Tag: Philippines

Manila, Philippines – The lockdown restrictions resulted in less opportunity to engage with food lovers, and with this, Kraft Heinz has decided to partner with the local Filipino burger chain Sweet Ecstasy for a unique giveaway last July. 

The partnership aims to continually raise the bar for its food products, including its Heinz Seriously Good Mayonnaise. With the vision ‘Let’s make life delicious’ and its mission to create unique and out-of-this-world food pairings, Kraft Heinz wanted to step in to unite both food enthusiasts and restaurants.

Following this endeavor, Kraft Heinz has created a new campaign to provide a unique opportunity to create further taste connections with its fans. 

Called, ’The Seriously Good Burger’, the campaign was made by the Heinz Mayonnaise team and creative agency VMLY&R. It is a limited-edition burger that generated buzz through a digital-first campaign.

Andita Rasyid, Kraft Heinz’s head of marketing for Asia Trading, shared that they wanted to find a partner to help bring a burger experience that can once again energize the public’s interest in good restaurant food after the difficulties that the pandemic has posed on the industry. 

“This felt like a perfect way to bring our vision of ‘Let’s make life delicious’ to life,” said Rasyid.

Meanwhile, Jorge Thauby, the executive creative director at VMLY&R, commented, “We are excited that together with Heinz, we will be bringing consumers not only anticipation but a tangible and delightful experience from online to offline.”

The limited-edition burger was made available last 9 July 2021, where it attracted 850 participants, making it one of the most successful Southeast Asian campaigns for Heinz Seriously Good Mayonnaise.

Manila, Philippines – The integrated marketing communications agency in the Philippines, MullenLowe TREYNA, has announced its acquisition of a controlling interest at UX and UI company Quiddity Usability Labs. The new joint venture from this new move will be called Qairos, Inc.

Under the binding terms of the agreement, Quiddity will be winding down in September 2021 as Qairos will be scheduled to formally begin operations by October 2021.

The recent development adds UX/UI expertise to complement MullenLowe TREYNA’s hyper bundled business solutions, which has rapidly grown in recent years with similar expansions in PR and digital communications. 

Moreover, the two companies will be combining their roster of clients, which includes brands across several industries like FMCGs, finance, e-commerce, and pharmaceuticals, as well as travel, and telecommunications, among others.

Mike Trillana, MullenLowe TREYNA’s CEO and chairman, commented that the move is their biggest M&A activity to date, and they could not be any more excited with this partnership.

“The UX/UI capabilities of Quiddity are the best-in-its class in the country. Denise Haak, Vanessa Julian, and the team are kindred spirits, and we all buy into The Challenger Mentality as a way of life. This brings us one step closer to our vision of being our client’s preferred Creative Business Solutions partner,” said Trillana. 

Meanwhile, Denise Haak, the president and CEO at Qairos Inc, believes that partnering with MullenLowe TREYNA will surely propel them to a larger world of users, helping make things better, one usable product at a time, and they cannot be more excited for this partnership. 

Leigh Reyes, MullenLowe TREYNA’s chairman emeritus, said, “As technology becomes even more present in our daily lives, creativity and innovation are key to humanizing not only communication but even business vision and strategy and product development. I am thrilled to be part of this new adventure.”

MullenLowe TREYNA said that Qairos Inc’s new board will include Mike Trillana as the chairman, Mehrdad Jamshidi as the chief financial officer, and Leigh Reyes.

In October 2020, MullenLowe was rebranded to MullenLowe TREYNA, which came after Interpublic Group of Company’s (IPG) local shareholders bought shares in Mullenlowe Philippines’ holding company Treyna Holdings Inc.

Philippines – There’s no doubt that more than just being what used to be an exciting past-time and a convenient solution, online food deliveries have now become the crucial element this pandemic for both consumers and business owners, with strict national protocols enforcing everyone to stay within the premises of their own home.

Grab, the top ride-hailing app in Southeast Asia, that soon grew into a superapp has released its first-ever ‘Food Trends Report’ in the Philippines, drawing insights from its food delivery business GrabFood for the period of 2019-2021. 

For starters, the study shows that during this period, food delivery has also served to be Filipinos’ go-to solution in battling traffic and road problems. Pre-pandemic, these were already in Filipinos’ top dilemmas, and even now that times have changed, Filipinos are dealing with them the same even amid less opportunities for cars to roam freely in the streets. 

