Marketing in the Philippines may be tricky, but it does have its pay-offs. The Philippines is a culture-rich market, both influenced by Western and traditional practices. Thus, a business looking to expand in the Philippines needs to adapt, research, and implement marketing strategies easily accepted by the Filipino market. Among the important factors to remember are Filipinos’ love of the internet and socialization. This makes internet marketing and social media marketing the most effective ways to reach the Pinoys’ hearts.
In 2022, the Philippine population reached 111.8 million. Among this number, there are 76.01 million internet users and 92.05 million active social media users. By these numbers alone, one can see the wide reach of launching digital marketing campaigns through the likes of YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram. SEO Marketing can also work wonders, as well as online billboards, banner ads, and influencer marketing.
Of course, knowing that this market frequents the webspace is not enough. It is important to know what values they hold dear, as well as what advertising techniques have been proven effective in penetrating the market.
In this list, we enumerated and discussed the best tips for marketing and advertising in the Philippines. If you’re looking to make your brand known in this market, then keep reading on.
7 Tips for Marketing in the Philippines ⬇️
Make them LOL: Use humor, memes, and witty wordplay on your marketing campaign
Happily Ever After: Use the power of storytelling to touch the market’s hearts
Best Offer: Give the market the best pricing, and offer sales and discounts
Keep it Short and Sweet: Utilize the trend of short-form content
Comment “Mine”: Utilize social media live streaming for online selling and e-commerce
Influencer Stamp: Collaborate with influencers who are credible and known among the market
Free and Organic: Encourage free and organic marketing through word-of-mouth and UGC
1. Make them LOL
Use humor, memes, and witty wordplay on your marketing campaign
One of simplest, yet hardest ways of catching peoples’ attention (and maintaining it) is through making them laugh. The use of witty puns, funny wordplays, trendy memes, as well as humorous content, have been proven effective in humanizing a brand.
Meme marketing is one of the subsets of viral marketing, in which a brand makes use of organic interactions and word-of-mouth from social media users. The key to a successful humorous campaign is knowing context–knowing what makes this market laugh, knowing why, and packaging the content in a relatable manner.
Take this tweet by Angkas, for example. Angkas is a motorcycle ride-hailing app which is popular for its witty comebacks and original memes. The social media handlers of the brand are well-aware of what’s trending, what’s funny, and what’s shareable.
In the tweet above, Angkas used the meme of Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants which has been circling around social media in the past years. The tweet gained the attention of many, achieving more than 18,000 likes on Twitter.
2. Happily Ever After
Use the power of storytelling to touch the market’s hearts
In an era of looking at phone screens 5 hours a day, it is natural to yearn for human connection while scrolling through the internet. The power of storytelling has been proven effective among Filipinos, in which the market appreciates online content with stories they can resonate with.
The key to creating good stories is through actually knowing what the market’s life is on a daily basis. A campaign targeting classes C and D will not be effective if, for example, the lifestyle of the characters are based on classes A and B. Another great trick is by using real-life stories for your marketing campaign. Watch this commercial by Jollibee as an example.
In this commercial, Jollibee based the video on a true story. The story starts with a man and a woman ordering the same food from Jollibee, then gradually getting closer as the years go by. The man and woman become best friends, and the effective cinematography makes the audience assume that the two ended up getting married. However, the plot twist enters when the man was actually watching the woman get married to another person.
The commercial was dedicated to those who love people unconditionally, without waiting for pay-offs. It’s consistent with Jollibee’s slogan, “celebrate the joy of love.” The video reached more than 2 million views on YouTube, and a million more on Facebook.
3. Best Offer
Give the market the best pricing, and offer sales and discounts
With the economic turmoil COVID has left the Philippines in, Filipinos have grown smarter with their spending habits.
In a recent research by ShopBack, a pre-shopping portal in Asia-Pacific, it has been found that Filipinos actually wait for monthly sales before purchasing products online. This market makes the best use of free shipping vouchers, cashbacks, and discounts. This market also thinks twice before purchasing products, making sure to research the best price for the best quantity.
This marketing technique has been used by Shopee for the longest time. Shopee’s Pay Day Sales are most-awaited by online shoppers, as well as their mid-year and end-year sales. Free deliveries and coupons are also strong purchase drivers of this market.
