One of the biggest names in Philippine media is that of ABS-CBN. Famed for its television broadcasting, ABS-CBN is a merging of two broadcasting companies that has made its mark on Philippine media history. As competitive and creative the network is, with the digital age coming into play, their strategies and techniques had to change. With the advent of this new form of media, every other form of media must make up for this expansive and ever-growing digitization
It is because of digital media that traditional media platforms are threatened and challenged by the changing tides. This challenge, though, can be an incredible indicator of whether or not traditional media forms will be able to last as they adapt and improve themselves to fit the times.
One must be living under a rock if they did not notice the buzz all around the viral Jollibee advertisements that came out a couple of weeks ago. Jollibee released a series of videos released both online and on television. The videos were not your typical advertisement, they were short films with a very heart-wrenching or touching story that, of course, featured a certain Jollibee product.
The short videos were an instant viral. The video itself garnered over 900,00 views on Youtube and ‘Jollibee’ became the number one worldwide trending topic on Twitter. People everywhere shared them all over Facebook, as well. The audiences were moved as they cried, laughed and got kilig along with these videos that tackled love in all its forms. For an entire week, people could not get over the Jollibee advertisements. Not even Jollibee anticipated the amount of reactions and attention their videos received. There were a lot of tears and a lot of anger expressed all over social media. People expressed their emotions through tweets, posts, and, of course, memes.
Photo grabbed from Raphael Phoebus Ubales
The success of the Jollibee advertisements was more than a marketing ploy, it was also a wake up call to everyone who works at traditional media companies, one being ABS-CBN. This was yet another proof of the evident rise of digital media. Jollibee hardly had to promote their videos because the video itself did all the work for them. It was through people’s shares, retweets, and reactions that the Jollibee advertisement gained its audience - it was the audience who did all the promoting for them. This was the kind of success and advertising that media companies everywhere desire.
It is for this exact reason that Bombet Orteza, an account manager for television in ABS-CBN, expressed both his fear and awe of the very much talked about Jollibee advertisements. “Mahirap talaga for us [traditional media] to cope with social media,” Orteza admits. He believes that social media poses a huge threat and challenge to traditional companies, especially in terms of advertisement. For Orteza and his colleagues in traditional media, they believe that digital media has a lot of advantages, “Penetration is easier on social media.”
However, Orteza also claims that the emergence of digital media has also encouraged traditional media to keep up and to become even more creative with their marketing strategies and outputs. Traditional companies are now also utilizing social media to their advantage; ABS-CBN came out with iwantTV, an online platform wherein they broadcast their Kapamilya programs and movies.
Traditional media companies also use social media platforms to campaign and promote their programs. They make sure to create pages on Facebook and Twitter to reach their audience online and also post promotional materials that will garner more viewers and supporters.
Orteza says that the Jollibee commercial phenomena was not the first of that type, he mentions the “Karen” commercial done by McDonald’s a long time ago. To him, this was what inspired advertising companies everywhere to start creating heartfelt, creative and, as Orteza placed it, “may kurot” commercials for this is what truly makes an impact on the Filipino audience. “Dapat creative [in order] to reach your audience and to communicate your message.”
With these changing times comes new competitors. Media organizations that do not fit into the mold of the traditional media forms. These competitors are those born and bred for the digital age. Digital media organizations have grown in number and style as the platform allows for a different kinds of media to be featured on it.
One of these organizations born of the digital age is Our Awesome Planet (OAP).
Our Awesome Planet is a travel blog focusing mostly on the Philippines and ASEAN countries. It was founded by Anton Diaz in January of 2005. Since then, it has received thousands of followers through newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, and Google+ (“About Our Awesome Planet”, 2014).
Though the travel blog was born in the digital age, it experiences its own set of challenges in the media industry as well. One of their writers, Abigail Javellana, mentioned how one of the biggest disadvantages of using digital media to head their organization is the negative response from online users. According to business consultant, Miranda Morley, “...digital media can spread bad information about a business just as fast as it can spread good.”
But just as there are disadvantages in the medium, there are also advantages. Javellana notes that, “The biggest advantage is it’s very accessible for everyone to share information you need. It’s has a big market with a wide reach.”
Because of the different ways digital media handles itself, Javellana noted that the best way to measure success is through one’s following, their influence, and their engagement with their audience.
In terms of competition, she said, “The blogging community actually aren’t ‘madamot’ when it comes to sharing information, in my experience I feel that we help each other out. But if you want to be one step ahead of the game you should be updated with the latest social media platforms and trends online.”
When talking about the future of of digital content and distribution, her immediate answer was videos. “It’s the age of video. Video content is the future. Gen Z are the generation who are into youtube and video content (A. Javellana, personal communication, February 24, 2017).”
