Tag: Philippines

Manila, Philippines – As e-commerce continues to be a crucial part of today’s retail framework, Shopee in the Philippines has launched a new webinar series called ‘Shopee Thursdays’, that aims to offer in-depth discussions about online selling to support the growth of MSMEs in the country. 

Done in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the webinar series consists of masterclass sessions that seek to equip existing and aspiring online entrepreneurs with the right digital tools and information to operate effectively in the e-commerce space.

‘Shopee Thursdays’ started running on 3 June, with its first session ‘Attract Buyers with Powerful Product Listing’. This was followed by the second session ‘Engage and Sell with Livestream’ on 10 June.

The third session, which is slated for today, 17 June, entrepreneurs will be given advice on how to better manage shop operations, inventory, warehouse processes, and employees, while on 24 June, the masterclass session will focus on the potential of data and how entrepreneurs can use it to improve their shop’s performance. 

Shopee Philippines’ Director Martin Yu commented that they are excited to partner with DTI to equip MSMEs with the proper knowledge and skills to thrive in the e-commerce space.

“As many entrepreneurs transition to online platforms like Shopee, it is important that they learn the basics of online selling and maximize the e-commerce space to its full potential. We will continue to collaborate with DTI to support MSMEs in their e-commerce journey to success,” said Yu.

Meanwhile, Jean Pacheco, the assistant secretary at DTI, said that every business is essential for the Philippine economy to prosper, which is why they want to support them in any way possible. 

“With leading marketplace platforms like Shopee, we can reach more people who want to expand their business and learn more about e-commerce. It is an honor for us to work with a company that prioritizes the local community and we will keep on partnering with organizations like Shopee, to uplift Filipino entrepreneurs,” said Pacheco.

Manila, Philippines – To mark the Philippines’ 123rd Independence Day, which is celebrated on 12 June, fast-food giant Jollibee has launched a new campaign called ‘Pusong Pinoy’, which in English translates to ‘Filipino heart’, with the aim to celebrate the ‘Bayanihan Spirit’ – a Filipino concept of communal work, discourse, and cooperation to achieve a common goal.

Done in collaboration with advertising agency McCann Worldgroup Philippines, the campaign’s centerpiece is a heartwarming and empowering song that captures the said Filipino qualities. It is composed by songwriter Thyro Alfaro and is brought to life by popular local singers Sarah Geronimo and Billy Crawford.

In addition, the campaign’s music video was directed by local filmmaker Paolo Villaluna. It features snapshots of inspiring Filipinos demonstrating the ‘Bayanihan’ spirit such as, healthcare workers battling in the frontlines, common citizens doing simple acts of kindness, and everyday people who lead donation drives to provide food and other necessities to those in need.

McCann Worldgroup Philippines’ Associate Managing Partner Mitzie Lim-Nacianceno, shared that the film and song were designed and crafted to show how Filipinos are able to spread joy and hope to their fellowmen, through every difficult situation they have faced.

“This is made more relevant by featuring real Filipinos in our film that are making a difference for others despite this pandemic,” said Lim-Nacianceno.

Meanwhile, Arline Adeva, the assistant vice president and head of brand PR, engagement, and digital marketing at Jollibee Philippines, said, “We hope this song can be an anthem of hope and celebration, make us proud of our being Filipino, and encourage all of us to be daily heroes for one another.”

The ‘Pusong Pinoy’ campaign is already available on the official Jollibee Philippines Facebook page and Jollibee Studios Youtube channel.

Manila, Philippines – A well-known occult classic in modern Filipino literature, and dark fantasy and crime horror comic series ‘Trese’ received more hype when streaming platform Netflix announced it as part of a new original series stemming from Asia on 8 November, 2018. Originally penned by Budjette Tan and illustrated by Kajo Baldisimo, the series debuted last 11 June, with six episodes officially released on the streaming platform.

