Essay Written by: Rhea Marie Martinez
Giant billboards light up the top of buildings alongside busy highways in Philippine metropolises. Anytime anyone surfs the web, they are bombarded with pop-up windows, banners, auto-playing media, and ad clips on YouTube videos. Digital media advertising is everywhere and based on current trends, it’s only going to be a much bigger industry in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
According to a recent Nikkei Asian Review article, marketing companies and advertising agencies are set to double their spending on digital media marketing in 2017. Other news media bodies like the Philippines’ ABS-CBN might say that TV is still king, but other sectors are catching up fast.
The fact of the matter is that more and more Filipinos are spending time on the web. In a recent ‘Digital in 2017 Global Review,” for example, it was found that internet users in the Philippines spend nearly 9 hours online everyday on average. This is a huge amount of time that they are exposed to every kind of digital media ad available.
What really makes digital media marketing so compelling is how certain types don’t even appear as marketing materials. These include sponsorship videos or banners by popular internet stars, of which, the Philippines is seeing massive growths.
When viewers watch a video where their favorite YouTuber starts talking about certain products or services in the form of a review, most won’t even know that they are seeing an ad. Naturally, companies will approach this particular route with care and will often avoid internet stars who are critical of their offers. With the right messenger, however, carriers, manufacturers, and distributors could be looking at millions of potential clients.
Then there are the viral contents on the web that can be absolutely catching if given the right circumstances. With the Philippines and much of Southeast Asia being relatively new to the impulses and trends on the web, it can be easy to get swept up in new, fashionable ideas.
Certain companies have been employing marketing campaigns that absolutely took off simply because they had the right idea at the right time. Booking.com’s hit 2016 #WingItYeah campaign is one good example. Then again, perhaps there is no better example of how successful digital media advertising can be than the annual Super Bowl big-screen ads that play during half-time of the American event.
While the Philippine market is certainly still young, advertisers are already catching onto the trend. The fact that there are so many ads on YouTube about distinctly Filipino or Southeast Asian products such as the Rexona deodorant brand or certain local chips is proof of this. Then there’s Lazada, the huge online merchant giant that has quickly grown to be a major retail power in the region.
It’s not just the big companies that are cashing in, either. Even smaller entities with even a lick of financial clout can commission digital media advertisers to promote their products and services. This speaks to the option’s accessibility, and thus, its concrete position in the future of marketing.
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