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MANILA – Globe Telecom, the 6th largest advertiser in the country, has decided to pull out of print and out-of-home advertising and reallocate its ad dollars into digital.
“We made the decision to exit some traditional media, but not the important stuff that we think about. We at Globe no longer advertise in print, we at Globe have made the decision to exit outdoor. As a matter of policy, we are taking those media and we are piling it into digital,” Globe consumer business group head Peter Bithos said at the launch of Globe’s mobile advertising platform.
According to Bithos, Globe – which spends 60 to 70 million dollars yearly on advertising – reallocated its ad dollars over the last three years after seeing the need to measure the ROI on their advertising spend.
“I started realizing this as what kept coming up through the brand campaigns were the same media plan: we’ll do this amount in outdoor, we’ll do this amount in print, we’ll do this amount on TV, and that’s what we did last year, and that’s what we did the year before that, and that’s what we did the year before that. This was not a path to improve ROI for our business,” Bithos explained.
“And what we realized, what I personally realized, is it takes a bit of top down leadership to say you know what, if we’re gonna change the way we’re doing things, if we’re gonna change the industry, if we’re gonna change the ROI on our investment, we need to do two things: firstly, we need to take some top-down choices on what we’re going to do, and we’re going to make sure that the bureaucracy knows that we’re actually changing something in the ecosystem,” he said. “And secondly we’re gonna have to measure that. Because we have to know if we’re doing it better.”
Bithos said Globe made the decision to focus their media mix on digital not only because it is more aligned to the nature of their business, but also because it is a more measurable medium.
“The ad dollars that we buy do not increase, but we’re shifting the least measurable and the most speculative media, and the least aligned with our customer segments at least, into digital, into a space where we can measure it, where we can grow it, where we can improve it,” Bithos said.
Despite pulling out of print and out-of-home, the Globe head mentioned that they will continue to advertise on other traditional media such as TV and radio.
“We will complement the important things that we do, the primetime TV, the great radio DJ spiels, the mass market stuff that really works, and we’ll complement that with measurable, innovative [ways],” he said.
He also challenged media agencies and buying groups to be more creative in their executions.
“Yes we’ll do Google, and yes we’ll do Facebook, but we need to do innovative stuff that makes us stand out that when customers see an execution for Globe, they’ll go Wow! No one’s ever talked to me that way. That’s what we as a brand need to be known as,” he said.
