Tag: Philippines

Singapore — Entravision MediaDonuts, a digital marketing performance and branding solutions platform in Asia-Pacific, has signed a partnership agreement with Carousell Media Group for Carousell in the Philippines and Cho Tot in Vietnam, as their official reseller.

Via the collaboration, brands can advertise on premium real estate in Carousell’s e-commerce space while leveraging its advanced contextual and audience targeting capabilities. Carousell Media Group has a database of 58 million registered users across Greater Southeast Asia through their different platforms namely Carousell, Mudah.my, Cho Tot, OneKyat, Ox Street, and Refash. Additionally, millennials comprise 70% of this targeted group of highly engaged consumers with buying intent.

Moreover, advertisers can leverage Connect, Carousell Media Group’s off-platform solution, to engage consumers across the open internet through millions of other publishers across mobile and web app inventories. Powered by The Trade Desk technology, an independent DSP, this feature allows brands to target and retarget users throughout their buying journey.

JJ Eastwood, MD of Carousell Media Group, said, “As we scale our media offering in the Philippines, we are excited to partner with Entravision MediaDonuts to connect advertisers with passionate communities and sustainability-conscious shoppers.”

Meanwhile, Pieter-Jan de Kroon, CEO of Entravision MediaDonuts, noted, “The Philippine internet economy has reached US$17b, and is expected to grow to US$40b by 2025. Entravision MediaDonuts is in the Philippines to provide on-ground support to all marketers expecting the best-in-class solutions for their digital media campaigns.”

On the partnership with Carousell Media Group, de Kroon shared, “We are very excited to represent Carousell in the Philippines, which will help advertisers achieve superior performance at scale. The digital media landscape is evolving fast in the Philippines and we’re seeing a very interesting opportunity, especially in the e-commerce space.”

Manila, Philippines — Panda Express in the Philippines, a popular American Chinese dining concept, is opening a new branch on the south side of the metro. The branch is set to open this July and can be found in a Shell SLT satellite, in Muntinlupa along the South Luzon expressway.

Panda Express is operated by Jollibee Foods Corporation in the Philippines. The new branch will be the 10th Panda Express branch in Metro Manila since it set foot in the country in 2019.

Ned Bandojo, business development head of Jollibee Group Foreign Franchised Brands, said, “This back-to-back store opening in the south is all attributable to the heartwarming support that Panda Express has received from Filipino customers since 2019.”

“Guests from Muntinlupa and nearby areas, as well as city travellers heading south, can now stop over at our new location to satisfy their craving for savoury, wok-cooked American Chinese dishes,” Bandojo said.

The Panda Express menu includes a variety of entrées with regional Chinese influences—from its bestselling The Original Orange Chicken, a wok-tossed crispy chicken coated in sweet tangy sauce, to other must-try entrees like Broccoli Beef, Savory Shrimp, and Black Pepper Steak.

Guests can grab their Panda Express favourites through dine-in, takeout and Park, Order and go channels. To get more information about Panda Express, interested customers can visit Pand Express’ Facebook and Instagram pages.

Philippines — Euromonitor International has released its latest ‘Top 100 retailers in Asia 2022’ report featuring four familiar players from the Philippine business sector in the SEA rankings. Leading the market is SM Retail, the retail giant with a portfolio of supermarkets, department stores, and specialty stores, which landed at the eighth spot for the whole region recording $5b in sales for 2021.

Meanwhile, the other three Philippine retail firms included in the list are pharmaceutical company Mercury Drug sitting at the 11th spot with $3.6b in sales; following closely at the 12th spot is the grocery retailer Puregold Price Club with $2.9b in sales; and lastly Robinsons Retail stands at 16th spot recording a $2.3b in sales. All four PH firms, including SM Retail, recorded an improvement in their SEA rankings.

For this year’s list SEA Ranking, the Singapore-based global consumer internet company Sea took the number one spot for the region. Sea is the parent company of Shopee, the leading e-commerce site for the region.

For the whole of Asia, Alibaba Group of China and JD.com, another Chinese e-commerce company, were named top firms.

According to Euromonitor’s report, the state of retailing in SEA is largely fragmented. SEA is home to over 500 million people that have diverse ethnicities, cultures, religions as well as diverse shopping habits.