In the study which was conducted by NielsenIQ, it shows that among the top reasons Filipinos order food delivery in 2020 is so that they don’t need to worry about traffic or parking. This is together with Filipnos’ desire to satisfy cravings for food they can’t cook, and due to simply not having the time to cook. 

Grab Philippines_Filipinos
Infographic from Grab Philippines

Due to the demands of family that has been augmented by the ongoing pandemic, the report found that it is families who have children that order the most from food delivery, with 65% of them belonging to the 25-44 year-old bracket. 

With Filipinos looking to delivery as a save from the rigorous preparations of their favorite dishes; pizza, cake, and pasta were found to be some of the favorite food items that Filipinos like to search on the Grab app. In fact, pizza was searched 6 million times on GrabFood in 2020. 

Grab Philippines_Filipinos
Infographic from Grab Philippines

What’s more, despite it being a staple only for celebrations, Filipinos’ orders for cake also grew by 2.6 times in the year 2020 compared to the previous year. 

In terms of the time of the day, it seems that it is immaterial for Filipino foodies on what time they’d prefer to put in their orders, where most orders were made for dinner, lunch, and ‘merienda’ or afternoon time. However, in 2020, Filipinos were shown to spend more on breakfast with a 35% increase in basket size for the said part of the day. 

On top of Filipinos’ delivery behavior, the average Filipino consumer is trying approximately 2-3 different restaurants in a month in 2020, with ‘variety of food’ and ‘value for money’ as their main considerations. 

Grab Philippines_Filipinos
Infographic from Grab Philippines

With Grab’s report originally dedicated to bring commercial awareness to F&B merchants, the report reveals that most of all, more F&B brands are giving food delivery a shot, with the number of monthly active merchants in GrabFood increasing by 60% in 2020. 

Aside from research insights, the report by Grab also includes content on the state of the food delivery business as a whole in the country as well as tips on digital marketing for F&B businesses. 

Statistics were derived from Grab’s internal database between 2019–2020. The research conducted also includes interviews with food industry professionals, restaurateurs, consumer surveys, and focus groups.

Manila, Philippines – Filipinos have long been known to repurpose things, including the commonly-practiced repurposing old ice cream tubs as tupperwares to store various items, including food items. This has led to hilarious instances where one would assume that the ice cream tub contains ice cream, but in fact contains other food items.

Such quirky part of the modern Filipino culture has led soft drink brand Pepsi in the Philippines to launch a new campaign called ‘tubAWARE’ which advocates against being shortchanged to whatever they want to consume or buy for themselves.

The campaign, created by creative agency BBDO Guerrero, stemmed from a scene in a prior Pepsi Philippine video commercial that showed various instances of being faced with shortchanges, such as small dresses, a low-class luxury bag, or a cold bowl of soup.

In the said video campaign, Pepsi shows that their product ‘Pepsi Go’ has extra 30mL on their bottle for added value for their customers.

Through the ‘tubAWARE’ campaign, online users can play around with customizing a digital ice-cream tub by uploading their food photos to the site, and add quirky lines to avoid the tub being assumed to have ice cream inside.

“It started out as a scene in the video. But it resonated so well we decided to give people the tools to create the customizable labels that would stop the feeling of being shortchanged” says David Guerrero, creative chairman at BBDO Guerrero.

Since its launch, tubAWARE’s announcement earned organic engagement roughly 30% higher than the average post, with more and more people sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and other social media platforms.

Clicks to the website have been 9 times more effective at 1.8% clickthrough rate (CTR) compared to the usual 0.2%, while a visit lasted 300% longer than the average showing, like the product, just how much of a hit this idea is proving to be.

“Pepsi is not here to tell you off. Instead, we’re here to turn those frustrations into fun,” shares Gutzee Segura, CSD marketing manager at Pepsi Philippines. She added that Pepsi wants to make its connection to the younger audience stronger and having executions that are relevant to their truths can help make the brand more relatable to this emerging audience.

Pepsi Philippines has succeeded in the past in tapping with the younger audience with their product. Just recently, they launched an augmented reality (AR) campaign where they encouraged online users to use their limited Pepsi X BLACKPINK cans to be transformed digitally as lightsticks.