The anime-influenced TV series follows the story of Alexandra Trese, a healer-warrior who plays the role of a mitigator between the real world and the supernatural one. She is often summoned by the police to solve paranormal cases within Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Throughout the series, Trese faces various entities and challenges within the paranormal world, all of which are based on Philippine paranormal folklore.

On the days leading to the debut, the Philippine arm of Netflix worked constantly on a slew of campaigns to promote the series, all embodying the paranormal theme that awaits for newly-found fans and viewers to enjoy.

‘Vandalized’ by the supernatural?

On 6 June, Netflix Philippines posted several photos on their social media pages, begging the question ‘What kind of monster would do this?’, to which the pictures depicted the promotional banners and billboards for ‘Trese’ to be seemingly destroyed and vandalized with phrases such as “Siyudad namin ito! Layas!” (This is our city! Get out!). Even the digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH) for ‘Trese’ also ‘glitched’, bearing the aforementioned phrases. 

Soon, netizens took notice of the pictures, and noted various instances across the country, from Metro Manila, Batangas, Cebu, and Davao.

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Said ‘vandalism’ act is one of the marketing ploys created by local-based independent creative agency GIGIL, who played upon the story’s lore of monsters who are constantly taking over key cities in the fictional background of the storyline.

“Our billboards all over the country started getting vandalized, apparently protesting Trese’s arrival. Social media, and the actual media, went into a frenzy. We turned Trese into a huge national moment, and ultimately giving this for Pinoy – by Pinoy – about Pinoy title the recognition it deserves, all in time for Independence Day weekend,” said Stef Pajarito, country marketing manager at Netflix Philippines, on his LinkedIn post.

The following day, 7 June, Netflix Philippines ‘unveiled’ the culprits of the ‘vandalism’ by sharing videos which are purportedly ‘shared’ by organic social media accounts. The videos ranged from a ‘tiyanak’ (a Filipino mythological vampire creature that takes the form of a child or toddler) or a ‘manananggal’ (a Filipino vampirical creature taking the form of a winged creature, in which the upper torso is only present). Turns out, said ‘videos’ were also produced by GIGIL for Netflix Philippines.

A ‘not-so-live’ concert experience

The primary soundtrack of ‘Trese’ titled ‘Paagi’ was composed by well-known Filipino indie pop band Up Dharma Down or more known as UDD, and popular for tracks such as ‘Tadhana’, ‘Oo’, and ‘Hiwaga’. And in tribute to the upcoming debut of the first episode of ‘Trese’, Netflix Philippines and GIGIL collaborated in launching a virtual concert experience, which was streamed exactly thirteen minutes before the debut.

Due to the existing protocols in the country regarding large-scale gatherings, the virtual concert campaign was launched with the premise that audience members upload their videos on the website tresenotaliveconcert.com. The twist on this campaign is that the submitted videos are recorded using the Instagram filter provided by the QR code on site, which transforms the videos into ‘ghost-like’ edits, an allude to the paranormal nature of the ‘Trese’ series.

The ABS-CBN, BusinessWorld, and The Philippine Star campaign tribute

One of the well-known fictional organizations in the ‘Trese’ franchise is the media network ABC-ZNN, which is a play on the real counterpart, Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN.

On 11 June, Netflix Philippines launched another marketing stunt campaign that seemingly plays on the incident that ‘Trese has taken over ABS-CBN’. In the pictures, the facade of the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center was draped with the logo of the ABC-ZNN, covering the metallic logo of ABS-CBN which is prominent in the building.

The same was also done with the facade of ABS-CBN’s ELJ Communications Center in Quezon City, which also shone the words ‘TRESE’ spelled by the window lights, as another tribute for the debut episode of ‘Trese’.

Other media outlets also showed their support for ‘Trese’, with broadsheet dailies BusinessWorld and Philippine Star publishing a front-page report narrating an incident of a ‘dead white lady’ or a well-known paranormal entity in Philippine horror who are commonly wandering souls, on Balete Drive, a well-known street in the Philippines to which the tale of the ‘white lady’ is more popular. Said fictional newspaper story alludes to the first episode of ‘Trese’ where one of the main characters, a policeman by the name of Captain Guerrero, discovers the incident, and the first scene where Trese is first introduced to crack on the case.

