand its offering focused on blockchain, crypto, NFT, Web3, GameFi, and Metaverse projects.

The new marketing arm began operations with a focus on communications and marketing for cryptocurrency businesses. It employs engaging long-term marketing practices to bring cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to the forefront.

Additionally, Blockceler8 offers services that revolve around educating the audience, including full-stack public relations services, thought-leader marketing, commentary, content marketing, and branding. The agency also provides social media and forums management.

Uniquecorn Strategies said that its genuine interest in disruptive technology motivates its team of marketing experts to employ engaging strategies that will allow companies to reach more customers, partners, investors, and other stakeholders. The power of storytelling is central to the growth of its clients, and it wanted to bring this to its existing web3 clients, such as Tetrix Network, Moneybees, and The Mega Maxi, which will be transferred under the management of Blockceler8.

Dean Bernales, CEO and managing director of Uniquecorn Strategies, said, “The blockchain space is fueled by innovation, so as much as we like to be tech-savvy, we still want to keep its human element. Blockcele8 uses the power of information and persuasive communication to relate crypto to the masses.”

Moreover, Uniquecorn Strategies has promoted co-founder Irene Manansala as its new associate director, a step up from her position as public relations manager. In this new role, Manansala will be leading all Uniquecorn Strategies’ communications, including building the company’s reputation, managing client relationships and long-term partnerships, and developing sustainable communication strategies.

Manansala brings nearly seven years of experience working in advertising and PR to the company. She has worked with companies across various sectors, managing their projects, events, campaigns, and relationships with clientele including Johnson & Johnson (Johnson’s Baby line, Modess, Trade & Marketing, Shopper Marketing, and Retail), Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi-Aventis Philippines, Cignal TV, TV 5 Network, and Reckitt Benckiser Philippines, as well as Mead Johnson, and Petron Corporation, amongst many others.

On her appointment, Bernales commented, “Irene’s extensive communication experience with a very open and collaborative approach to team building and management is something that is necessary and of great importance, as we execute on the next chapter of our company’s future.”