MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Filipinos spend an average of 10 hours and two minutes online, the highest in the world, according to a 2019 report by We Are Social and Hootsuite.
So, to encourage them to read a book about Dr. Jose Rizal’s life, Facebook Creative Shop and BBDO Guerrero thought of bringing the story to where the Filipinos are – on social media. This is by tapping The Acid House to create a series of animations that would let people read snippets from “The First Filipino”, a comprehensive biography of Jose Rizal, by Leon Ma. Guerrero.
“Facebook Creative Shop approached us with this initiative and we worked closely with David Guerrero of BBDO Guerrero himself in streamlining the chapters and developing the proper illustrations to accompany them,” said Ivan Despi, co-founder, designer, and director at The Acid House.
“As the whole material is based on a published book, Dale [Lopez, Strategist at Facebook] already had the idea of creating these papercraft pieces for the animated illustrations.”
The idea of bringing the book to Instagram stems from BBDO Guerrero and Facebook Creative Shop’s mission to reach out to a younger audience. Despi explained that using Instagram as a platform provides the young ones with a visually-interesting way to learn more about the life of the Philippines’ national hero.
“The chapters can be divided into Instagram carousels, which are then laid out nicely on the Instagram profile grid.”
Visitors can also view @firstfilipino’s Instagram stories which feature interactive polls and quizzes, and synopses of some of Rizal’s works – Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
Those who would like to read more than just the snippets can conveniently purchase the e-book through the link on the bio.
“We see people are embracing the fact that historical content like this is given a new spin that’s more palatable to the ever-discerning younger Filipino generation,” said Despi.
Despi also revealed to adobo that they are working on other multimedia components for @firstfilipino beyond just Instagram that we should all watch out for.
