The Noy Chronicles, Part 3: As it was in the beginning.

MANILA, Philippines - The campaign sputtered along like an overheating car just trying to make it to December for a tune-up. We assumed that Comelec would disallow pre-election activity after the last day of filing. But they did not. That favored “he who has gold”, but not those who needed a pit stop. Noy was still ahead, but Villar was gaining, fuelled by burning big bucks. (SWS, Dec 09 Aquino-46.2%, Villar-27%; Mar-43.3%, Loren-32%)

The confidence had considerably lessened. Reinforcement was badly needed. So the informal family effort developed into a parallel shadow group dubbed “Pinball” after Pinky and Ballsy. Talk was that COPA and other “Coryistas” who felt excluded in the campaign, found their bearings here.

Jessie Robredo was drafted to handle the sorties. His insightful question was: “Are we here to win, or are we here to not lose?” It was a most provocative query. Jessie explained that the strategy and the amount of effort are different if the objective is to win rather than NOT to lose. As usual, there were only mumbled answers and nervous laughter. By this time, I had gotten used to the internal ambiguity. No one dares to agree or disagree lest they end up on the losing side of an argument or be branded as “strongly assertive”.

What was harder to accept was the incessant external disparagement packaged as “constructive criticism”. From day one, Billy Esposo, The Chair Wrecker had been lobbying for Maria Montelibano, Cory’s niece and RTVM boss in 1986, to head Communications. He saw her as his alter ego since he himself was no longer in fighting form.

Billy felt that the ex-Roco squad was intelligent, but too young, naive and inexperienced. He never missed a chance to text the candidate what he considered slow response and lack of impact. Once, Noy had to explain that the delay was his fault as he wasn’t able to act on the statement immediately. Through most of the sniping, Johnny Santos was out of the country. Cesar Purisima joked that I should confiscate his passport until the election was over.

On December 19, Billy got his early Christmas gift. It was announced that Paul Aquino was joining as “Consultant”. Paul brought Maria to replace Johnny Santos as overall communications head. Paul’s cousin and my former boss, Gil Yuzon was also tapped as a marketing resource. Finally we have a professional who understood advertising. We welcomed these developments as a sign that the campaign would finally move in the right direction.

Everyone looked forward to a much-needed Christmas break. Sadly my mother passed away on Christmas day. I tried to keep it private so as not to ruin the holiday spirit. But somehow the news reached Noy. Against my advice, he made it a point to drop by, braving the Christmas bazaar next to the Church. I had already seen his innate kindness, but now I understood firsthand the burden of bearing the people’s dreams. Here is the son who had yet to get over the loss of his mother, thrust into a candidacy that he did not aspire for, expected to lead an unruly pack with fervor and a firm hand. It was a very tall order.

By January, the impact of Villar’s multi-million TV barrage was undeniable not just in the ratings. Surveys showed that the issue of corruption (which was the most crucial issue after Cory’s death) had become less important than “cares for the poor”. Villar’s ads had succeeded in marginalizing the need for a clean, honest leader. It was imperative to establish the connection between poverty and corruption. So we crafted the mantra “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap!” and allowed its use along with the dove ribbon logo for all campaign materials.

We were assigned to do tandem advertising for NoyMar. In less than four weeks, this was strategized, created, and tested. There was merit in co-branding because the Villar-Loren partnership was perceived to be a contrived alliance.

Research showed that voters tend to choose a President and VP from different slates, for check and balance. But when a NoyMar storyboard was tested explaining the advantage of a strong team with a shared vision, there was a “eureka” moment. The respondents were completely won over.

The pre-production for ten NoyMar storyboards was set for Monday, Feb 1. Shooting was scheduled two days later, so the ad could break on February 8, the official start of the 90-day campaign period. But the Jan 31 survey results altered the course of events drastically. Noy and Villar were statistically tied (37% vs. 35%) while Mar had pulled away with a 21% lead over Loren (48% vs. 27%). Binay was at 13%.

We were stunned when Mar suddenly decided that, “ All the attention and all the minutes should be on Noy, because he needs it.” No amount of persuasion from Gil Yuzon could change his mind. He instructed us to just cut him out of the ten ads and rewrite them as Noy solos. But it wasn’t as simple as he thought. Even if we could redo all the storyboards overnight, a re-schedule was next to impossible because the sorties left no free time for a shoot. I also had two consecutive business trips that would take me away for a month.

As if that weren’t enough, Maria revealed that the sisters instructed her to entertain “donations” of ads with airtime from several funders. Aside from Kris and Boy, four other groups offered to produce and air TV ads independently of each other. This excluded the clusters working on Senatoriables’ ads. Another Titanic was looming.

On February 11, we said goodbye again. But this time we assured our candidate that he would always have our wholehearted support. I explained my forthcoming travel and gave some advice. We dissuaded him from using different creatives that were not in synch. Someone had informed him that this was SOP among commercial clients. I explained that club agencies handled distinct assignments, not a haphazard free for all. Even if they use the same themeline, messaging might not be cohesive or coherent. We also gently reminded him that with so many warring factions, he must take charge.

When I came back on March 17, the pundits were having a field day! Paul Aquino was out, Serge Osmena was in and Maria and her circle were in limbo. Lito Banayo and the Chiz media gang had reportedly taken over. Before long, Serge had to campaign for himself since the survey showed he had slid down to the precarious No. 11 rank! There were whispers that the wrangling had gotten worse. “He can be charming when he’s not playing God,” was how persnickety Serge was described.

By April, Mar assigned himself “bastonero”. Shortly thereafter he relinquished control to Pinky because his own bid was at risk. He did not detect Binay creeping up from behind, or the NoyBi double agents in his own backyard.

Two weeks to D-day, a NoyMar tandem ad finally aired. It was too late. NoyBi had caught on, and Binay was actually ahead by a hairline, .02% to be exact. By then, Noy had a substantial lead and Erap had overtaken Villar. Game over.

In September 09, deep voter commitment for Noy was at 41% with 63% inclined to choose him as President. In May 2010, he garnered 15 million or 41% of total votes. Mar started with a 21% lead, only to lose by 800,000 votes albeit under protest. Of the LP senatoriables, three were in the winning circle in the beginning. The same three eventually won.

If marketing metrics were applied to this exercise, it would be zero growth for brand Noy even after P450+million was poured into advertising. The Mar trademark fared even worse as it lost equity. The brand managers would have been fired or at the very least given a poor evaluation, with no promotion or salary increase. But that’s in the world of results-oriented Big Business.

In the people’s campaign, the cliques neutralized each other. Six drivers were at the helm throughout an eight-month drive. There were rival teams that navigated separate courses. More energy was spent sabotaging each other than securing victory. Against these odds, Noy still triumphed. As Rapa Lopa accurately predicted, “ He will win in spite of us.” As I’ve always said, it’s divine destiny.

The Filipinos are jubilant about the new President and couldn’t care less about the past chaos. Aside from documenting these chronicles for posterity, I look at these vicious experiences as valuable education. Some learnings from this story: Resolve fatal ego clashes quickly; Choose the best and the brightest not the familiar and comfortable; Evaluate by objective performance standards; Eliminate hubris and selfish interests; Beyond loyalty, live the code of unflinching honesty.

If leader and follower take these moral lessons to heart, the next six years might usher in the golden era in Philippine history.