‘The biggest campaign we’ve ever done’

Speaking about the execution of the project, GIGIL Senior Art Director, JR Bumanglag, stated that they knew from the very end of their briefing with the client that they wanted ‘something to pop out’, yet the challenge remains: how do you bring an animated series to ‘life’?

“We realized that, as ‘Trese’ is coming, everyone is excited. It’s a [series] that every Filipino can be proud of, there are places on the show that people [will recognize]. But as everyone was excited, Trese’s enemies on the show weren’t. So how do we give them that voice and how do we [make people feel like] the monsters were real? So we used the billboards as the venue to express that idea,” Bumanglag stated.

Meanwhile, Nova Novido, account manager at GIGIL, expressed the large scale of the project, noting it is the agency’s biggest project to date.

“I’m pretty sure that our team is very ‘gigil’ and we wouldn’t stop here. But there will be future campaigns that will hopefully be as grand or even grander as Trese. But at the moment [the Trese campaign] is one of the biggest things we’ve done [so far] and we’re really proud of it. The attention that this has caught in public, [and I’m proud] that our team was able to produce it for such a well-loved comic series and Netflix,” Novido stated.

In its first week, Trese made it to Top 1 position in Netflix Philippines, and Top 10 in 19 other countries on Netflix. The show practically took over Philippine social media, as it has been trending online and receiving overwhelming praises from fans. On Twitter alone, it was the Top Trending Topic for a week.

Manila, Philippines – To commemorate Pride Month this June, creative agency Dentsu in the Philippines has launched TheUnlimitedLoveLanguage.com – a website that aims to teach people how to appropriately converse and speak with people from the LGBTQIA+ community – one with respect and sensitivity. 

We’ve come so far in terms of where the society stands towards the LGBTQIA+ community, with different platforms adapting their views and stands to become a more inclusive community. We have been seeing governments declaring the first-ever LGBTQIA+ officials, and also bills being passed for the greater good and welfare of the community. 

In terms of the baseline on the other hand – the everyday conversations and dealings we have with people from the community – there is still so much to learn and be more of. Companies and even common individuals have taken it upon themselves to practice the appropriate use of pronouns in accordance with a person’s identified gender – but there is so much more to it. On Twitter, we hear normal people and celebrities alike still share incidents of microaggressions, and this is what dentsu Philippines aims to solve. 

‘The Unlimited Love Language’ website presents a list of various hyperspecific statements often heard among people when conversing with those that identify as LGBTQIA+. Examples are “I support lesbians. But why do you look like a normal girl?” or some Tagalog statements like “May boyfriend ka? Respect, pare. But I have to say ‘di ko akalain. ‘Di ka naman mukhang bakla!” which in English, translates to “You have a boyfriend? Kudos, bro. I have to say it doesn’t look like it. You don’t look gay!”.

When visitors click on each statement, they will be directed to an expanded explanation of why such is a microaggression and provides insight on how it ought to make an LGBTQIA+ individual feel and what can be said instead if one wants to send across their ‘unlimited love’.

The website is Filipino-dedicated with a mix of English and Tagalog statements. On the right, it translates, “So you are apparently a lesbian? Good for you! But sucks for us guys. It’s a pity, you’re beautiful.” Just one of the examples of microagressions thrown at lesbians.

In addition, the website also provides free Zoom or video call backgrounds for people to further show their support to the community.

Dentsu Philippines’ Connections Strategy and Research Lead Roki Ferrer shared that about 48% of LGBTQIA+ people experience some form of discrimination within the family.

“People think that not being bluntly homophobic makes them supportive. But tolerance is not acceptance. That’s why we need to condition people’s minds towards unconditional acceptance by heart,” said Ferrer.