Manila, Philippines – Digital talent and media company Gushcloud in the Philippines has recently signed Jason Magbanua, a celebrated local videographer known for his videography stints at well-known celebrity weddings in the country, as well as his own visual storyteller stints.

In an exclusive deal, the digital talent and marketing agency will be working closely with the esteemed videographer to represent and manage key brand deals, and to provide channel management support. Said deal is aimed at bolstering as well the talent’s digital presence and thought leadership.

With over 20 years of experience, a slew of international awards, and a strong roster of clients, Magbanua is known as well for capturing captivating video content for corporate clients and brands.

Speaking about this endeavor, Magbanua mentioned that the past year has been really challenging, to say the least, adding that events had to be put on hold and wedding shoots had to be cancelled. However, he mentioned that his passion to create was the one thing that didn’t stop him. 

“I shot and edited, and learned to master my craft – which is why I’m very excited to be in this new partnership with Gushcloud Philippines. I’ve received a ton of emails and direct messages about partnerships and representation and while all these messages were courteous and polite, none approached it the way the Gushcloud team did,” Magbanua said.

He added, “They were not only very nice people, but patient, thorough, forward thinking, and transparent. Inking the agreement was a process of relationship building and not once did I feel obliged or pressured. I’m eager to learn and create, and I’m looking forward to partnering with brands and exerting influence not just to sell but for the greater good.”

As part of the deal, Gushcloud Philippines will co-manage his personal YouTube channel where he shares his creative process, including reviews, tips, and tutorials. Magbanua also has over 314,000 subscribers on his second YouTube channel where he shares wedding films of celebrities and other couples. Apart from this, he also has over 113,000 Instagram followers and over 250,000 Facebook followers. 

“At Gushcloud, our goals have always been to create a sustainable ecosystem where brands, influencers, and content creators grow together. We’re thrilled to have Jason Magbanua onboard, to collaborate and strengthen his digital presence. Excited for him to impart his expertise, and continue to create a strong positive influence in our collective industry,” said Jamie Paraso, country director at Gushcloud Philippines. 

Aside from Jason Magbanua, Gushcloud has also signed gaming creator Yuka Kuroyanagi, celebrities Bangs Garcia, Ciara Sotto, Bettinna Carlos, Michelle Madrigal, and Patrick Garcia and family for channel management.

Manila, Philippines – Through time, the use of social media is becoming more intertwined into people’s daily lives, and is also becoming a major avenue for conversations that would benefit both consumers and brands.

On Twitter, whatever is happening, be it as grand as opening a new business or simple joys, people share it with their network, making the platform the go-to place to see the latest in culture and trends.

Research shows that there are five key trends on how Filipinos converse around food, beverages, and personal, as well as home care on Twitter. The first trend is around one’s creativity in the kitchen, which is the result of boredom of Filipinos amid the ongoing pandemic. 

Cooking and baking have become creative outlets for new skills, and part of the people’s routine is to tweet their creations, sharing their trusted food brands and their favorite marketplace. The data from Twitter also shows that Filipinos’ most mentioned retailer for packaged food is foodpanda Philippines.

Next on the list is Filipinos’ love for coffee. Conversations about this much-loved drink continue to grow on Twitter Philippines, increasing 3% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, as cafes enticed people to look for innovative ways to make a statement with coffee. And with this, Robinsons Supermarket topped the list as the most talked about beverage retailer for Filipinos on Twitter.

Filipinos also tweet about pop culture on Twitter, which helped increase the conversation interestingly around hair care. There’s a 15% increase in the tweet volume on hair care for the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, as they actively pay attention and discuss the latest hairstyles or colors being sported by their favorite idols. This made Watsons Philippines rank first as the top mentioned hair care retailer among Filipinos in the platform.

Meanwhile, Filipinos gained a new perspective on self-care during the pandemic, building up their skincare routine and Twitter has also become the top-of-mind platform to look for suggestions and tips. More than 12% in April 2021of tweets are related to personal and skincare compared to May 2021. Part of this growth is the equally progressing conversation on tackling unrealistic beauty standards. Twitter revealed that Shopee Philippines is the most talked about among retailers and providers of self-care products.

