Last Saturday AlDub, the phenomenal segment of Eat Bulaga, shattered local (and maybe even regional and global) Twitter records as they recorded over 25M tweets for the hashtag #ALDubEBforLove in less than 24 hours. This was truly an unprecedented feat in the history of social media in the Philippines. The big question now on everyone’s mind is how does AlDub keep doing it?
There are four critical factors that deliver the tweets and quite possibly even the ratings for the program.
#AlDubNation: Organized and Not Just Rabid Fandom
The fans of the show have organized themselves into a massive alliance consisting of various geographies all over the world. There are specific Twitter accounts that are considered leads for cities and countries (for OFWs). These accounts have thousands of followers ranging from 20,000 to 50,000. When a final hashtag is agreed upon, all of these “lead” accounts kick-in and they all work in unison to support the show. On the part of the program, Eat Bulaga effectively harnesses and builds on the momentum by constantly featuring the fan made content and doing a regular “Tweet Report” live during the show.
The #AlDubNation is what every politician should aspire for when it comes to setting up their digital political machinery. Organized anarchy unified by one vision and boiling over with emotion and fervor. As someone who is immersed in digital, politics, and the show, this writer can’t help but call this phenomenon a thing of beauty.
The Cast and Crew Fell In Line to Support AlDub Online and Offline
During the IMMAP Summit, Jenny Ferre, SVP of TAPE Inc. (company behind Eat Bulaga and AlDub), shared that more than an accident, AlDub was an experiment. The experiment definitely worked but while a lot of people just see the magic of the leading couple, Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza, it’s how the entire cast and crew of Eat Bulaga fell in line to fully support the show that made the big difference and made it sustainable.
From a digital perspective, the supporting celebrities on the show act like “generals” on Twitter. They keep tweeting non-stop during the show, prodding the #AlDubNation to keep pushing and reacting to what’s happening live on the program. Most notable is Joey De Leon who is one of the most retweeted and favorited Eat Bulaga mainstays on Twitter for AlDub. In fact, during the rise to 25M he was constantly encouraging and thanking the fans until the end of the day.
They Go Where the Viewers Are
Most networks host all of their videos and materials on either their own website or exclusively on YouTube. Regardless if it was accidental or intentional, the move to upload all of the episodes on Facebook was pure genius. In the age of “Free FB”, this allowed their content to be viewed by more people. Facebook is also probably prioritizing giving more exposure to videos hosted on their site.
One look at the uploaded videos on the Facebook Page of Eat Bulaga is the proof of the success. The videos have millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes and shares each.
The Killer App? It’s still their Content
Ultimately what powers this engine is the content that the show provides to the viewers. The writers continue to produce episodes that put elements of love, music, humor, and authenticity into a melting pot which after reaching the right temperature, fires rainbows, unicorns, and butterflies all over causing people to #KiligPaMore and to share and tweet.
It’s a Winning Formula From Any Angle
In digital parlance, AlDub was able to build the four core pillars of virality: content, relevance, distribution, and availability. They have emotional content that’s rooted in Filipino culture and tradition. They have a massive distribution and an ambassador force spread across the world. They have royalty-class digital influencers in the form of their cast and crew. Lastly, their content is masterfully repurposed for social and available on all the platforms that matter.
If you are in digital marketing and advertising and you haven’t made time time to watch a few episodes, you’re missing out not just on a great show. You’re walking away from a goldmine of lessons in story-telling in the digital age, Pinoy style.
About the Writer: Carlo S. Ople is the Managing Director and Partner of DM9 Digit, the digital advertising arm of DM9 JaymeSyfu. He is also the founder of Unbox.ph, one of the top technology and gadget websites in the country.
