Ads & Ends — Nanette Franco-Diyco
CALL IT a non-traditional media placement or media buy. If you venture to watch a teleserye (soap opera) on ABS-CBN, there’s an interesting mode of advertising that you may catch on weekdays.
I first spotted James Reid and Nadine Lustre in three beautifully romantic Jollibee television commercials, directed by two of the country’s renowned TVC directors Henry Frejas and Stephen Ngo. I did review one of them, alluding to the innate easy chemistry between Jollibee’s carefully selected talents. If they could exude such near-romance in a 30-second commercial, I wondered how the same kilig (romantic thrill) sensation fed back in social media would carry over in a full-length teleserye.
It was thus an easy decision to sit through their ongoing teleserye, On the Wings of Love, during the late evenings for five consecutive late nights. It’s a temptation to do a review of the teleserye, which has actually pleasantly driven me to follow it through its scheduled ending for this month of February. I can only regret not discovering it from its beginning.
For this marketing and advertising column, however, I was nonetheless pleased to encounter two product commercials within the teleserye, which Cookie Bartolome, ABS-CBN head of integrated marketing, labeled “situmercials” — situation commercials.
One was for Unilever’s Knorr, and the other, for Unilab’s Solmux.
The television spots both show one of the teleserye’s main talents, James Reid, acting out what would appear as another situation in the teleserye with his TV co-stars. In the Knorr situmercial, James is shown cooking; in the Solmux situmercial, he is shown being cajoled by his tita (aunt) to quiet his cough.
He appears in the situmercials as Clark, his character in the teleserye, with the same look, the same attire, and even the same setting. Ditto with his teleserye tita, played by Cherry Pie Picache. Cookie revealed that “the situmercials are shot as though they’re part of the show.” Hence, the product mentions are almost conversational and hardly ever in-your-face hard-selling. They can be perceived as actual situations lifted from the teleserye.
Cookie explained: “The equivalent of Clark in the show is married to the brand message in the situmercials.”
Before the situmercials are done, clients and advertising agencies meet with the teleserye’s writers, director, and the network’s marketing personages to understand the characters extremely well.
Evidently, there are pros and cons if one considers getting into situmercials for his brand. The Unilever and Unilab marketing executives shared with me a few strengths and weaknesses of situmercials.
Most importantly, the characters in the teleserye must be strongly identifiable with the brand personality and product users. It is easy to believe that if Clark is embraced in the teleserye as sincere, caring, and loving as a son, the viewers are more vulnerable to accept what he is endorsing as Clark — even more than James Reid as James Reid.
The placement of the material is limited to the teleserye proper as part of the regular media package. But add-ons within ABS-CBN and social media are allowed with separate license fees. Needless to say, the situmercial cannot be aired by other networks.
I am told that the Christmas commercial of Knorr — where Clark is taught how to cook menudo by the grandmother (played by Nanette Inventor) and an enthralled Nadine samples the dish with gusto — was one memorable situmercial.
This requires meticulous collaboration among client, advertising agency, and the network’s marketing, creative and production staff. Call it an extraordinary opportunity for another exciting creative and media option.
Nanette Franco-Diyco ended her 15th year advertising career as Vice-President of JWT, segueing into the world of academe, currently teaching communications at the Ateneo de Manila University.
nanettediyco131@gmail.com
