MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The unprecedented disruption brought by the global health crisis has hastened the digital transformation of various brands and businesses. At a time when a significant number of people have turned to digital in order to meet their needs and go on with their lives, it has become essential for marketers to be able to tap their audiences through a more personal approach.
In the recent adobo Talks’ online discussion titled Trailblazing the New Media Revolution, thought leaders and creative professionals from different industries converged to talk about the future trends in media and how to effectively use online platforms to connect to consumers. Among them is Google Philippines’ Industry Head for Consumer Packaged Goods Gara Santos-Ontiveros who shared insights on how brands can deliver highly effective yet personal relevant ads in the new age of digital.
More Filipinos going online
Gara opened the discussion with a report that shows how e-Commerce, online media, and financial services as mainstay vectors, propelled by the influx of new digital users. She noted, “While country GDPs are experiencing some contraction, the digital economy is experiencing robust growth.”
This data is based on the latest e-Conomy sEA 2020 Report that reveals that 40 million people came online for the first time this year. Locally, 37 percent of all digital service consumers were new and came from non-metro rural areas, with 95 percent intending to continue their behavior post-pandemic. Filipinos have also been staying online for an additional 1.2 hours, compared to its average of spending 4.0 hours online pre-COVID–this is the highest in the SEA region. Finally, the report also saw that e-Commerce in the Philippine grew at 55 percent this year.
This consumer shift spells more opportunities for brands, especially with online audiences who are not only browsing online, but are actually consuming and purchasing digitally. What brands need to watch out for is how they can tailor-fit their ads during these times and reach their consumers on a more personal level.
People spend time on things they love
Users are loyal to their own needs and wants. As an example, YouTube has seen Filipinos turning to online videos to entertain themselves and satiate their curiosity especially during the pandemic, with a continued growth in diversity of content. The platform has reached over 40M viewers aged 18 and above in the Philippines alone, and 50 percent of this came from the 18 – 34 demographic.
Watch time on the platform has grown by over 50 percent, with Filipinos fueling their passion points and showing increased watch times for various interests such as gardening, art, gaming, fitness, and knowledge videos. There are also over 1,750 channels locally that have 100K+ subscribers which show a diversity of profiles and genres, including farming and education among many others.
“This presents a lot of opportunities for brands. If they know how to compellingly articulate their brand purpose and strategically communicate with their audience based on passions and contextual cues in delivering ad impressions, they can really win in the battle arena of consumer attention,” said Gara.
Market to someone, not everyone
The increase in watch times for various genres mirrors the diversity of the consumers’ passion points and digital media gives advertisers various avenues to speak to their audience in a targeted and less interruptive way. Gara Santos-Ontiveros shared, “With digital, you can orchestrate your media delivery to be attuned to audience signals. Marketers can explore responsive creatives in delivering brand messages, which is key to that sought-after consumer attention.”
Personal relevance translates to ad effectiveness
While ads aim to be more direct to purchase, advertisers should not lose the value of storytelling. With the pandemic challenging production capabilities, creative hacks have proven to be as effective and as distinctive as big productions. Along with the right use of technology, brand stories can be delivered in a more intimate and personal way through reimagining existing assets, reinvigorating animations, and exploring creative editing.
“In this growing digital world, signals are the lifeline to communicate. Unfortunately, demographic signals are among the weakest signals; brands need to tap into people’s psychographics–their passions points, habits, life events, and values they uphold while respecting data privacy,” Gara shared.
According to Google’s Unskippable Labs team, three different ads are more powerful than the same ad seen three times. Advertisers should take advantage of tools, minimize the chatter, tune in to the signals, and uncover the stories that they can tell. Instead of over indexing what brands can and can’t communicate during the pandemic, marketers can focus on solving problems that didn’t exist before to add value to their consumers.
Watch adobo magazine’s livestream replay of Trailblazing the New Media Revolution here.
