Personal finance is such an essential and crucial part of our success, and yet not everyone has access to content to help build one’s financial literacy. This is the goal of Home Credit, the consumer finance company, in the Philippines when they recently launched the ‘Payo Para sa Life’ (Advice for life) radio program.
Together with Manila Broadcasting Company (MBC) and independent media agency PraXis, Home Credit launched an on-air radio program on local radio station DZRH that aims to share useful learnings and insights for financial literacy.
Sheila Paul, Home Credit’s CMO in the Philippines, sat down with MARKETECH APAC to share more about its rationale and concept.
The program airs at the very early morning timeslot of 4:00 to 5:00 am and this is because they are specifically targeting market vendors, farmers, fisherfolks, public transportation drivers, and security guards, who are already up and running at this particular hour.
Why this group, Paul said, “At Home Credit, we really believe that we should focus on the grassroots level when it comes to financial literacy, [and] the same with financial inclusion, mostly these are [the] sectors that get neglected or [are] underserved.”
“Definitely, we want to focus on the class that is very hardworking. In fact, they [have] to get up super early in the morning to be able to do their jobs and travel somewhere, and that’s definitely when they have the time to listen to the radio,” she adds.
At a time when newer media formats have sprung up–such as podcasts– some would say that radio is a slowly dying medium, but Paul said that it is about finding the right channel for their target audience.
“Through our media studies, we still see that radio listenership is quite high, especially in the remote areas. And although digital platforms, as well as internet penetration, have expanded over the last few years, still, only 50% of Filipinos are able to access the internet daily, so their main source of news and information, as well as entertainment, is still the radio, especially in the said sector,” said Paul.
Watch and listen to the full interview with Paul, which is now streaming on Spotify and YouTube.
In the conversation, Paul further imparts her insights on the current financial industry, specifically the growth of BNPL services, and shares the broader state of the financial literacy of Filipinos and the role that consumer financial services like Home Credit play in their financial success.
