MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The COVID-19 pandemic ushered disruption within the industry—yet the most remarkable marketers are the ones leading their brands with resilience and courage, as they rise above the times and usher innovation and creativity in their strategies and decision-making.
adobo Magazine presents Meet the Remarkable Marketers: A CMO Series 2021, where we feature some of the most fearless, agile, and exemplary brand leaders as they provide inspiration, insights, and key learnings that have shaped their business —from surpassing industry benchmarks and launching creatively effective campaigns, to initiating best practices as they navigate through uncertain times.
With over 14 years of marketing experience at Procter & Gamble, Kristine Tang has shown sharp foresight and fearless leadership—beginning her career at P&G Philippines, Kristine took on a regional role in Singapore, where she was responsible for growing P&G Fabric and Home Care billion-dollar brands across the region.
Now back home as Vice President of Marketing for P&G Philippines, Kristine has risen to become a prized Filipina talent. She talks to adobo about leading her team in a tumultuous time, merging her global and local sensibilities for truly memorable and award-winning campaigns that educate and inspire Filipinos.
What has been the most disruptive part of the pandemic cycle in your role as a marketer and what did you have to immediately address to fortify your brand’s foothold in the market?
At the start of the pandemic, we had to pivot fast from our previous face-to-face consumer interactions and in-home visits to a virtual set-up. That was a dramatic shift as we used to learn a lot about our consumers not just by talking to them but also by observing them. But the pandemic taught us to learn a new way of connecting with our consumers via virtual observations and interviews. This fast pivot allowed us to identify and focus our efforts on the re-emerging trend of health and hygiene. We launched new products and campaigns that built on our brands’ cleaning and hygiene equity. An example of this is our partnership with DOH’s Bida Solusyon, Bida sa Bahay campaign, featuring Safeguard, Ariel, Joy and H&S, which espouses families to also be responsible for practicing key home hygiene habits to help keep their homes and families safe.
In terms of marketing budgets and brand investments, what were the shifts you made in terms of marketing efforts and media channels to reach your digitally-connected, at-home customers?
We continuously monitored the evolving media and purchasing habits of our consumers and adapted our marketing efforts accordingly. Beyond the traditional media, new media and eCommerce platforms have emerged which we partnered with actively. Some examples of our recent campaigns that bring to this life include Whisper’s #HingaLangGirl which broke category taboo among Gen Zs across YT, FB, IG, Tiktok and Twitter.
Another example is Downy’s Bye Bye Bahayrus campaign which re-ignited fabcon usage and relevance for indoor clothing via digital mass edu-tainment. Our P&G and DOH BIDA Solusyon, BIDA sa Bahay music video online delivered critical safety messages while perking up viewers during shock of the first ECQ. This campaign was recognized for effective brand-building during the pandemic in last year’s PANATA Awards, and was the only one to win across all three Gawad Pandayon categories for Courage, Authenticity and Creative Effectiveness. Most recently, spearheaded by Safeguard, P&G also ramped up our SAFEwash program which promotes proper handwashing by partnering with DepEd and Manila Water Foundation. On top of our P&G Force For Good CSR efforts, Safeguard also donated over Php 100 million worth of support to build handwashing facilities in schools and high-traffic public areas.
To realize your need to manage this cataclysmic shift, what do you expect from your partner advertising, media, PR agencies and how does this differ from the pre-pandemic period? How are you structuring for the uncertainties ahead?
This pandemic has significantly impacted the way we and our advertising, media and PR partners worked. We had to be prepared to have production delayed during the tougher lockdowns and we had to ensure we have a safe working environment for everyone. This also meant that we had to be more creative in shooting our celebrities and artists in their homes when they felt uncomfortable going outside. This made us more flexible and resourceful in figuring out ways to complete the work, deliver the brand objectives, while ensuring everyone stayed safe.
Intelligence, insights and real-time data gathering is essential to your marketing decisions, more so than any other time. What are you on the lookout for?
We are constantly looking for new ways to connect and engage with our consumers. With face-to-face consumer work still unlikely at this time, we are hungry for innovative ways to talk to our consumers, understand their evolving needs and designing to delight. While real-time data has been so important to see the trends, nothing beats spending time with our consumers, talking to them and understanding what are the drivers of their behavior.
Your thoughts on the surge of brand purpose and cause-related advertising to an often skeptical consumer.
Brands that talk about their purpose would ring true if the cause is inherently linked to their longstanding brand equity. For instance, when Ariel talks about its #WelcomeHomeSafe campaign, it’s rooted in the brand’s long-held superiority and cleaning equities as well as its proven superior performance. It was credible then that Ariel would be the laundry brand that can offer a higher level of clean that would protect our country’s essential workers. P&G had started transforming itself to be a “Force for Good and a Force for Growth” even before the pandemic, hence, it was also natural that in amid the pandemic that P&G leverage its scale and platforms of its iconic brands to lead positive action and lead hygiene habits education.
Do share some of the campaigns and case studies to showcase your brand efforts that exemplify creative effectiveness.
BIDA Solusyon, Bida sa Bahay was rooted on music marketing with the “BIDA sa Bahay” song and music video aiming to educate and empower Filipinos at the onset of the pandemic, create easy safety and hygiene message recall, and spread positivity especially in the early days of the pandemic when all the ads were fearsome and somber. This is the kind of partnership that successfully supports a worthy cause and drives brand equity because of its creative effectiveness. As mentioned, this campaign was recognized during the pandemic in last year’s PANATA Awards, and was the only campaign to win across all three Gawad Pandayon categories for Creative Effectiveness, Courage, and Authenticity. Apart from P&G airing it on our own media spots, the DOH also used the asset on their own media placements, social media, and events.
Downy Bahayrus was a mass-edutainment campaign aimed at educating consumers that Downy keeps away unwanted “Bahayrus,” which causes malodor in our home. In contrast to BIDA solusyon, Downy’s challenge was to re-ignite fabcon relevance to consumers who saw fabcon as something extra when they were just generally staying at home.
What are the greatest work and life lessons you have learned from the past year?
I learned the importance of empathy both at work and with my personal relationships. With the suddenness of how the pandemic disrupted our lives, everyone is going through something at one point or another—it may be a deadline to meet, a child who is doing remote learning or a family member who is unwell. We need to imagine ourselves in the shoes of the person we are interacting with and hence, act with kindness and compassion. The more we practice empathy, the less unnecessary tension we create around us.
How do you foresee 2022 and what do you anticipate will be the emerging trends? Do you feel ready to take it on?
I am optimistic that things will continue to open up slowly as the pandemic becomes endemic. As things open up, new consumer habits will again emerge—be it the still-uncertain consumer who will continue to seek safety reassurance, the exuberant consumer who wants to go out-and-about or the take-it-slow consumer who will have situational needs. It is an exciting time to be a marketer as we understand how these seismic changes will impact the future consumer psyche and needs.
On wellness, how do you take care of yourself and find that white space in this all-consuming, digitally-connected new world? Give us a few tips.
As a mom with two young kids, it is easier for me to switch off. The kids force me to. They are always excited to spend time and do activities together after a day of remote learning for them and remote work for me. Once the kids ask me to read books, play with them or tuck them into bed, they have to be 100% of the focus. My eldest is now at that age where he calls me out if I hold my phone during our quality time
I also make it a point to have downtime with my husband before bedtime. He and I talk about our day (even though we are now 24/7 together) just to share funny stories or unpack some of the challenges we encountered. Talking to each other helps us to unwind, plan and generally make each other feel better.
