MANILA, Philippines — “I wanna give people Liza like a Liza they’ve never seen me before.”
Such was among the catchphrases of actress Liza Soberano in a promotional clip presented to the press last night to introduce her not only as the new brand ambassador or endorser, but the new “chief advocacy officer” of financial technology company Maya.
Although Liza got the offer for the “job,” she said she was interviewed about herself and the values she stands for to make their campaigns meaningful. She declared that she was the one who asked the company if she could have the job title.
“First, as the chief advocacy officer… It is my responsibility to champion shared advocacies with Maya, including corporate social responsibility initiatives, and second, I want to be able to push the financial advocacy agenda among their employees and the products all the way up to the culture,” Liza shared in a speech her key duties as chief advocacy officer.
“As a start, we’re creating support for an organization that I feel very deeply passionate about – Save the Children Philippines.”
“Like you, I constantly ask myself how I can level up? How can I be better? How do I help create positive change? And I know that most of you have seen my latest life update about how it has been with Careless, how is my debut film in Hollywood alongside Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse in a film called ‘Lisa Frankenstein.’
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“But what you guys don’t know is that I’m also putting more time into my work with an amazing organization called Save the Children. So all in all, I try to be more intentional about the projects and the collaborations I involve myself in,” she said.
She described Save the Children Philippines as “among the leading organizations in the world that works for and with children founded in 1919. It has a presence in over 120 countries across the globe. And since then, they have been working in the Philippines since 1981.”
“Through their programs, Save the Children gives children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm,” she added.
According to her, she first learned about the organization in 2016 by starting to sponsor kids in Uganda.
“I stumbled upon them online and really started looking into it. Although I wasn’t aware that they have an office or they have a footing in the Philippines, and so I started supporting kids in Uganda. I specifically sponsored three children. I sponsored them with their education,” she shared.
In 2020, the organization reached out to her former manager, Ogie Diaz, to make Liza an ambassador.
“But unfortunately, the pandemic happened, we got so busy, nothing really happened. But in 2021, I went to Siargao and met with a good friend of mine, Katarina Rodriguez, who is also my co-ambassador, and she connected me directly to Save the Children. And so, our beautiful partnership began,” Liza recalled.
Starting last year, the actress began working more with Save the Children in more different programs and campaigns online, including help pass the Age of Sexual Consent bill into law.
“So this 2023, I’m trying to get more involved as possible with the programs that I do with Save the Children.”
For their first collaborative campaign with Save the Children, Liza and Maya unveiled “The Big Bank Heist” for children. Details about it will soon be available on social media, she said.
As brand endorser, Liza co-created a short film together with its director and Maya. According to her, she said “yes” to become the digital banking app’s ambassador because with them, she is confident that her money is safe and earns interest, and the app is seamless and easy to use.
According to her, it was “unheard of” for a brand to allow its endorser to co-create the app’s campaigns.
“Having some chance to bring in some input in the creative process makes this collab so much more different than anything that I’ve ever done before. We’re breaking the mold of traditional celebrity endorsement as we change the game of financial marketing services,” she vouched.
She and manager James Reid are “very impressed” at how “truly collaborative and creative” Maya was.
“As I saw them working closely together, I said to myself, ‘Wow, they’re doing amazing things that I’ve never seen before in traditional marketing with celebrities’.”
She is allowed to “go beyond my comfort zone” and to write the script and choose the outfits and scenes of their video campaigns, which Liza said, “go beyond what is expected of celebrity endorsements.”
She can relate to the brand’s “defiance and optimism” stance as can be seen in the commercial, which will premiere this weekend.
Most of all, Liza’s main role in her new job is to spread awareness about financial inclusion.
“Money was like something that I was scared to talk about,” admitted Liza. “I started working at a young age. I was already earning a lot of money. And because not a lot of people around me are not financially literate, it kind of forced me to kind of navigate safely through experience. Along the way, I might have not made the best financial decisions, but I got over it through experience.”
Among her goals, therefore, is for financial literacy is to be talked about in more schools and households.
And because she now has a corporate title, of course, Liza now has her own company e-mail.