Photo by Shannon Potter on Unsplash
In today’s diverse media landscape, there’s more than one way to market your brand and tell your story.
But there’s a new challenge, one that’s unique to our decade: handling a web of marketing.
Let me explain. Decades ago, it was enough to be featured on the morning paper. Then the radio came into the scene, then television, then the internet. Before the early 2000s, it was enough to have at least:
- A newspaper feature
- A billboard
- A radio feature, or
- A website into the space of the internet
Today, that’s not enough anymore–especially in a culture that thrives on relationships, social harmony, and trust.
For businesses to survive in the Filipino market, one’s PR team must have an omnichannel web of marketing tactics where you take a customer on a journey. And in this journey, the pit stops (from website to store) have to be woven into each other.
And yes, you need a PR team for your story. But not just any PR team. A PR team that can weave the web of your story through Integrated Marketing Communication, or IMC.
The heart of PR is being a playground of marketing tactics. Here’s how to weave that web, and why it matters doing it with a PR and IMC agency.
How to Weave Your Brand’s Web
1. Start with One Core Narrative, then Message
In writing, don’t start with the first chapter. Start with your core (your company’s values, who your products/services are for, etc.) then build your narrative from there.
Successful PR (and IMC) teams begin this way: with a single story (often drawn out with a concept map) anchored in authentic brand values—be it quality, empowerment, accessibility, or advocacy.
An Example:
NGP‑IMC’s advocacy campaign with non-profit organization Jhpiego and MSD for Mothers is a great example of this: at its core, the partnership believed that maternal care in Sorsogon improves with a strong support system.
This core, in turn, weaved into a program that aimed to build strong support systems through a referral system. Because of how remote the project was, any campaign for awareness NGP IMC did had to be more traditional than digital.
So, NGP IMC went back to tradition: connecting with people from the grassroots. They used an interconnected approach, too. Rather than focus on just Sorsogon, they took advantage of their strong, vast connections to stakeholders and beneficiaries–eventually being able to reach as far as Bicol.
Had the campaign only focused on small press releases (and not created a web through IMC), there would’ve been less Filipina mothers in fewer places getting maternal care faster. You can read a press release about the program here.
2. Use Stories Instead of Hard Selling
Filipinos value narratives steeped in emotion and everyday relevance, or just funny stories–or both! Filipinos thrive off of smart, informative content that can also resonate with them.
A salesy, cheesy ad also turns so many Filipinos off.
PR and IMC Tip: Leverage Local Context, Cultural Nuance, and Creativity!
While it’s true that many Filipinos still prefer media from other cultures, I think it goes without saying that you still have to be attuned to Filipino culture to connect to a Filipino audience.
Campaigns that are heavily rooted in Filipino culture resonate longer. For instance, Gigil’s award-winning commercial with RC was an adventure on its own. It starts out with the familiar teleserye drama of a child discovering that he’s adopted, then going home to cry to his mother. Emotional, with everyday relevance.
Then the boy takes his uniform off and has 4 empty glasses on his back. His mother then takes off her head to show her actual head. An RC bottle.
Smart. Unexpected, and absolutely surreal. No “buy this”, or “try that.” Just a really strange yet endearing story that is still memorable five years later!
3. Amplify Through Multiple Channels
In this phone-addicted yet community-oriented country, campaigns have to harness both PR (traditional, as well as earned media) and digital channels to maximize reach.
This form of IMC ensures an omnichannel approach where everyone tells the same story through different mediums (TV, radio, social media).
But it has to be consistent, too. You don’t have to post everyday, but managing multiple channels can be time-consuming. A PR and IMC agency would ideally do the creating, the polishing, the scheduling and the execution while leaning on you for the campaign’s story and vision.
PR and IMC Tip: Start with One
- Start with one channel first, then expand your web based on whichever works. Cross-posted content and complementary messaging, with consistency, increases brand recall, but at a reasonable speed.
4. Add Real Value—Not Just Branding
What’s in it for your Filipino audience?
When your story shifts its lens to educate, inform, or simplify another person’s life, people will listen.
Filipinos respond to actionable advice, but here are some recently popular niches to explore:
- food
- pets
- travel tips (for young adults)
- beauty (especially for female audiences)
- wellness hacks (for young adults),
- parenting tips
Can a hardware store cater to parents? Yes–with tips on building a kitchen playset for children. Or a doghouse. There’s value in creativity! PR and IMC agencies know this sort of value well.
5. Maintain Consistency!
Oh, and did we mention consistency?
It sounds like a broken record, but the best results emerge from consistent messaging across time.
In short, show up. Deliver. Do it steadily.
PR and IMC agencies thrive because of consistency. It matters because integrated campaigns can last for years, too–as was the case for Shell.
NGP IMC has worked with Shell for over 20 years through the power of consistency. So when Shell had their Eco-marathon project, NGP IMC went straight to work, generating PHP 100,000 in PR value through consistent messaging across three platforms and events.
Weave Your Web, Make Your Story Matter
Long story short: start with your core, shift your lens, and slowly weave it into a bigger web.
It has been said over and over that Filipinos value sincerity, culture, and relevance. So much so that even gratitude cards can be a successful campaign. If you want your brand to succeed with Filipinos, start with heart.
Better yet, work with a PR and IMC agency who can.
NGP IMC has worked with big brands (such as Shell and 51Talk) as well as smaller brands for years–across so many industries, with so many stories. If you want to work with an agency who understands heart, they work with heart–both emotionally and literally.
Kriztin Cruz is a recruitment and digital marketing professional, freelance writer, hobbyist painter, and frustrated sociologist–with too many things to want and too little time to spare. She graduated with a Psychology degree in 2019 at De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde Antipolo. When she’s not drafting a corporate letter or working on anything digital marketing, you can find her doing the following, but not in this order: reading a good book, scavenging for a good book, sketching, painting, journaling, junk journaling, obsessing over an obscure Czechoslovakian surrealist film (or anything by Miyazaki or Del Toro), cooking, finding a cafe to relax in, and creating new things while a nice documentary plays in the background.