MANILA – The Philippine Star has partnered with Insular Life to launch Futurecasting, an internet-based project that aims to provide financial planning education to the youth.
“The Philippine Star has always been pursuing projects and producing content that serve a greater good to the market,” said PhilStar senior vice president for sales and marketing Lucien Dy Tioco.
“The country’s economic growth has spurred a new generation of young professionals and start-up families who earn more at a young age than their parents before,” he added. “Hence, the Star, as a paper that this particular generation can relate to, is compelled to advocate financial planning in a more mainstream and relatable manner.”
Insular Life senior assistant vice president Ana Maria Soriano explained that Futurecasting will be done in 12 installments and has two components: “Francis Kong’s column in the Star and a webisode uploaded on the Insular Life YouTube channel.”
In his financial advice column in the broadsheet, Kong will be tackling a specific financial issue, which will be discussed further in the 10- to 15-minute webisodes.
The webisodes will also feature case studies of people experiencing specific financial problems and taking advice from Insular Life’s experts. Among these real-life stories are a single mother saving for her child’s education, newlyweds learning to save together, a shopaholic intervention, and an OFW who wants to handle his savings wisely.
The themes that will be featured in the webisodes will cover every life stage, from singlehood, to marriage, to retirement.
“We want to make them real, so that whoever reads the columns or watches the webisodes would be able to relate to it,” Soriano said. “Sometimes you’d ask help from your peers who might not have the right financial training. This is where we enter. We can give sound financial advice backed by the company’s reputation.”
In the final episode, Insular Life president Mayo Jose Ongsingco will talk about points to consider when investing in a company. “They should watch and read from the very beginning, so they can get the most out of the Futurecasting campaign,” Soriano said.
Meanwhile, Kong said that Futurecasting is a more approachable take on finance: “Financial terms and studies have always been intimidating because you’re dealing with numbers, structures, systems and patterns. An episode of Futurecasting will simplify the complicated and make it palatable for the layman.”
He added that once financial concepts and philosophies are demystified, it can drive one to go deeper into the so-called technical dimension of finance — and this, to him, is a major accomplishment.
Both The Star and Insular Life share a positive outlook for the project. “When we broached the concept to Insular Life, they immediately warmed up to the idea. Their expertise makes for a sound collaboration between The Star and Insular Life in producing Futurecasting as a genuine and well-conceived project,” Dy Tioco shared. “Our choice in tapping Francis Kong as an anchor completes this concept because the young generation listens to him.”
“The material can multiply itself,” Soriano added. “Meaning it can be used in other events, because it’s really a tool to teach different people with different problems in financial planning.”
“It has the potential of being a game changer because this has not been tapped by other industries before,” Kong said. “And I think this has such great appeal to the new generation of Filipinos who are tech savvy and are very comfortable learning from a screen. This is perfect for them.”
Futurecasting will debut on April 28 and will run until September on alternate Mondays. Read the column by Francis Kong in The Star’s Business Life section and watch the webisode at www.youtube.com/user/insularlife.com.ph.