Javellana admitted that OAP hopes to tap into the future digital media through of videos, as “For now, we are trying to crack youtube, our videos work for Facebook but not in the other. So that’s something we need to fix.”
With this in mind, it is clear that no matter the type of media, every form faces its challenges. Some bigger than the others, but a challenge no less. Thanks to the digital age, all forms of media have had to adjust to the fast-paced, easy information giving forms of digitization. Hopefully, both forms find a way to improve media in general and continue to inform and entertain the public as effectively, honestly, and efficiently as possible.
References
“About Our Awesome Planet.” (2014, September 19). Retrieved from
A Countdown(Up?) to Learning: The 5 Takeaways From PUBLISH
1) It isn’t easy, but it isn’t difficult!
The first thing I learned about Digital Media is that it isn’t as easy as posting on Facebook. It requires careful strategy and marketing skills and a lot of planning from the media team. At the same time, it isn’t as difficult as needing a team of highly specialized marketing analysts to tell you what to do. Sure, you need to research (probably a lot), but with the way the internet is used today, you can probably find whatever you need online or find experts to talk to online. So, Digital Media Publishing isn’t easy, but it isn’t all that difficult, too! You can do it yourself today
2) It’s relational (PEOPLE MATTER!)
The next thing I learned about Digital Media is that people matter. What your audience wants to see, their preferences for time and visuals, it all matters. Digital Media is a very people-oriented platform in that it needs an audience and contributors. It runs on people. Sure you can post without the aim of having an audience, posting just for yourself--but then you’d be missing the point of digital media, which is to reach a wide range of audiences through the digital space.
3) It’s fast (#FlashFeels)
Digital Media is fast. It’s almost as fast as the Flash! Hundreds of millions of emails are sent every minute and thousands of Facebook posts are being posted as I type. At times it can be a little disconcerting how fast information is being put out, but it can also be kind of comforting knowing that everything can be accessed in just one click.
4) It can build and break you
One of the biggest lessons I learned is that Digital Media is life changing. The story of the woman who lost her job really struck me because it was a careless comment--she probably didn’t think twice about posting it, and yet that single tweet made her lose her job and change her entire life. Digital Media can be an incredible tool to lift others up, or tear people down. It can literally build or break you.
5) It MATTERS!
DIGITAL MEDIA MATTERS! The whole term taught me how powerful digital media is. It can change lives in both negative and positive ways. It can help give jobs and even improve economies. It makes lives easier and the world more connected. It matters because, though it has its negative points (just like every other form of technology and innovation), it can also be used to do incredible things to improve the world and our societies. It matters and it will matter for as long as the internet and digital world exists.
3 Points to Improve On:
1) Fast with no breaks or time to digest
As informational as the lectures are, there is little to no time to digest everything we’ve been taught. I love the activities at the end where we blog or tweet about what we learn, but I think it would be much better for learning if these activities were put in between the lecture. Say, after half an hour or an hour of lecture, we would be given time to tweet or post about what we learned from the class, so that we can digest everything we’ve learned from that half and share it without forgetting the details that could really have been important.
2) Activities
More activities! the opening activities are really fun and most of us really enjoy it. Even without a prize, I think it would be great to have more activities like the Pictionary game in between lectures or after it.
3) More speakers
I loved hearing from our speaker this term and was sad that we weren’t able to hear from the last one. I think it’d be great to have some more speakers (aside from the two) in class so as we can understand the profession better and be able to learn about the real-life job experiences and what to expect.
For me, the best exercise I did for the class is probably the finals exercise that we did in groups. I think it’s the best because it really felt like a digital media publishing activity, having to find an audience and get one. It was definitely difficult, but it was also really enjoyable and a great learning experience as we got to know how to market better along the way. I only wish we were given more time for it (even if we were told about it from the start of the term!) because I think we could’ve done more and better if we did.
And finally, what would I want to do, if I could do it all over again? I guess I’d like more activities that teach me how to navigate through digital media. As much as I loved the lectures, I’m a kinesthetic learner, so I learn better by doing things and participating in them. I just think that I’d love to be able to do more while learning at the same time
Food and People. Two ordinary things that, together, can make extraordinary moments.
As these two things are bound to be an important part of an individual’s life, we ask ourselves, “How does food affect our everyday lives?” We here at Sining Gang believe that people have amazing stories to tell when it comes to the food and the people we get to encounter in our everyday lives. Food is also another thing that most people love to post or share online. However, we believe that we can bring something deeper to the audience rather than just normal food posts so we decide to connect people through food.
Sining Gang is a page that combines food with interesting and personal stories. It aims to create a community where people share special memories and experiences brought on by food. It is a space full of laughs and tears, wherein both good and bad memories are celebrated. We encourage people to share their sweet and even bitter encounters with food.