“Conquering this market is complex. Regional e-commerce players must create localised strategies like search engine optimisation for respective countries and languages or product lines catered to various cultural needs,” said Euromonitor.

Furthermore, according to the general overview of retailing in the Philippines from Euromonitor, e-commerce has had a presence in the Philippines for a few years, but its sales hold a noticeably lower share of overall retailing than in its neighbouring Southeast Asian markets because Filipinos are strongly accustomed to shopping via in-store retailing channels. The experience of shopping in-store is something that e-commerce can not replicate, but the pandemic forced Filipinos to adopt e-commerce out of necessity.

Additionally, shopping centres remain the primary shopping destinations in the Philippines, despite being mandated to have limited operation during quarantine periods. Essential retailers like supermarkets and drugstores/para pharmacies remained open in shopping centres so they still experienced foot traffic in 2021.

On the other hand, customer experience when shopping in-store and customer safety when shopping online, in terms of delivery and handling of products, are chief considerations among Filipinos when shopping.

Manila, Philippines — A new digital campaign entitled ‘Future Farms’ has been recently launched by the Department of Tourism (DOT). The campaign intends to promote farm tourism, one of the sector’s promising gems, and to offer pandemic-weary travellers a refreshing environment and new experiences. The Future Farms video series can be viewed on the ‘Tourism Philippines’ YouTube channel.

The Farm Tourism video series has featured must-see farms possessing unique characteristics of the touted ‘’future farm” — innovative, scenic, product-centric, and machine-oriented.

‘Future Farms’ is the fruit of the government agency’s efforts to redevelop tourism products and seek out new types of destinations and activities for travellers in the new normal. This innovation allows farm owners to maximise the potential of their property, employ more people, and give tourists more destinations to discover and agri-tourism products to enjoy.

The farms to be featured are located all over the Philippines and include sites such as Diaspora Farm and Resort in Bacolor, Pampanga, Amancio Nicolas Agri-Tourism Academy in Cordon, Isabela, Yamang Bukid in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Orchard Valley Farm in Pavia, Iloilo, among others.

Since 2018, the DOT has been strengthening the development and promotion of farm tourism as a major tourism product. It supports stakeholders in innovating and diversifying farm sites around the country to include recreational and leisure activities for tourists in addition to food and wellness.

The DOT said its farm tourism campaign ‘will definitely awaken the farmer in you as you explore the unique and fascinating farms in the country.’

Those interested in the project can visit DOT’s dedicated website for more information on DOT’s Farm Tourism partner destinations.

‘Future Farms’ is one of DOT’s original initiatives for tourism in the past month. Other notable projects include the inclusion and consideration of women and PWDs in the tourism industry, and a new ‘podumentary’ on the different rich cultures and traditions the Philippines offers, entitled ‘Escape: Stories from the Road’.

Pampanga, Philippines — The multi-platinum singer-songwriter Juan Karlos Labajo widens his portfolio with his latest move on entrepreneurship as co-founder of Raket.PH, an online job marketplace for Filipino freelancers. The platform is owned and operated by The Rocket Inc, a startup company headquartered in Angeles City, Pampanga.

The idea of a digital platform aiming to curb the number of unemployed and underemployed workers during this pandemic convinced the artist to proceed with this endeavour. Rooting from his experiences as a young breadwinner, Labajo sympathizes with his kababayans in dealing with the struggles of providing for the family’s daily needs.

Labajo discussed, “As a musician, gigs and projects come and go. I’ve experienced having no projects for months, but my responsibility to my family doesn’t stop when I don’t have a job. This led me to invest in a platform that strives to help freelancers like myself.”

This project was brought to life alongside his co-founders, Peng Enriquez and Carlet Enriquez, who also operate Fullstack HQ, a top tech company based in Pampanga.

“I’m truly grateful to these two amazing people for being a strong unit in realizing this common vision toward the welfare of every Pinoy independent worker,” Labajo said.

As of date, Raket.PH is in its alpha stage and recently launched its RaketShip feature, which functions as an online portfolio and resumes showcasing a freelancer’s information and services. Other major developments are expected to be introduced throughout the whole year 2022.

