Robinsons’ gohotels.ph — local version of easyHotel?

It’s probably too early to tell, but is Robinsons Land trying to emulate the business model of Stelios’ easyHotel?

The company recently launched gohotels, some sort of no frills, value-driven chain of hotels, with its pilot site in Mandaluyong City.

Is Cebu Pacific to easyJet as gohotels is to easyHotel?  Let’s see where this is heading.

Getting a showbiz endorser

The boss and I are currently discussing whether we should get one (or two) local showbiz personalities to endorse our company and one of our new products.

I’ve always been a skeptic when it comes to advertising that uses borrowed interest. I mean, if your products are so uninteresting they shouldn’t be released, and, if your company has nothing of value to say or offer, then it shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Perhaps my point is that marketers should dig deeper and discover what it is exactly that people would find worthwhile in the product and/or the company. I’m quite sure that buried somewhere in all that conceptual business junk is a feature or benefit that could jumpstart a really awesome campaign that doesn’t have to rely on personalities who won’t even touch your product with a ten foot pole in real life.

If you absolutely have to use endorsers for some reason, then do so, but make sure that all the generated attention will be followed by meaningful, long-term sustaining efforts.

Enterprising cab drivers

Several weeks ago I hailed a cab and quietly settled in the backseat. I noticed that the driver immediately got busy setting up his portable DVD player (the one with the mini LCD screen) on the dashboard. I thought, hey, looks like I’m going to be “entertained” by another Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris or Jean Claude Van Damme classic. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself for a long, solid hour of wtf.

But no…I suddenly realized I was watching a mishmash of interviews, testimonials and product demonstrations specifically engineered to push First Vita Plus, another local herbal supplement. Honestly, during the first run I was quite entertained because I was trying to figure out what the video was trying to accomplish. It all came crashing down when the product was finally revealed.

Don’t worry, this post is not about the product because direct selling and herbal supplements aren’t really my thing. I was just amused that taxi cabs really took things up a notch this time. Years ago a cab driver tried to sell me tuyo, or dried fish, stashed in the trunk. Another tried to sell me little prayer books.

Cabs are already being used for advertising. I distinctly remember the Joy tissue dogs and the Modess pinwheels mounted on the roof of taxis in the metro. But this is different. I mean, could the local cab industry be another promising sales channel?

Mixed media billboards

It’s been a while since my last post. We can all blame my new job for that!

Anyway.

According to a local outdoor ad company,  they’re in the business of “making traffic more bearable since 19-something” (Sorry, i forgot the exact year. It’s probably irrelevant.) At least the company recognizes that the recent growth of the outdoor ad industry can be attributed to the horrible (and worsening?) traffic in Metro Manila. Just recently, I have seen two new video walls on EDSA, churning out mindless ads for all the bored drivers and commuters.

I’ll leave you with two interesting billboard executions that recently caught my attention: 1) the Pond’s “for annoying pimples” billboard and 2) the Modess “iwas kulob” billboard. The Pond’s billboard (see below) includes some sort of strobe light or LED lamp on the face of a model.

Pond's billboard (image from Adpunch)

The Modess billboard, on the other hand, uses a bunch of blue and green giant pin wheels to communicate the cool, breezy feeling that it wants to associate with the product. Sorry, I don’t have a photo, but I’m sure you guys have seen the billboards on EDSA and Katipunan.

How’s the traffic, by the way?

Corned Tuna slugfest: Century vs San Marino

Century Tuna, the established leader in canned tuna in the Philippines, recently launched a new product: corned tuna. Endorsed by actor/model/whatever-career-actors-in-this-country-entitle-themselves-to-have Derek Ramsay, the corned beef+tuna mashup vows to change the way we look at our favorite substitute ulam.

'Whoops, I felt that.' Derek Ramsay enjoying a sexy breakfast.

But wait, here comes a new contender rising from the depths of the brand anonymity: San Marino Corned Tuna. Endorsed by celebrity heavyweights and rumored couple(?) Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera, this aggressive new kid aims to wrest the throne of the new product category from the tuna leader. Unlike its rival, it has its own Website and markets itself heavily on the Net, via Friendster and Facebook. With the wonders of technology, you can now be friends with processed fish and its multitude of fans.

May pulutan na, may toma pa. Cross-category endorsement (San Marino + Gran Matador)

While its logo looks like Sesame Street’s and its name reminds me of a resort and a football player, the TVC plays around with the tired soap opera formula. Surfing the “Internets”, I am given the impression that San Marino is kicking Century’s tuna ass (what does a tuna’s ass look like?). According to many forums and blog posts, people seem to like its taste better. I can’t really comment further on this because I haven’t tried corned tuna yet. Shame. I promise to try both in the near future.

Decolgen: Hanga sa Hinga Contest

Local companies are now invading Facebook with their ads. Even people running for a host of government posts are trying to get into that social networking vibe by posting ads of their own. Let’s save this for another entry.

A couple of hours ago, I saw this ad in Facebook for another upload-a-video-of-yourself (UAVOY) to push Decolgen, a local decongestant owned by Unilab, a local pharma giant. Incidentally, this company also owns Neozep, the top-off-mind competitor of this decongestant. Same formulation, go figure. Regardless of which brand trumps the other, corporate is still happy.  Ahh…the power of brands.

Anyway, To join this Hanga sa Hinga contest, one must upload a video of “a person or persons blowing an object/s by producing strong wind from the nose. If using props, it’s better if the props are hidden (i.e. fan).” Imagine the possibilities. This could be hilarious.

