MANILA – In a metropolis where traffic can feel like a never-ending telenovela, and where the only way to combat drama on the road is a healthy sense of humor, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA)—working with multi-award winning integrated marketing agency McCann Worldgroup Philippines—has found a creative way to engage citizens and drive awareness for its new, No Contact Apprehension policy: “hugot.”
“Hugot” is a Filipino word that means “to pull from.” In urban parlance, it has come to mean,“pulling from deep emotions” and is usually associated with heartbreak, loss, rejection, and bitterness.
And in the MMDA’s new website, MayHuliBa.com (which literally means, “Is there an apprehension?” or “Have I been apprehended?”), motorists can now check if their vehicles have been tagged with a violation under the new policy, by typing their plate numbers on the search form.
If the answer is, “Meron (There is),” users will get the date, time, location, and nature of their respective violations. If the answer is, “Wala (None),” users will get any of the hundreds of witty, hugot-laden comebacks that are stored in the website’s database.
The quickest route to the Pinoy’s consciousness
According to MMDA Chairman Emerson Carlos, “The website not only answered the people’s demand for a query system, but also, in the process, the use of ‘hugot’ lines tremendously boosted MMDA’s awareness campaign of the No Contact Apprehension Policy.”
Manny Fernando, Chief Experience Officer of McCann Worldgroup Philippines and Managing Director of MRM//McCann Manila, McCann’s digital arm, says of the project: “By monitoring public sentiment on social media via social listening, we were able to spot an a need that existed because of the forthcoming launch of the MMDA’s ‘No Contact Apprehension Policy.’”
“This policy was meant to add efficiency to law enforcement as far as traffic violations are concerned. We saw an opportunity to add another layer of efficiency, through the website, and offered to collaborate with the MMDA as our way of responding to the public’s call,” Fernando adds.
On the day of its launch, May 5, 2016, various news media and blogs reported not only on the No Contact Apprehension Policy and the website; what caught even more media attention were the hugot lines that people received when they entered a search. Users also took to social media to express their appreciation for the online tool.
Cutting through clutter traffic with pop culture
The website proved to not only be efficient, but entertaining as well. At the time of its launch, MayHuliBa.com was able to cut through pre- election clutter and post-election chatter, by appealing to Pinoys’ quirky sense of humor, by referencing pop culture, and by developing adapting spiels that were relevant to national events and ongoing social media conversations.
Understanding user experience for maximum effectiveness
Fernando points out, “For us at McCann, what mattered on top of the utility and the efficiency of the website was the user experience. Will its intended users have a positive experience with the site? Will they remember it enough to keep checking for violations—which is the overarching objetive anyway? Will it at least relieve some of the burden and anxiety that people were expressing earlier on social media, before the website was created?”
Chairman Carlos explains: “We were trying to find out how we can better serve the people, because the ‘No Contact Apprehension Policy’ is not a program to apprehend violators but a program to change the behavior of motorists. One way of doing it is through an information campaign—for them to know that there are people being apprehended while being entertained by hugot lines, and they’ll pass the information on from one person to another. They’ll soon see that there arehugot lines because there’s a program from the MMDA, and this program is aimed at changing the behavior of the people.”
“The more people know about this program, the wider the behavioral change we can effect. In the end, what we want is for there to be no more positive hits—and, therefore, apprehensions—on the website. Once we achieve that, we would’ve achieved our purpose,” Carlos adds.
Carlos also underscores the importance of understanding user experience in measuring the success of the program.
“How do you know that our work was effective? You should know how the people feel. Feedback should come from the users themselves; we should know what they are experiencing,” he points out.
Based on initial user feedback, it looks like the website did strike a positive note among the public. Since its launch, the website has received over 700,000 inquiries from over 350,000 unique users. Social media comments ranged from people sharing information the website, to thanking the MMDA for having such a tool, to expressing their amusement over its overall approach and, of course, the hugot lines.
McCann Worldgroup Chairman and CEO Raul Castro adds, “As the largest digital agency in the Philippines, we felt that we had a responsibility to contribute, in our own little way, to building solutions to everyday problems by doing what we do best. We use insight, creativity, and relevant technologies to address public needs in ways that are effective, but more importantly, in ways that are meaningful.”
“We are grateful to the MMDA for having given us this opportunity to serve our motorists in this capacity, and we thank the public for providing us valuable feedback on this website,” Castro says.