Manila, Philippines — The Philippine pharmaceutical giant, Unilab, has appointed Omnicom Media Group (OMG) Philippines as their media agency of record. The selection process was led by Unilab’s internal media team and has challenged participating agencies to showcase their capabilities, tools, and strategic principles through several brand case presentations. The partnership will be effective from July 1, 2022.

OMG will be responsible for managing the pharmacy brand’s legacy media, strategy, planning, investment, media activation, digital performance, and data-led marketing intelligence and science. Leveraging on the agency’s propriety planning workflow – Omni, the team stood out from the competition with a structured omnichannel strategy that empowers the brand with data-driven solutions that cut across stages of the funnel.

Alex Panlilio, corporate VP of Unilab, Inc., commented, “Today’s dynamic consumer and market landscapes require businesses to have sharper insights, growth-driving strategies, and agile engagements with its stakeholders. We have seen the capability of OMG to enable us in these and we look forward to partnering with Mary and her team in accelerating data-driven and disruptive initiatives.”

Meanwhile, Mary Buenaventura, CEO of OMG Philippines, shared, “As we move forward in this endemic world, we are excited to kickstart this new journey with Unilab. With the combination of our unique expertise, market-leading capabilities, and strategic thinking through our people, we are confident to support Unilab in their growth ambitions.”

Commenting on the appointment, Joanna C. Mojica, division VP for consumer health management of Unilab, Inc, said, “As we face massive challenges in today’s business environment, OMG is able to demonstrate the breadth and depth of how we can partner together. We look forward to the fruition of a partnership that will enable our brands to deeply connect with our consumers.”

Manila, Philippines – Tropical Hut, a long-time Philippine-based fast food chain, has seen a revival these past few days, causing a massive organic marketing boost brought by a slew of customers and food delivery riders. It was all thanks to a viral tweet that has since then catalysed the hunt for their nearest Tropical Hut branch.

It all started with a tweet from stock analyst JP Tanyag, who visited a Tropical Hut branch located in Escolta at the City of Manila. In the tweet, he exclaimed that he was the only customer there. Despite the business being slow, he also stated that the fast food chain has retained most of its menu items despite being faced against big fast food chains locally.

For context, Tropical Hut was first established in 1962, and served fast-food items, including rice meals and burgers. They also served fast food versions of Filipino dishes such as palabok and tapa.

As of this writing, Tanyag’s tweet has over 7,000 retweets and over 34,000 likes. Comments regarding his tweet have ranged from nostalgic tweets of them sharing meals with their parents to commenting how the price and food quality are ‘worth it’.

Numerous tweets have popped up online, showing how packed the Tropical Hut branches are.

https://twitter.com/marianboneo/status/1538548492083560449

There are also tweets showing how several food delivery riders flocked Tropical Hut branches amidst growing numbers of orders for the fast food chain’s items.

Even popular superapp Grab in the Philippines jumped into the trend to host a giveaway–which turned out to be a full-on Tropical Hut meal.

Following the surging popularity of Tropical Hut, the chain’s official Twitter account thanked everyone for the support, and also reminded customers to patiently wait for their orders, as stocks for popular items such as their burgers are low on stock.

Manila, Philippines — Luxury hotels and resorts company, Shangri-La Group, has appointed Chrystel Ilano Acuna as its new director of marketing communications for the Resorts. This appointment will serve as a return for Acuna to the hospitality company after previous stints.

Acuna will be responsible for leading the marketing teams and the initiatives for Shangri-La to cater to the easing of borders and travel restrictions. In her new role, she will be prioritising the return of international guests and how they can consider Mactan or Boracay as their holiday destination.

She holds an extensive understanding and knowledge of the hospitality business and the marketing industry. Prior to returning to Shangri-La, she was with Chroma Hospitality as marketing communications and digital manager leading the Crimson, Quest, and Timberland marketing teams. Prior to that, Acuna was with Shangri-La Group as a digital marketing executive handling the Philippine properties and before that, she was with Makati Shangri-La as a digital marketing executive, marketing executive and corporate trainee – communications. Her first job was with Acacia Hotel Manila as a marketing communications assistant.

