ABS-CBN launches “R18” Campaign

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Media buying: Print up close (Part 2)

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Media buying: Print up close

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Media in the news

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It was another one of those trade parties for the ad agencies – cocktails, dinner, show, raffle prizes, and meet and greet celebrities. In a new venue in Makati Avenue, the one with the interesting name, “Makati A-Venue”, ABS-CBN introduced its new program offerings for the second quarter. The theme was “movie premiere”, and the stage was set up like an old fashioned theater – complete with curtains. There were round tables set up in the front half of the venue and there was theater-style seating in the inner half where the “premiere” was shown. It was of course actually mere teasers of the new programs. But the effect was achieved.

That’s the showbiz part of the evening. The more important message being sent to the audience was a move to fight commercial overloading. With “R18” buttons given away to everyone, ABS-CBN not so subtly took a deep dig at archrival GMA-7. The “18” refers to the maximum number of commercial minutes per hour on television allowed by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (Broadcasters’ Association in the Philippines or KBP), a ruling GMA-7 routinely violates. GMA-7 has withdrawn its membership from the broadcast association and therefore can no longer be held accountable for violating this provision. The showings on the big screen were interspersed with messages calling attention to the disadvantages of excessive commercial clutter in a television program: lower ad recall ratings, lesser chances of being seen, and so on.

It’s a clever move. And hopefully the crowd that night – a crowd with possibly one of the highest purchasing powers in the country (media buyers in the audience collectively spend more than two billion pesos every month buying commercial spots on local television) – was paying some attention to these messages. Ironically, these media buyers are also the same culprits to be blamed for the clutter in the first place, as it is these same media buyers who insist on placing their spots in the top rating programs, no matter how overloaded the programs already are (up to 24 minutes of commercial load per hour, or almost half of the total airtime).

This preoccupation with ratings has driven a huge wedge between the two giant networks and everybody else. And it’s a vicious cycle because as the advertising bucks get more and more concentrated in them, the other networks have an increasingly harder time trying to break into the money circle.

It will really have to take a radically new approach or some major outside influence to break the duopoly currently prevailing in local television. And we may have exactly that coming soon. Media Prima of Malaysia has all but sewn up its entry into the local scene via a deal to manage and market ABC-5. Let’s see where that development takes us. The next few months should be very interesting.

Media Buzz

There’s “e-Buzz on AXN,” and there’s “The Buzz” on ABS-CBN. So let’s have “Media Buzz” here. This section will talk about what’s the buzz in the advertising and media industries.

Earlier this year, media agencies experienced a heightened case of “Hellos and Goodbyes,” as we saw several departures at the highest levels of management. Erstwhile president of Carat Philippines Jocelyn Domingo retired. Same with OMD’s managing director Ador Perez, and Dentsu’s Sol Platon, who also retired. With Ador’s departure, PHD head Hermie de Leon now oversees the two Omnicom agencies PHD and OMD. Mickey de Castro moves up to fill in the void created by Sol’s retirement. While Raymund de Vera of DDBMedia quit to pursue other interests, and Rico Salas has moved from Euro RSCG to Adformatix. Saatchi & Saatchi lost Jon Gatbonton as he decided to join his former boss August Benitez in ABS-CBN. Jon now heads The Filipino Channel (TFC), replacing Macky Peredo who has opted for self-employment.

But the most number of departures was in Zenith Optimedia, as former managing director Osang Trinidad quit to join ABS-CBN sales, and Mando Cosio retired so he could head RRC, the Radio Research Council; Alvin Bangay, former head of the Nestle team also quit, while Gladys Basinillo took her team with her to Mediacom. Jayjay Calero has taken his former colleague at JWT, Susan Dar Santos, former head of FCB’s Initiative Media, out of retirement and asked her to take over Osang’s job as head of Zenith Optimedia.

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