Girly Brillantes, Mishy Co of the Bureau PH, Betchay Vidanes, Sen. Robin Padilla, Dutch Paulino and Eero Brillantes of BluePrint.Ph. Contributed photo
MANILA, Philippines — It takes a village to raise a child, so goes one famous African proverb.
In Robin Padilla’s case, it took a group of publicity and social media specialists to make sure he dominated the Senate race.
As a result, Padilla ranked first with 26,612,434 votes, the most among 63 candidates who ran for senator in the national elections.
Before the elections, Padilla’s business campaign manager Betchay Vidanes tapped the services of Mishy Co of The Bureau PH, Eero and Girly Brillantes of BluePrint PH, and communications strategist Jeff “Dutch” Paulino and Creative help of Isabel Pablo from GK Creatives.
Co handled her team’s digital strategy and social media performance marketing campaign aspect. She’s also a Georgetown University certified digital strategist. Paulino focused on PR and social media messaging, writing, and overall communications strategy, and Eero and Girly Brillantes of BluePrint brought their political, media relations, and PR experience to the campaign.
The aim was to strategize Padilla’s campaign and ensure that he could maximize his reach to potential voters despite a limited budget.
“Behind Sen. Robin Padilla talaga is a highly-skilled team… May nagchechek ng data like Eero, kami naman nag-eexecute ng performance marketing na naka-compute. Mayroon din sa creative side at everyday content side ng social media, and of course the support of everyone that Ms. Betchay Vidanes managed,” explained Co.
(Eero is checking the data while we execute performance marketing that is computed. There was also someone on the creative side and everyday content side in the social media…)
Eero Brillantes said they made sure they could show the public the different facets of Padilla.
“Ipinakita namin na hindi one dimensional ang personality ni Robin Padilla. Nandyan ‘yung artista siya, nandyan yung seryoso siya pagdating sa problema ng lipunan, nandyan ‘yung singer siya. Lahat iyan naipakita natin,” he said.
(We have shown the public that Robin Padilla’s personality is not one-dimensional. There was a side of him that is an actor; there was a side of him who was serious when facing the nation’s problems. There is a singer side to him. Everything we have shown to people.)
They also used their network to source valuable data and information that became handy in the campaign.
“Wala kaming sariling surveys so we had to gather third party information from various sources,” said Brillantes. “May mga kagandahang loob, hindi madamot sa kanilang mga survey… We gathered information by regions. From there tinignan namin through social listening kung based sa regions kung saang probinsya kailangang kaming magconcentrate.”
(Some good people shared survey results because we don’t have our survey. We only gather third-party information from various sources. We study them carefully through social listening, seeing them by regions and what province we need to concentrate.)
One of their most engaging online content was when Padilla’s wife, Mariel Rodriguez, decided to live selling her luxury bags to raise funds for her husband’s candidacy.
“Yung live selling niya, 55 million yung total impressions for that…. she converted a lot. Mariel had to let go of her bags and stuff for her husband. That resonated sa campaign kasi maraming nakarelate. It’s a shared human story of many Filipinos. And many reacted when nagreply si Robin sa live selling. It was organic! Kasi hindi nya alam na Mariel would do that,” said Co.
One advantage of their campaign was Padilla’s larger-than-life personality. As a result, he’s a great product.
“Si Robin Padilla maayos na ang digital footprint niya, marami na siyang followers… so nagdagdag lang kami. I would like to believe na ‘yung ginawa naming pagtulong cataputed him to the top,” said Brillantes.
Now that Padilla has been elected, the team is mapping out the senator’s communications strategy now that he is in the office.
“We’re helping with the communications planning. May continuous engagement kami,” said Brillantes.
Co also cited Betchay Vidanes’ crucial role in Padilla’s victory.
“…naayos niya ang organizational structure ng campaign [She arranged the organizational structure of the campaign]. She knows how to take care of the people she works with, and she is organized. In the end, it’s not just the data but the messaging and real relationships Sen. Robin Padilla built with people.”
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