4. Keep it Short and Sweet
Utilize the trend of short-form content
Instagram and TikTok are the third and fourth most-used social media platforms by Filipinos in 2022. 75.7% of Filipino internet users use Instagram, while 67.9% use TikTok. The secret? Short-form video content.
The world is running faster than ever, and the younger generations find it easier to watch videos not exceeding the 3-minute mark. Scrolling through social media amidst busy schedules calls for videos which are rich in information, which only take up a few seconds of people’s time.
What does this mean for brands wanting to expand in the Philippines? This means these brands need to ride with the waves and create marketing content on TikTok and/or Instagram. May it be humorous, entertaining, or informative content, brands need to look into short-length videos if they want to reach the Gen Zs and millennials.
5. Comment “Mine”
Utilize social media live streaming for online selling and e-commerce
During lockdowns and self-isolations, the Filipino market looked for a way to shop without going outside the comfort of their homes. This led to a rise in online stores which utilize live streaming for online selling.
Facebook started the trend of live streaming, and other apps shortly followed. The secret to live selling’s success is its tangible quality. Live sellers are seen by the customers real-time, and they interact with their viewers when they read comments. Live selling also increases the seller’s credibility, because the transactions are seen by the whole world, and the sellers’ faces are seen by everyone. Basically, the whole world is your witness, and everyone’s involved. Lastly, live selling allows for the sellers to respond to queries and provide demos for the products.
Even with the Philippines slowly going back to normal, live selling remains as one of the most convenient ways for Filipinos to shop.
6. Influencer Stamp
Collaborate with influencers who are credible and known among the market
Influencers and experts belong to the top most-followed account types by Filipino social media users. The influencer industry is big in the Philippines, considering the social media penetration rate in the country. Filipinos follow influencers in their search for entertainment and quality content. Influencers, on the other hand, provide their viewers with carefully-curated posts and authentic social interactions.
Filipino influencers vary in niche, from beauty, tech, travel, food, gaming, to parenting. Influencers also vary on social media platforms used, and on target audience. A brand wanting to collaborate with Filipino influencers must know the ins and outs of the industry before choosing their influencer partner.
Take H&M for example. H&M collaborated with social media star Rei Germar. Rei has 1.55 million subscribers on YouTube, and she has established a social media presence through creating fashion and beauty content. She’s always posted H&M shopping hauls even before their collaboration. This makes her the perfect influencer for H&M’s campaign.
Influencers’ opinions are given heavy consideration by their Filipino audiences. Content creators take years to build credibility on their chosen niche. This is what makes influencer marketing effective–influencer recommendations are more likely to be believed to be true.
7. Free and Organic
Encourage free and organic marketing through word-of-mouth and UGC
Since Filipinos are avid social media users, quality content can be easily-spread through this market. Filipinos click “share” at the sight of content they find amusing or relatable.
Filipinos also love to share their viewpoints on certain topics, creating their own posts on their social media walls. 34.1% of social media users in this country go to social media to share their own opinions.
With this consumer behavior, one marketing strategy that turned out to be effective is the use of User-Generated Content or UGC. UGC is any type of content which has been organically posted by a social media user about a certain product or service. One good example of UGC is Instagram users using the hashtags of brands while showing off their newly-bought products.
UGC is highly-effective, because these are actual positive experiences of real consumers posted online. It exudes honesty, authenticity, and practicality. Additionally, it costs little to none for the brand. Brands may encourage consumers to create UGCs by giving avenues for reviews and testimonials.
Conclusion
The Philippine market loves using the internet, may it be for entertainment, research, socialization, or shopping. This made digital marketing techniques the best ways to penetrate the Filipino market. Brands wanting to bring their business to the Philippines may use internet marketing and advertising strategies.
In this list, we provided you with the best marketing tips and tricks practiced in the Philippines. These tips include meme marketing, storytelling, sales and discounts, short-length contents, live selling, influencer marketing, and the use of UGCs. We hope you were able to get a grasp of what works within the Philippine market.
We wish you the best on your business expansion in the Philippines. For more information on Philippine marketing and advertising, check the AJ Marketing Blog.
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