Meanwhile, JC Catibog, the country CEO at Dentsu Philippines, commented that they believe that true acceptance is only possible when there’s empathy, that is why showing how LGBTQIA+ people feel, and having a two-way conversation is so important. 

“As our own Dentsu Consumer Vision 2030 trends show, sexuality and gender will soon be less determined by birth. Hence, if we aren’t already, we need to start learning how to love unlimitedly,” said Catibog.

The website is now live and provides an option as well for people to be ‘teachers’ of the love language.

Philippines – The pandemic flipped everything on 360 degrees, and to look at the current rankings of the top companies in the business sector is to view it from a whole new perspective. Market research firm Euromonitor International has recently released its list of the top companies in the retail industry in Asia for 2020, and in the Philippines, a majority of those that were leading the in the year 2019 are still the ones that reigned in 2020.

Out of the 10 in the list, the top five all registered steady growth in sales in 2020, retaining their standings from the past year. SM Retail, which holds a nationwide portfolio of department stores, supermarkets, and specialty stores, still came out as the leading firm in the sector. It was followed by pharmaceutical company Mercury Drug, with grocery retailer Puregold Price Club coming out on the third spot. Meanwhile, another giant in retail, Robinsons Retail Holdings, registered neither a drop nor an improvement in sales as well, landing the top fourth spot, while specialty store group Seven & I Holdings rounded the top five. 

Top retailers in the Philippines

Three of the top firms, which are also all international companies – beauty and wellness AS Watson Group, China-based Alibaba Group, and Shopee’s parent company Sea – all recorded improvements in sales landing the 6th, 8th, and 9th spots respectively.

Meanwhile, local grocery retailer Metro Retail Stores Group was shown to drop sales in 2020, with international home retail Wilcon Depot also demonstrating the same movement in sales.

SM Retail, which registered $5.4b in sales in 2020 came out as the 9th leading retailer in the Southeast Asia region. For the region, Tokopedia took the crown with $11.7b in total sales for the year. 

Meanwhile, for the whole of Asia, it was China’s Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com that were named as top firms. 

The pandemic remains to be the biggest determinant of the rankings, where the lockdown in the Philippines had become one of the longest globally, which started in March of 2020, and is still presently in reinforcement. According to Euromonitor, this affected the way people chose to fulfill their essentials, where mixed retailers were the worst hit, with consumers opting for specialist retailers, presenting a convenient way to obtain what they needed in stock. 

With people cooped up at home, the current situation panned out greatly for e-commerce, and this showed with Shopee’s parent firm Sea registering an increase in sales. According to the report, the category had already been growing at a double-digit pace pre-lockdown but this was accelerated in 2020 with people maximizing the ease of online retail. 

An interesting growing trend in 2020 in the Philippines is community stores, or stores that are situated in nearby communities and neighborhoods. These existed prior to COVID-19, and the increase in popularity can be attributed to the presence of Alfamart, a minimart that is a hybrid between a supermarket and a convenience store. 

Alfamart is a chain of convenience stores from Indonesia, with over 10,000 stores across Indonesia and the Philippines. Euromonitor said the concept increased in relevance in 2020 as consumers looked for the most convenient ways to complete their shopping trips, with the trend expected to continue further.

Manila, Philippines – Live-streaming platform kumu in the Philippines has welcomed a new chief product officer, Crystal Widjaja, the former chief of staff and senior vice president of growth at Indonesia’s Gojek.

Currently, Widjaja is the entrepreneur-in-residence at e-learning company Reforge. Prior to joining Reforge, she led a team of engineers, analysts, and product managers in Gojek, and was responsible for growing orders from 30,000 to over 5 million per day. 

In her new role, Widjaja will be leveraging her extensive experience in helping startups with growth, data, and strategy, alongside bolstering the platform’s overall product strategy. 

Commenting on her appointment, Widjaja said that she is honored to join kumu and take on its mission of building the largest participatory social network in the world. 

