Smart wireless division head Danilo Mojica tells the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview that Smart usually relies on advertising with the top two networks to get its messages and promotions across to its 45 million subscribers and potential customers from rival telecommunications companies.
But when the advertising rates jacked up in the first few months of the year to the point of straining Smart’s considerable advertising budget, the mobile subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. had to come up with a new game plan. And fast.
“So we went back to the drawing board to see what we can do and not rely too much on the top networks to share our message,” says Mojica.
The result of many days and nights of brain wracking and number crunching is the Tutok Sabay Text (TST) promotion where Smart and Talk and Text subscribers get a chance to win as much as P5 million in cash every week.
To earn raffle entries, subscribers must download trivia by answering questions that will be flashed in select primetime television shows of “Kapatid” Channel 5, another company under the helm of PLDT chair Manuel V. Pangilinan. Subscribers are charged 1 TST point per trivia download, one trivia download is equal to one raffle entry.
Everybody who loads Smart and Talk and Text credits gets “TST” points that can be used to participate in the promotion. Postpaid subscribers, on the other hand, will be charged 50 centavos to answer TV5 trivia questions via text. Subscribers will be able to get free TST points by loading any SMART Buddy and Talk ’N Text electronic load variants.
Mojica says that the significant prizes at stake, which will come up to a combined P100 million, should encourage Smart and Talk and Text subscribers to switch television loyalties – at least during primetime – to Channel 5, thus helping both companies under Pangilinan’s supervision.
The thinking behind TST, he says, is that instead of Smart going to an advertising agency and then airing advertisements in the hope of reaching subscribers, Smart will now go direct to its subscribers and give them enough incentives to go to a space – like a television show – where they will get their messages from the company.
This way, both Smart and Channel 5 stand to reap significant benefits.
By encouraging subscribers to watch the shows on Channel 5, ratings are expected to inch up. And then for Smart, the promotion presents a cost-effective way to reach its subscribers and keep them loyal, which remains a challenge given the fierce competition among telecommunications companies.
“Instead of Mohammad going to the mountain, the mountain will go to Mohammad,” Mojica explains.
The TST promotion will run until the end of October and Smart spokesperson Ramon Isberto says the results so far “give us a lot of confidence to continue pursuing this innovative approach.”
“It will take some time for something new to gain momentum so we have to be very attentive to it,” Isberto adds, “But as starts go, we are very pleased.”
Plans are also under way to later encourage other companies and brands to mount similar promotions through Smart.
Mojica feels that the TST promotion that the team came up with has the potential to turn the advertising world on its head, because it means that ‘interactive’ campaigns – where consumers get to take part in some way in the promotion – have come of age.
By Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
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