Manila Bulletin, the the Philippines’ leading newspaper, put the flag and the national anthem together to come up with a unique “patriotic spark” to rally the Filipino people behind the nation and its leaders. It capitalised on its greatest asset, the print platform, and its wide reach to reawaken Filipino patriotism.

A belly band print ad, which includes a step-by-step instruction on how to celebrate the nation’s freedom, was printed on the newspaper front page. It also directed readers to go to the center spread to learn facts about the development of the national anthem.

To further engage and connect with the readers, NFC (near field communication) tags and QR (quick response) codes were embedded on the print ad. Once scanned, these allowed readers to watch a video featuring Asia’s Got Talent winner Gerphil Flores, singing the Philippine national anthem.

The angelic voice of this award-winning singer was accompanied by visuals of our unsung modern day heroes: a teacher, a street sweeper, a fireman, a traffic enforcer, a fisherman, a blood donor, and others. This is Manila’s way of honouring these unsung heroes who untiringly show dedication in their respective fields.

To further inform the public, the back center spread ad featured articles about the Philippine flag and other historical facts.

The campaign also was promoted online through Manila Bulletin’s social media. During the first quarter of the year, the video reached 1.8 million viewers and generated a total of 315, 000 plus views in Facebook and more than 46,000 likes and comments.

Manila Bulletin, through this multi-media campaign, was able to fill the gap between our print and the digital platform. This also supported the newspaper’s strategy to encourage young readers to read print again, rather than rely on the online version of the news.

The Independence Day campaign was an in-house endeavor, initiated by the news media company’s marketing team and conceptualised by its creative agency, BBDO Guerrero. Execution was spearheaded by our graphics team, led by Edward Llanes and Eugene Cubillo, and the national anthem video was directed and produced by the Manila Bulletin’s video team.

The print ad execution was circulated nationally, distributing more than 300,000 copies. Positive feedbacks from readers and online followers were received. This is part of the Manila Bulletin’s #BeFullyInformed campaign.

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