“For us, the ultimate goal is to be there and provide authentic connections when you’re bored, lonely, or feel disconnected. I’m thrilled and inspired to see how we become a larger part of the world’s everyday life, and the friendships we make along the way,” said Widjaja. 

Meanwhile, kumu’s Founder and CEO Roland Ros commented that they are absolutely delighted to have Widjaja as part of the kumu family. 

“With our commitment to building kumu as the best place for content creators to engage and scale authentic communities, we believe she is the transformational partner that we need to get to the next level,” said Ros. 

Rexy Dorado, the president and co-founder at kumu, said, “Our people are the most important part of kumu. With this new wave of world-class leaders, we believe we can build a product and company that raises the bar not just in the Philippines, not just in the region, but the entire global community.”

Just recently, the platform has just also announced the appointment of Alex Tshering, the new chief growth officer.

Manila, Philippines – As part of its Asia-Pacific campaign, soft drinks brand Pepsi and creative agency in the Philippines BBDO Guerrero have teamed up in a latest campaign that transformed Pepsi’s soft drink cans into light sticks bearing the colors and figures of popular K-pop group BLACKPINK.

BLACKPINK was unveiled as the brand ambassador in the Asia Pacific region in January this year, following thereafter the launch of the limited-edition Pepsi cans that bore each of the group’s members images namely Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa.

The campaign, launched through augmented reality (AR), is activated through a custom Instagram Stories filter, where the cans transform into the Pepsi BLACKPINK Light Sticks—giving every fan a chance to finally own a light stick and cheer for their favorite girl group.

It also comes with its own K-pop music, so fans could wave their light sticks and dance like they’re in a BLACKPINK concert. Thousands of Pepsi cans lit up during its launch, lighting up the spirits of all BLACKPINK fans stuck at home.

Pepsi-Blackpink-Campaign-BBDO-Guerrero-1

“When we announced BLACKPINK as Pepsi’s newest brand ambassador, we wanted fans to have the full fandom experience especially at a time where concerts aren’t the way they were before anymore. We’re very happy that BBDO Guerrero was able to deliver this,” said Mikey Rosales, marketing director at PepsiCo Philippines.

Said campaign has garnered 2.56 million engagements on Instagram, attesting to BLACKPINK’s massive popularity among its fanbase in the Philippines, one of the biggest and most passionate K-pop fandoms worldwide. 

The campaign’s launch also has a functional facet, resolving the issue of donning light sticks which are an essential part of any K-pop concert-going experience. Normally, a real commercial light stick costs at least US$40, a price most fans can’t afford. 

“We’ve seen more opportunities open up in the digital space as we went into lockdown. And this Instagram filter is something that our team developed to show how existing technology can be made into something that our clients’ fans can enjoy,” said David Guerrero, creative chairman at BBDO Guerrero.

This is not the first time Pepsi has utilized AR technology for its other campaigns, as its Malaysian arm recently partnered with Entropia EXR to to launch a concert in a Pepsi bottle, which featured Malaysian singer and actress, Siti Nordiana (Nana), together with the winners of its #PepsiBoldTalent TikTok challenge.

Manila, Philippines – With the taboo belief of consuming alcohol and tobacco products now vanishing due to the open acceptance in our modern society, the alcohol and tobacco industry has since thrived in the Philippine market, as media intelligence company Isentia notes in its latest report how the so-called ‘sin’ products are perceived in the social media space.

In the bigger realm of the alcohol scene, recent buzz about alcohol drinks can be attributed to the rise of brand endorsements represented by K-pop artists and K-drama personalities. For instance, when South Korean beer brand Kloud Beer announced that K-pop boy band BTS were to represent the Lotte Chilsung-affiliated brand, Filipino ‘ARMYs’ or BTS fans took to social media to express anticipation for the announcement.

Isentia notes that a total of 1,761 social buzz was recorded on 15 April, the day the brand ambassadors were announced, and a total of 1,362 social buzz on 23 April when Kloud Beer released a short promotional video showing all of the members of BTS.

