Josiah Go interviewed me recently. He is a best-selling author, and chair and chief marketing strategist of Mansmith & Fielders, the leading marketing and sales training company in the Philippines. I have Go’s permission to publish the interview.

 

Before your retirement, you were associated with having mastery of the masa market, with strong gut feel but based on consumer pulse. Jollibee, Lucky Me! are just some local brands you handled that grew so big. What traits do you think you have that made you a specialist for the masa?

 

I am masa. I lived masa. It’s my upbringing and habitat.

 

My townmates in the hilltown were masa, including farmers in upland barrios.

 

In Manila, my neighborhood was masa, in the bustling streets of Sampaloc and Sta. Cruz districts. I spoke their idioms and shared their spirituality.

 

I grew up during World War II and the Huk Communist rebellion. I was exposed to hunger and death. I learned to struggle, to be industrious, to live with one’s wits, in rural or urban life.

 

It helps that I was a short-story writer with sharp powers of observation and the skill to replicate deep emotions and the idioms of the masa. It also helps that my Ateneo studies enriched my vocabulary and flair for imaging.

 

While confronting brand issues in advertising, I found myself serendipitous in unearthing consumer insights.

 

I am very personal and experiential when I eyeball with my imagined consumer, usually a living breathing individual, not a generic one.

 

The details are exclusive. Unique and original. It’s got soul.

 

The advertising creation is unexpected. It’s serendipity.

 

Big ideas

 

You were brought up to buy fresh goods in the wet market, with no preconceived menu to cook for the day. You likened this to the advertising process. In your experience, can you share best practices for getting big ideas and how to communicate them to get home runs, no less?

 

There’s no big secret in strategies. It’s the cart before the horse when you’re dealing with a creative challenge.

 

Market data, to me, are bland generalities.

 

It’s when I have simplified brand opportunities in human terms that I embark on a psychological trip into the realm of consumer insight.

 

Great advertising makes quantum leaps. It’s doing the unexpected. The big surprise. We had lots in the ’80s and ’90s.

 

Palmolive’s “I can feel it” jettisoned an old-fashioned hometown girl into the frenzy of urban hip-hop.

 

Sarsi’s “Angat sa iba,” an old low-priced soda sold in the periphery, was transported to the chic realm of modern art and fusion music.

 

“I can feel it” and “Angat sa iba” were our biggest home runs with incredible turnaround in the market in the late ’80s. They broke sales records and hit the roof.

 

From No. 34, your former agency, Basic Advertising, became No. 1 in advertising billings. You have made so many classic campaigns in Philippine advertising. Which ad campaigns are you proudest of and why?

 

It was clear to me from day one that we wanted to be known as the masa agency for masa brands.

 

Our earliest home runs were “Lalaking Disente,” which saved Three Flowers pomade from being killed.

 

“Tsikletin Mo Baby” for Chiclets grabbed market leadership in Manila away from Juicy Fruit gum.

 

“Reseta ng Duktor” catapulted Benadryl to number one in just two months, away from Vicks Formula 44.

 

We invited our peers in creative to join our bandwagon: Nonoy Gallardo, Telly Bernardo, Albert Grupe, myself and Tony Mercado. We were a powerhouse, and we had momentum early in our start-up stage.

 

Our shining star became dazzling with Jollibee’s “Langhap-Sarap.” Getting new accounts became like picking apples.

 

We established Basic Ad School for our recruitment program and we harvested the best and the brightest. We gave our people above-standard salaries and the biggest bonus for Christmas. We gave shares to our stars.

 

We were always hitting home runs: Development Bank of the Philippines’ (DBP) “Palabra de Honor” and “Katapatan” and Duty Free’s “Babalik Ka Rin” meant big image revamps and record breaking sales.

 

We were unbeatable in winning pitches for new accounts. We were gutsy, too. We resigned good accounts to gain entry into big accounts like San Miguel Brewery, and we did.

 

We dropped our tie-up with Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) when it lost Palmolive in the US. Immediately, Publicis Group wanted to partner with us. We did, to get a crack at Nestle. Nestle moved to Publicis Manila through an alignment.

 

(To be continued)

 

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