The making of an MTV

Sharon Cuneta. Lea Salonga. Alone, each would have easily commanded millions of pesos as a product endorser. Both Cuneta and Salonga, and 19 other artists, however, waived their individual talent fees to do a five-minute MTV for the WOW Philippines Biyahe Tayo project of the Department of Tourism.

"The MTV is a non-commercial. Only in the end frame is the product name used," said Pfizer Consumer Healthcare’s Bonamine product manager Gary Padua. "Originally, we didn’t even want to mention the product because we didn’t want the artists to think they were being exploited."

The talent freebie is estimated at P10 million. An additional P12 million in airtime cost was generated from P500,000 equivalent in media value.

"We had to pay for some TV spots but other spots, particularly in cable channels like Solar Entertainment, were given for free. The song was aired for free by radio stations," said Noel Nieva, director of the music video and executive vice-president of Perceptions, Inc., the public relations agency of Pfizer Phils.

Good Fit

The MTV is part of Bonamine’s ongoing travel advocacy campaign, which was launched last September 2003.

"Bonamine’s advertising thrust has traditionally been focused on the product itself or on medication. Since we didn’t have any new product variants to the three that we currently have, we decided to come up with a campaign that transcends the product promise to something emotional like visiting the country’s tourist spots. Travel is a good fit for the product," said Padua.

The anti-motion sickness category is an estimated P200 million business, which has not significantly grown in the past few years largely because consumption among adult individuals remains stable at two to three units–one to get to his/her destination, one for the return trip, and one just in case–at any point in time. As the only over-the-counter, non-prescriptive product in this category, Bonamine has a dominant 90% plus market share.

"Last year, money was a big component in the campaign. We were heavy on media spending, which accounted for 70% of our 2003 budget. We tried to be present in all the festivals celebrated all over the country. This year, only 25% of the budget will be allotted to the campaign, mostly below the line marketing," said Padua.

MTV

The making of the MTV took months of pre-production work.

"We had a specific profile of singers in mind, spanning a spectrum of musical genre, gender, and fan base," said Nieva. "We sent out letters of invitation to participate signed by the Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon. We ended up with a good 50% batting average."

It took one and a half months to get the artists together within a five-day period of actual shooting/recording.

"We would shoot a group and then another and another as they came in from their other commitments. The challenge here was to make sure that, in the final cut, everything was seamless and everybody seemed to have recorded the song in one take."

Although ready by Christmas, the MTV’s launch was postponed until February this year.

"The campaign is a slow burn strategy. It’s not easy to determine its impact right now. Right now, we can only objectively measure the savings to us as an advertiser," said Padua.