Social buzz pertains to the keyword or ‘trend’ frequently mentioned by social media users in a day. The social buzz used by Isentia are based on their existing Isentia Workspace, as well as Google Trends statistics.

Aside from garnering a high traction in April, the keywords ‘chicken and beer’ also dominated the social media space, possibly attributed to the well-known chicken combination of ‘chimaek’ which is a colloquial word of chicken and ‘maekju’ (beer in Korean).

“Considering the current health crisis and the rapid changes in consumer behavior specific to the industry, it is important now more than ever to not just be aware but have the numbers to back decision-making in communicating brand messages and fortifying the brand-to-audience relationship. It is not enough to know the issues. Knowledge gained from observing buzz peaks, determining breakout conversations, and deciphering social trends equips brands with data they can use to maximize media space they exist in,” Marla Edullantes, senior insights analyst at Isentia Philippines, said.

Veering away from the K-pop spotlight, local alcohol brand giant in the Philippines San Miguel Corporation (SMC) also gained positive traction this April following its recent CSR initiative on funding the historic cleanup of the Pasig River, a well-known river in Metro Manila. Said initiative gained praise from netizens, with some users even jokingly saying that they will support SMC’s positive efforts by ‘buying and consuming beer’, as well as ‘buying all of their available products’.

Despite these ‘glowing’ notes, the alcohol industry is also a facet for backlash among Filipino netizens.

One notable case was a community pantry located in Muntinlupa City in Metro Manila that gave soju, a popular Korean alcoholic drink, as part of what people can get for free. The negative flak was heightened due to the fact that the initiative was set by the ‘Sangguniang Kabataan, a local equivalent of a youth-oriented civil organization. According to the netizens, despite the heightened popularity of ‘soju’ due to prominence in K-drama shows, there is still a line as to who the target audience be, and it makes sense that youth members are still not allowed based on age restrictions.

Another notable case is the sentiment shared by Brett Tolhurs, president of the Wine Depot, who commented that Filipinos are not drinking the right wine pairing for the tropical season. His suggestion of pairing ‘lechon’, a well-known Filipino delicacy of slow-roasted pork, to be paired with rose wine, was met negatively by Filipinos, criticizing him for his lack of awareness on the Filipino pairing scene.

“What brands can leverage from this is that spokespersons should be able to balance commentaries without coming out with sweeping generalizations that could trigger netizens to veer away from product consumption and instead focus on personalities representing the brand. By mining data-driven insights, brands should be looking at not only how positive or negative the discussions are, but also the manner how their audiences engage with them and their stakeholders,” Isentia said in a press statement.

For cigarettes, there was a notable theme from consumers that smoking after intercourse is something that they do. This sharing of behaviors and experiences is something alcohol and tobacco industry players could look into in terms of user-generated content to bolster ideas in content marketing, advertisements, and promotional sales.

Another pairing people mentioned by netizens is no surprise: cigarettes and coffee. Similarly, these suggestions can open doors to co-branding that could benefit both brands from different industries.

“It is vital for brands to have a good grasp of the trends and consumer behavior in their industry. Given the alcohol and tobacco brands’ defined customer base, looking into the digital public’s organic conversations relating specifically to their industry may cull out fresh and data-driven ideas that will help in deciding how to improve the brand’s appeal to their intended audience,” said Kate Dudang, insights manager at Isentia Philippines.

Manila, Philippines – As more and more Filipinos are using digital banking services, a large part of this new breed of users are now also showing a heightened interest in exploring the use of biometric-authenticated payment systems, a latest study from digital payment company Visa shows.

According to the study, awareness on using these types of digital payment services rose to 80% in 2020, in contrast to 60% in 2019. Furthermore, around 8 in 10 among Filipinos showed interest in biometric-authenticated payment systems, with a greater inclination to the younger and tech-savvy generation demographic in the country.