We know that nothing brings people together like food.
Where else would be the perfect place to start our #FoodStory adventures? With the help of the internet, we used Facebook to kickstart our concept because we believe that Facebook has the ability to reach a wider audience. Anyone and everyone is on Facebook and people do not want to go any farther to find quality content. Other than accessibility, we also chose Facebook for its wide variety of possibilities; it could contain text posts, gifs, photos, and videos. Since we aim for relatability, the stories all came from real life events, shared by friends and strangers with Singing Gang.
Whether through videos, photos, or GIFS, we began to create posts that would hopefully entice people to like our page and to create an audience. We made strategies such as using the #FoodStories, sharing our content with different groups such as DLSU Profs to Pick, and also sharing our posts in our personal accounts in order to increase the number of people we reach.
Through the process we learned to adjust to our audience’s wants and needs and found certain ways to make our content more interactive.
We noticed that our videos easily got more reach than our text posts with pictures/GIFs. Our videos had an average reach of 7,367 compared to our photo posts which garnered an average reach of 1,496. We also realized that sadder, heartbreaking stories seem to bring out a stronger reaction from our audience.
It’s with this in mind that we started shaping our newest video and text-posts.
Initially, we only expected to reach around 1,000 to 3,000 people. But in the end, our total reach was 19,600+ and we garnered 347 Facebook likes on our page. Our highest post was the Sisig Episode posted on April 5; it garnered 4,087 views and reached around 15,500 people and 89 viewers reacted by clicking the like, heart, and sad buttons.
Sining Gang achieved far more than we expected and we hope that others will be inspired to share their own #FoodStories because of what we have started. People commented things such as “Bakit ang sakit?” or “I’M SO EMO.” One said the post was cute and added a heart emoji. Most people reacted with sad face emojis and anger; the one that struck the most was the one person who said “Bakit kailangang manakit ng page na’to?” A lot of people were able to relate so they tagged their friends just to remind them of certain events. The feedback we received was all honest and heartfelt; our posts were able to connect people through our relatable content. Whether we made our audience laugh or cry, what mattered is that we made them feel.
Men Are More Romantic? Their Wallets Seem To Say So!
According to an analysis by Poder.IO, men spend more money on gifts than women.
The average man is said to spend around $210 on gifts, which is more than $80 compared to women.
Men are spending more than women on Valentine’s gifts!
But does this mean that men are more romantic than women? According to Poder.IO, an artificial intelligence company for marketing and customer behavior prediction, men spend almost 65% more than women on Valentine’s day.
But it’s just money and materials, right? This doesn’t prove anything, does it?
Poder.IO’s analysis says that men prefer to give jewelry on Valentine’s day, preferring shining diamonds and gleaming gold over red rose bouquets and romantically planned dinners.
Women, on the other hand, spend around $127 on their significant others, with jewelry as one of their favorite gifts as well.
Men also seem to favor clothes as a gift, spending an average of $112.71 on clothing. Those who are more money savvy usually choose gift cards around $106.
The study also revealed that aside from gender, age also plays a big factor on those who celebrate one of the most equally loved and hated holiday of all time.
Poder.IO found that 64.3% of people between the ages of 35 and 34 celebrate Valentine’s day and spend around $213 dollars, as well.
So, to answer the question, are men more romantic than women? The answer is simple. We can’t tell. But what we can tell is that one of the reasons men buy more than women is because of the marketing strategies used.
In an interview with Poder.Io’s Co-Founder and Vice President of Global Sales and Partnerships, Diego Paramo noted how, “With the help of Artificial Intelligence, the analysis of important spots in the customer journey is easier and more effective. This aids retailers and marketer to know the key moments of their users, allowing them to be in the right place and time to sell.”
In fact, being one half of a couple makes you a target for these brands to seize your consumer thoughts!
Paramo explained how, starting from the last week of January, “from the moment people finish buying Christmas gifts, they start thinking about Valentine’s, that’s why, starting all Valentine’s marketing actions by the 3rd week of January is key.”
Original Article: Men spend more than women in Valentine’s, are they more romantic?
So what do you think? Do gifts make the romance in a man?
Since PUBLISH class will focus on teaching more about Digital Media, I expect to learn a lot about website making and managing, as well as the different styles I can use to improve a design. I hope to learn more about how you can expand your networking and reach through Digital Media, as well as how to com off as open and young but professional in a world where finding that balance in and through websites is difficult to manage.
Overall, I’m excited for PUBLISH class because it deals with something I’m familiar with. I honestly can’t wait to learn how to improve myself in the Digital Media world.
Some of the more specific things I hope to learn is how to make or design a website or blog. It’s always interested me, and it’s always confused me as well. I also hope to learn what to post, especially when running a professional blog--or at least learn what type of things to post.