Commenting on her appointment and coming back to Shangri-La, Acuna shared, “I’m excited to return to Shangri-La Group and to elevate the campaigns of resorts as we welcome back international travellers.”

Philippines — The Bangsamoro Region in the Mindanao area of the Philippines is now adopting the ‘Make It Happen in the Philippines’ (MIH) campaign brand for the region’s overall branding, including its investment promotion activities.

This, after the region, underwent training on the development of an Investment Marketing and Communication Plan. The Philippine Board of Investments (BOI), the country’s lead industry and investments promotion agency conducted the training together with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao-Ministry of Trade, Investments, and Tourism (BARMM-MTIT) recently in Cotabato City.

The MIH campaign is the Philippines’ newest investment promotion brand campaign launched in November 2020, serving as part of the country’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery strategy. Inspired by the Filipinos’ genuine “make it work/make it happen mindset”, the campaign is designed to generate more investments into the country to grow the country’s economy and increase employment opportunities for the Filipino people.

The campaign targets investors in 18 markets in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and America and focuses on promoting the country’s key industries as represented in three global value chain clusters that have the most potential for foreign investment namely in industrials, manufacturing, and transport; and technology, media and telecommunication; among others.

As an autonomous region, the BARMM will use Make It Happen in the Philippines – Choose Bangsamoro as its regional brand. The region’s promotion branding injects the Sarimanok into its regional logo, a legendary bird that become a ubiquitous symbol of Maranao art and is unique to the Bangsamoro. It is depicted as a fowl with colourful wings and feathered tail, holding a fish on its beak or talons with the head profusely decorated with leaf, and spiral motifs as a symbol of good fortune.

The regional brand is further broken down into four sub-brandings considering the many inherent competitive advantages that the region can offer. These are location branding that would highlight the region’s tourism and investment opportunities; product branding that would showcase the region as a global Halal hub; people and culture branding that would put in the spotlight the region and its people’s rich culture including its history, language, food, fashion, and celebrities; and political branding that would showcase the Bangsamoro as a reformed, peace-loving, adhering to moral governance region, and a united region speaking in one voice.

The Make It Happen in the Philippines brand meanwhile is infused into the regional brand through the play of colours and texts. Initially, the following are the working draft logos of the MIH-infused BARMM promotion brand.

Rossini J. Alonto-Sinarimbo, director-general of MTIT, said, “We must communicate to the world the potentials of the Bangsamoro region as an investment destination of choice, especially with the improvements in the region. It’s our chance to put our region forward.”

Meanwhile, Maria Veronica Magsino, executive director of BOI, said that the three-day training was proof of a strong partnership between the national and BARMM governments towards harmonising the campaign brand of the Philippines.

“This endeavour is not new to us, since for the past years, we have been encouraging government agencies and the private sector to use MIH as the country’s new investment promotion campaign brand, in their respective investment promotion activities and information materials,” Magsino said.

The multi-day training and planning workshop covered various topics, namely an overview of the MIH brand campaign; the basics of formulating a marketing and communications plan, and the development of information materials and utilisation of promotional tools such as Canva and Hubspot.



Manila, Philippines — TikTok, a leading destination for short-form mobile video, celebrates this year’s Pride Month by promoting inclusivity. The platform aims to champion individual expression while also spotlighting the strength of the LGBTQIA+ community.

To officially kick off the month of June, TikTok launched this year’s pride month campaign with the official hashtag, #PrideTogetherPH.

TikTok continues to serve as a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community where users can engage and build relationships with key figures and advocacy organisations. For interested users, they can join in on the discussion and catch the Sama-sama tayo #PrideTogetherPH live stream on June 15, 17, 22, and 24.

The live broadcast will compose numerous prominent LGBTQIA+ creators including Show Suzuki, Roanne and Tina, Rica Salomon, and Miko Esjay together with various music artists like Paul Pablo, SILVY, and Anne Marie.

In addition to the jam-packed events, anticipate a well-rounded discourse with a specially curated digital content series named #QueerTalk with OxfamPH and #ATBPride with LoveYourselfPH. Both are video series expounding more about LGBTQIA+, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression Equality Bill, and different gender identities in the LGBTQIA+ community.