Biometric payment is perceived as a quick (62%) and innovative (61%) way to pay. In addition five in 10 Filipinos (55%) think it is a more secure way to pay. However, usage is low at 23 percent since its accessibility depends on market availability. 

Finger scan as one of the biometric authentication methods is most popular amongst Filipinos (59%) especially for making bill payments or purchases at the convenience stores. This is followed by facial recognition (31%) and retina scan (16%).

“As more digital-based solutions and trends emerge in the market, Filipinos are more open to new innovations that make payments and banking more convenient, accessible and seamless. There is opportunity in the country for traditional banks and new players to launch digital banking services in the country that will better serve the needs of underserved and underpenetrated segments,” said Dan Wolbert, country manager for the Philippines and Guam at Visa.

The study also noted that over eight in 10 Filipinos (83%) are aware and interested (81%) in using digital banking services. However, only 32% of respondents are currently using services offered by a digital bank. Top interest drivers for Filipinos to use digital banking services include access to banking services anytime of the day (68%), time saved from not having to queue at bank branches (68%) and convenience (67%). 

The general status quo of the Filipino digital payments scene

The study also showed that Filipinos are most keen to work with a financial services brand for digital banking services (93%) and traditional banks (92%), followed by new start-ups with digital banking services (72%). 

Filipinos interested in banking with digital banks are keen to use services such as paying bills (84%), transferring money locally (78%), making deposits and withdrawals (76%), and making payments for purchases at local retail locations (71%). However, the preference of using digital banking for traditional bank services such as investments (52%), international transfers (48%) and loans (46%) is lower.

In addition, 86% of Filipino respondents would switch current banking services to digital banking services if the bank provided better rewards and 85% would do so if they can benefit from lower costs for their banking transactions. Filipinos’ interest to use digital banking services increased to 80% compared to 70% in the previous year when the same research was conducted.

“We believe this will transform the banking and payments landscape in the country and at Visa, we are keen to work with all our partners to help them create better user interface and experience when they create and enhance their digital banking solutions,” Wolbert added.

Manila, Philippines – As the Philippine arm of e-commerce platform Lazada celebrates the middle of this year, they have recently appointed Philippine actor Alden Richards as its latest brand ambassador, which coincides with Lazada’s upcoming ‘6.6 Mid-Year Sale’ happening from 6 to 8 June.

Richards, who is recently signed as an actor to Philippine media network GMA, is best known for his multiple roles on Filipino television, including as on-screen partner of Philippine actress Maine Mendoza on the popular TV segment ‘Juan For All, All For Juan’ on noontime show ‘Eat Bulaga’. Aside from his roles on TV series such as ‘Ilustrado’, ‘Victor Magtanggol’, and ‘Destined to be Yours’, he is also a recording artist, entrepreneur, and online gaming streamer.

“I am very grateful to be a part of the Lazada family. I had the opportunity to work with them for their Birthday Super Sale last March, and I loved how everyone was just so excited and engaged. I’m definitely looking forward to this year’s 6.6,” the actor stated.

Meanwhile, Neil Trinidad, chief marketing officer of Lazada Philippines, commented, “We are half-way through the year and as we kick-off our 6.6 Mid-Year Sale with Alden, Lazada wants to turn this shopping festival into an opportunity to re-ignite hope and inspiration. We hope that our customers will continue to celebrate making it this far and finding ways to thrive during a very challenging time.”

Richards joins other local brand ambassadors of Lazada in the current lineup such as local actress Kathryn Bernardo, Philippine pop group SB19, and social media star Mimiyuuuh

The upcoming Lazada 6.6 Mid-Year Sale will allow shoppers in the Philippines to join, play, and stand to win ₱10m worth of vouchers and prizes on Lazada’s ‘6.6 Game-Game Super Show! 6.6 Sa Premyo at 6.6 Sa Saya’ this 5 June at 10:15PM, which will be livestreamed on LazLive on the Lazada app and GMA Network, and will be hosted by the whole lineup of Lazada Philippines’ brand ambassadors.