MANILA, PHILIPPINES — It’s been a busy couple of weeks for local brand Orocan, one of the Philippines’ oldest providers of plastic products (i.e. plastic containers, plastic cabinets, etc.). This is in light of the sudden popularity the Orocan Koolit Cantina has received due to its uniquely honest advertising that has taken the country’s distinctly humorous and meme-obsessed populace by storm.
Conceptualized by independent agency GIGIL, its overly truthful campaign turns advertising in on its head as it goes all out in persuading onlookers to buy its product. The usual persuasive voice of advertisements have been put inside a box, a pleading voice replacing it, begging the Filipino people to buy the Koolit Cantina. No endorser, no sugarcoating, and no soft selling — just the cold hard truth.
Despite what advertising experts would say, subtlety, purpose, and storytelling does nothing for this campaign. It presented its truth in self-deprecating form, and the public has fallen in love with its vulnerability and wit, resulting to a 24.5% surge in sales since its launch in October according to the company itself.
Nothing might catch the attention of Filipinos more than dry humor, especially the huge percentage that spends majority of their time online, usually using memes and fail videos as currency to connect with other another. This is obvious in the number of organic shares the campaign film has garnered since its release (over 140,000!).
Richard Go, Ashlar Industrial Corporation, Sales and Marketing Manager, shares his thoughts on the campaign: “For me, it’s an ‘anti-advertising’ advertising campaign. It’s so risky because we irreverently showed the benefit of our product—a durable insulated water cooler. The creative concept proved to be effective and was worth the risk because the campaign went viral on social media. More importantly, Cantina sales have increased by 24.5% after the campaign was launched,”.
GIGIL and Orocan has populated several spaces with ads that practically begs to be noticed — from billboards, to Google Search, to banners, and to old school commercials — that has made the campaign successful in terms of virality and resulted sales.