How many UAVOYs have I seen this year? I can remember at least two. One by another pharma and another by a candy company. I don’t know if there’s still a lingering Filipino fascination for seeing one’s self on whatever type of media channel. Hey, it’s a showbiz country, right? I can only guess that the brand or marketing manager and his/her agency still used this idea to get the whole thing approved.

Personally, I’d like to see a video of someone blowing down the house of Ilong Ranger (Neozep’s mascot), ala three little pigs.

Heads-up battle: Coca-Cola versus Shell

A couple of years ago, Coke launched a brand campaign to…(well, I’m not really sure):

Every drop, mahalaga (Pic from Coke Philippines Website)

The website explains the rationale behind the “Bawat patak, mahalaga” campaign:

“…And every drop of yourself you give, you give it for a reason – to get the most out of every experience, – to live life to the fullest. The Coca-Cola Company lives to give those drops back. We provide the products, inspiration & optimism to help you get the most out of life. Whether it’s with our portfolio, our beverage education or our promise in communities and the world, we give back to help you live life to the fullest. To make every drop count.”

I never got what they were trying to communicate, but I like the materials they created.

Anyway, fast forward to August 2009. Shell launches another mileage campaign:

Bawat Patak Counts.

Shell commissioned a research agency to ask 400 random Filipinos what fuel (company) offers “better mileage”. Apparently, 85% of this small pie proclaimed their undying love for Shell. To celebrate this “victory”, the company gathered testimonials from all sorts of people and ran a series of ads in the major dailies.

A sticker campaign was launched to get the party started. Shell customers will be given special limited-edition “Every drop counts” stickers for their vehicles when they visit participating Shell stations. Partner radio stations will then spot vehicles with the said sticker, which will entitle the motorist to instantly win P800. I do not know why, but I think there’s at least one company-sponsored sticker campaign (with partner radio stations acting as spotters) in the country every two years.

So. Which company said (or used) the message better? Shell with “Every Drop Counts”, or Coke with “Bawat patak, mahalaga”?

Heineken’s Draught Keg

In my last post I mentioned Dance Heads, and now Heineken has launched an online campaign for its new, innovative draught keg based on the same concept.

I used the faces of some of my classmates to create this dance party.

I think the Heineken Draught Keg site is really wicked and well executed. The keg itself looks bad-ass. Just looking at it makes want to go out this instant and grab a beer. A really really cold one. I think they call it sub-zero here. Man, it’s hot in the Philippines.

Marketing H.A.M. Wins Business Award!

Wow, can you believe it…After being on the Web for a couple of months, the blog actually won an award! Learn more about it here:

Marketing H.A.M. Wins Business Award!

Haha. Yeah.

It’s actually a sample material produced by Messages on Hold, an Australian company, to showcase their viral marketing campaign capabilities. According to their Website, they also specialize in “On Hold messaging and professional voice productions for the telephone.”

I think it’s on the same level of cool as Dance Heads. And, like Dance Heads, its entertainment value quickly drops after a few laughs. But hey, here’s the thing, if these few laughs can guarantee at least a few forwarded links, emails, or IMs, then you already have the beginnings of a viral campaign.

For instance, I learned of this viral material from a friend who sent me a link to the same video, which of course contained his own name. I then forwarded it to my classmates in grad school, this time containing the name of one of our “distinguished” classmates. I suppose they also forwarded the same video to their own contacts as well. That’s how it works.

Question is, how do we gauge the effectivityof virals? In this case, I assume the video was forwarded to many people. Among these people however, how many actually remember the brands advertised in the video (Hilton, Qantas, Messages on Hold, etc.)

Anyhow, I am quite happy that at least marketers still try to be creative. I mean, I’ve been bombarded by really annoying email virals asking people to forward the email messages for a chance to win this new mobile phone that they are trying to launch in the local market. I won’t mention the company and its marketing staff, of course. I’m just saying they could do better.

Yahoo! Philippines Purple Hunt

I’ve been meaning to write about Yahoo’s Purple campaign.Critics smelled desperation in Yahoo campaigns like “Start Wearing Purple” abroad, and videos where its execs and founders are seen dancing and hollering, or getting hit in the face with rubber balls. Ooh. I didn’t know Yahoo! was such a fun, wacky brand.

A couple of months ago, Yahoo! Philippines launched its Purple Hunt, a somewhat interesting social campaign that apparently aims to promote Yahoo! products while showcasing bits and pieces of the country. Hunt prizes include a bunch of purple stuff, doughnuts, digital cameras, Blackberries, and so on. The grand prize is a custom-painted Honda Jazz/Fit.

According to a local blog, it’s a “social movement that ties Yahoo’s online services to promote creativity, free expression and innovation.” I don’t know what Yahoo! plans to do in this country. I’m thinking they want to boost ad revenues and they want to build some kind of localized Yahoo! portal.

I have nothing against such a campaign, I just hope that next time they launch one they should make it clear why people should use Yahoo! search instead of Google, Flickr instead of whatever site people usually upload their pics, Yahoo! Mail instead of other Web-based email services out there, Yahoogroups instead of Google groups, and so on.

If the Yahoos are actually convinced that their products are better than its competitors, then let’s hear it. They can portray themselves as “wacky”, “expressive” or “creative” next time.

And hey, bug-fixing first, theatrics later. Maybe they should create a hunt for bugs/errors and design a raffle. I already have three entries here:

Entry 1

Entry 2

Entry 3