And lastly, Filipinos were found to grow fondness for tweeting about being at home, making them more attentive to their own space. As the pandemic continues, people have grown interested in home improvement to keep their homes safe and clean. They can be seen sharing their aesthetic home buys, which is mainly from Lazada Philippines, therefore ranking first as the most mentioned retailer of home care products.

Chandan Deep, Twitter’s head of emerging business for SEA, shared that people on the app and the conversations that they create are what makes Twitter unique, and 71% have rated it as a great platform for brand interaction, making it the number one among its peers.

“These people lead the conversation and are passionate to share about diverse topics such as beauty, food, and health. What makes them powerful as consumers is that they try, buy, and share their experience on Twitter,” said Deep.

Philippines – One of the largest airlines in the Philippines, Cebu Pacific, has recently announced the migration of its loyalty program ‘GetGo’ to ‘Go Rewards’.

‘Go Rewards’ is a lifestyle and rewards program of the Gokongwei group that provides its members more ways to enjoy deals and benefits from Cebu Pacific’s many partner brands.

Through the migration, the ‘GetGo’ points earned before 1 January 2020 will be converted into Cebu Pacific Travel Fund. Members will be able to use this virtual wallet to purchase new flights, add-ons, and taxes, as well as fees on the airline’s website.

Meanwhile, the points earned from 1 January 2020 onwards are converted into ‘Go Rewards’ points. One point is equivalent to ₱1 and can be redeemed in over 2,000 retail stores. 

Furthermore, under the ‘Go Rewards’, members from the Philippines can earn and redeem points from purchases in Gokongwei-owned stores such as the Robinsons Department Store, Robinsons Supermarket, and The Marketplace, as well as Shopwise, and Southstar Drug, among others. Members can also enjoy exclusive deals and coupons that they can discover via the ‘Go Rewards’ app. 

“We are excited to be part of this new and improved loyalty program where we are now able to offer more rewards and options for our customers,” said Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific’s vice president for marketing and customer experience.

Cebu Pacific said that the members with ‘GetGo’ loyalty cards may exchange them for the new ‘Go Rewards Classic’ card by simply presenting the old ‘GetGo’ card in any Robinsons Retail store, and activating the card through the ‘Go Rewards’ app to easily view the points. In addition, the ‘GetGo’ members with existing ‘Go Rewards’ membership can conveniently merge both accounts through the ‘Go Rewards’ app.

Meanwhile, the ‘GetGo’ members who are new to ‘Go Rewards’ can merge their ‘GetGo’ membership by downloading the ‘Go Rewards’ app, selecting ‘Register’, and then linking their ‘GetGo’ account. After doing so, the ‘GetGo’ number will be deactivated, and the new ‘Go Rewards’ number will be the membership account moving forward.

Manila, Philippines – Food and beverage brand Knorr in the Philippines, which is under Unilever, has recently launched a new campaign as part of Unilever’s ‘Future Foods’ agenda, aiming to fight undernutrition in the country. 

Featuring well-known local basketball player Marc Pingris, as well as two other notable individuals – a multi-awarded teacher and the first-ever Tigwahanon Manobo medical graduate – the ad highlights that their success all thanks to a combination of hard work as well as eating nutritious vegetable meals, made more delicious by Knorr’s line of products.

The ad, made by creative agency MullenLowe TREYNA, is part of the launch for Knorr’s enhanced ‘Nutri-Sarap’ Nutrition Program, which focuses on two things—education and product improvement.

Under the program, Knorr strengthens its partnership with various government agencies, LGUs and NGOs—including the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Education (DepEd), Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network, and National Nutrition Council as well as Pilipinas Kontra Gutom—to educate parents on how to prepare healthy, delicious, and affordable home-cooked meals for their families.

“The brand believes that the greatest weapon one can use in this battle is knowledge. And through its different partners, Knorr is disseminating information that empowers parents to build healthy eating habits for their kids and diversify their family’s diet, especially in areas where help is needed the most,” the company said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, Kristine Go, vice president for foods and refreshments at Unilever Philippines, commented, “We’re doing everything we can to help secure a brighter future for the Filipinos. In the past, aside from education, we were also able to sustain feeding programs that we are proud to say have really made a huge difference in the lives of beneficiaries. With the pandemic limiting our movements, our search for more ways to make nutrition more accessible led us to implement improvements to our well-loved products.”

