Dioceldo Sy suggests out-of-box idea

MANILA, Philippines — It’s not a formal proposal, at least not yet but Blackwater team owner Dioceldo Sy is seriously considering to push the idea of opening the PBA’s doors to competing brands for discussion at the Board of Governors level.

“I’m an entrepreneur so I’m used to thinking out of the box,” said Sy who built the Ever Bilena cosmetics empire from scratch. “Why not encourage rivalry in the PBA? At the moment, we don’t allow competing brands to put up teams or even air commercials during a PBA telecast. But imagine the excitement we can generate if we had a game between Phoenix and Shell or Rain or Shine and Boysen or Globe and TNT? We can bring the intensity of corporate rivalry to the court. To protect an existing franchise, we could charge a premium for a new franchise with a competing brand and even allocate a portion of the fee to the existing franchise.”

Sy said a premium could also be charged to air the ad of a competing brand. “The brand of a PBA team has a two-hour exposure every game compared to a few minutes of exposure for a competing brand in an ad,” he said. “Even if the competing brand comes out only in the last two minutes of a game, we could charge a premium and the exposure will still not compare to the mileage of a PBA team.”

Sy said daring to be innovative could lead to increasing the value of each franchise and raising the level of advertising revenue. “It’s a win-win situation,” he said. “This will bring more fans to watch our games because of the rivalry and also add to the value of each franchise.”

PBA marketing director Gelo Serrano said commercial interest in the league is picking up with several initiatives calling attention to its popularity at the grassroots level. “Commissioner Willie (Marcial) is bringing the PBA closer to the fans,” he said. “The Homecourt program takes players to barangay courts for surprise visits and it’s creating ripples. The Heroes program pays tribute to soldiers who put their lives on the line for the country, to war veterans, the airport janitor who finds a wallet full of money and returns it to the owner, the Grab driver who waives his fee to bring a mother about to deliver straight to the emergency room of a hospital. The PBA tells these stories of heroes who inspire us to do good.”

Serrano, who has a long history of success in advertising and events and talent management, said with one conference to go this season, he has nearly overtaken the sponsorship numbers of last year. He was given a two-year sponsorship target of nine figures. “We’re on track,” he said. “In fact, we’ve signed up some sponsors beyond two years. The potential of the PBA is tremendous. The fact that we can pack the Philippine Arena with over 50,000 fans for a PBA game proves the potential.”