Manila, Philippines – Cascadeo, the dedicated cloud company under Philippine telco operator Globe, has been recognized as a niche player by Gartner Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud IT Transformation Services, Global 2021, making Globe the first Philippine telco to have a subsidiary enter into the Gartner Magic Quadrant.

According to the report, Cascadeo’s strengths banked on cloud consultancy, managed services and cloud-native skills; modernization of traditional applications; as well as emphasis on strategic cloud transformation, and DevOps expertise. 

Cascadeo invests heavily in data analytics through its AIops-enabled cascadeo.io platform. The cloud management platform for cloud infrastructure analytics is one of the company’s key competitive differentiators, with its capabilities in multi-cloud monitoring; automatic system alerts; cost-optimization features; and dashboard integrations.

Speaking about the company’s recognition, Peter Maquera, CEO of Cascadeo and senior vice president of Globe Business, Enterprise Group, said that this historic win with Gartner reminds them that they are on the right track towards digitally transforming their customers.

“Public cloud deployments are vastly accelerating, with enterprises planning to maintain or increase their IT investments in the years to come. Globe and Cascadeo continuously work together to expand our base of cloud engineering skills, products, and services to help businesses achieve agility and resiliency through the cloud,” Maquera said.

Meanwhile, Jared Reimer, president and founder at Cascadeo, commented, “As Cascadeo grows through our Globe partnership, we expand our workforce of skilled Cloud engineers, architects, security experts, and operators in the Philippines. Being part of the Magic Quadrant validates our decades of experience as a premier-tier services provider centered around data-driven business transformation.”

Manila, Philippines – IdeaSpace Foundation Inc. (IdeaSpace), the non-profit organization that supports the startup ecosystem in the Philippines, has announced the 15 startups that are advancing to its ‘2021 Acceleration Program’ – a project that aims to support startups in developing stable, scalable, and sustainable businesses through mentorship, funding, and networking opportunities.

The 15 chosen startups have stood out at the pre-acceleration phase and prevailed after pitching their business ideas to a judging panel composed of executives from the IdeaSpace team and the MVP Group of Companies, along with selected investors and startup founders.

In the health, wellness, and fitness sector, online marketplace for fitness Fitscovery, fitness coaches online marketplace Splore Fitness, and online concierge pharmacy XalMeds, as well as picture exchange communication platform Pic-A-Talk will be advancing on the program.

Meanwhile, living sustainability start-ups such as cleantech company Circula Recoon, online laundry services Dirt Bag, and virtual shopping mall Oh My Genie! are also moving to the next round of the program.

Also joining the program are start-ups that promote hassle-free remote work, namely, human resource-tech-enabled solution Betterteam, long-chain referral-based job platform Pasajob, and career progression platform Xperto, as well as free smart POS platform Peddlr.io, and e-signature platform Twala.

And lastly, several e-commerce platforms will also advance on the program, including auto and motor parts e-commerce platform Pieza PH, community-supported fishery platform Fishbee, and product-centric software provider Instahomes.

These chosen startups will be undergoing a four-month program consisting of access to mentorship, workshops, and legal services, among others, and will receive a ₱100,000 cash grant. At the end of the program, IdeaSpace will be selecting three startups to invest in through its Opportunity Fund.

Katrina Rausa Chan, IdeaSpace’s executive director, said that startups in the 2021 cohort for the IdeaSpace Acceleration Program offer the solutions, the technology, the innovations, and the businesses that have the potential to propel the country forward and shape the new normal. 

“IdeaSpace has always invested in ventures with great teams and forward-thinking ideas. We can’t wait to see them scale up their businesses, help people, and create longer-lasting impact in their respective categories,” said Chan.

Meanwhile, Rene Meily, the president of IdeaSpace, shared that every startup in this cohort delivers digital-first solutions and they need that now more than ever. 

“We’ve seen the variety of the industries that these startups represent, which only goes to show that no matter your category, you will have to quickly adapt in these changing times and find ways to integrate digital in your products and services to provide relevant solutions. We are excited to see how they grow throughout the program, IdeaSpace and QBO will be with them every step of the way,” said Meily.