The STAR as a stellar brand
An effective brand is the result of concise, coherent yet unique messaging that anchors itself to public consciousness via multiple platforms, enabling the audience to think and act. Despite the cacophony of similar messages over these platforms, an effective brand stands out and persists, steered by strategic brand leaders.
For the past 30 years, The Philippine STAR has been an effective brand in the same sense. Since it was established in 1986, it has billed itself as a change-maker in the newspaper industry and continues to be a change-maker today with its multimedia brand campaigns that relates effectively to new generations of readers and news consumers.
Proof of its being an effective brand are the numerous accolades The STAR has received from various advertising and communications institutions for its different brand campaigns. In this article, we look back at some of the noteworthy, award-winning brand campaigns the newspaper drove in the past three decades. HISTORIC CAMPAIGNS In its early days, The STAR was among the more than 20 existing newspapers in Metro Manila during the period immediately following the EDSA People Power Revolution. It faced tough competition with the likes of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Bulletin, Manila Times, The Daily Tribune, The Manila Standard, and Today for readership and advertising revenues.
In fact, its first issue on July 28, 1986 had no advertisements and sold “only a few thousand copies.” Nevertheless, in its first two decades, the newspaper inched its way to the top of the competition through journalism with an advocacy and innovative journalism.
Among these historic campaigns and innovations is its successful adoption of color printing in 1995, becoming one of the fi rst Philippine newspapers to do so. Along with this colorful change is the coining of a new slogan, “The only paper you read from coverto-cover.”
Such innovation made The STAR even more attractive to both readers and advertisers, enabling them to see each other in a spectrum of colors.
With the advent of the Internet Age the following year, the company began exploring the internet to offer new possibilities in content to reach even wider audiences. The result of this venture is Philstar.com, which was launched in 2000 and serves as the link of the global Filipino to relevant news and information about their Motherland.
As it explored new media to better serve its clientele, the company also made crucial linkages that were valuable to expanding its exposure as a brand. Among these linkages is its breakfast tie- up with Jollibee Foods Corporation in 2003. Beginning that year, complimentary copies of the newspaper became available with every order of a Jollibee breakfast value meal, thereby making The
STAR our daily morning read.
MARKETING COMPANY OF THE YEAR
By 2006, the company’s marketing initiatives have paid off. Its daily circulation has reached more than 200,000 copies daily while its revenues started reaching the millionth-mark due to attractiveness among advertisers.
In the same year, the Philippine Marketing Association bestowed the Marketing Company of the Year award to The STAR during the 27th Agora Awards for its breakthroughs that helped shape both the Philippine marketing industry and Philippine journalism.
The award came as a relief to the company, that was, at that time, grieving the loss of one of its pillars, journalist Max Soliven, who died of cardiac arrest a few days before the award was given.
INNOVATIVE COMMUNICATOR
Emboldened by the recognition from the PMA, The STAR actively began vying for recognition for its branding campaigns from other advertising and communications bodies.
Among the campaigns was Philstar 2.0, a massive rebrand of The STAR as the “newspaper of the future” during its grand anniversary trade show. The rebrand included the launch of new platforms that enhanced the end- user’s experience of reading the newspaper through the Read It! Live It! augmented reality app.
Using the smartphone and tablet application allows the reader to scan a special QR code printed on select news items in the newspaper that would link the reader to other forms of content related to that news item, whether a YouTube video, a link to website or an audio recording. Both the trade show and the Read It! Live It! app received honors from advertising and communications institutions. Philstar 2.0 received both the 2013 Quill Award of Merit for Special Events External as well as the 2014 Anvil Award of Merit for Events and Activation.
Meanwhile, the Read It! Live It! app received two Anvil Awards of Merit in 2014 in the Multimedia: Mobile Tools/ Mobile and Corporate Identity Program categories. The application also caught the eye of the University of Asia and the Pacific, which gave it the 2014 Tambuli Award for Innovative and Integrated Media.
MASTERS OF PRINTED COMMUNICATIONS
The STAR has also been recognized for its special print media executions for itself and its clients. Four special print media executions that came out in the newspaper were given silver and bronze distinctions at the 2014 Tinta Awards.
Two of these executions were ordered by The STAR’s long-time clients: 25 Years,
One Dream, One Vision, a special print media execution commissioned by Megaworld Corporation for their 25th anniversary, which won a bronze Tinta Award, and the PLDT Home
False Cover special print media execution by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company that brought home a silver Tinta Award.
The United Print and Media Group (UPMG) also recognized The STAR’s Newsboy Jacket,
Bike and Vendor consumer campaign aimed at promoting newspaper readership, which got a bronze Tinta Award and Origami, a special print media execution in time for Mother’s Day. Both executions were conceptualized and executed for the company by the IdeasXMachina creative agency.
COMMUNICATING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The STAR not only communicates its own brand or that of its clientele, but also its corporate social responsibility efforts that impact various local communities and advocates for special causes the company supports.
Perhaps the most successful of its corporate social responsibility endeavors is
#28StoriesofGiving, a month-long print, digital, and social media series that put the spotlight on the plight of ordinary Filipinos making a difference by helping others. The series, which was executed in time for
The STAR’s 28th anniversary engaged readers by giving them the option to help the featured individuals by pledging five pesos for every tweet or post they make about any of the #28StoriesofGiving. For its success, #28StoriesofGiving reaped accolades at the 2015 Bronze Araw Values Awards, the 2015 Silver Quill Award, 2015 Bronze Anvil Award and the 2015 Bronze PANAta Marketing Effectiveness Award.
Equally impactful is Futurecasting, a print and social media financial literacy campaign targeted at millennials and young professionals. The campaign centered on motivational speaker and financial guru Francis Kong providing young individuals and couples with useful financial and professional advice. Kong received the 2015 Bronze Anvil Award for Futurecasting.
DEFYING COMMUNICATION BARRIERS
In 2015, The STAR continued to push the barriers of communications. While it had already successfully conquered print, digital and social media, its eyes were set on a whole new horizon of media communications — television.
Finding the right partners and talents, the company launched PhilSTAR TV in the same year with a roster of programs geared toward different niches of content-hungry viewers. There’s Modern Living TV for elite urbanites interested in architecture and interior design,
Wheels TV for middle class and elite motoring enthusiasts, Let’s Eat for young epicurean foodies, and Single/ Single for millennial romantics looking for a fresh take on the perennial teleserye.
Of these televised programs, Single/Single stands out for being both a romantic teleserye and a financial literacy advocacy. It tells the story of two millennial yuppies trying to define their respective financial and professional future but find love in each other when their paths intertwine.
As a financial literacy advocacy, the miniseries is replete with subtle references to financial advice, career planning, personality development and professional growth. These pieces of advice are even reinforced in Kong’s weekly column in The STAR and in his Single/
Single financial caravan that tours different companies.
For distinguishing itself as both an advocacy and entertainment, and for pushing the boundaries of media communications, Single/
Single won two 2016 Quill Awards of Excellence for Communication Management Program and for Corporate Social Responsibility. It was also given a Quill Award of Merit for its Social Media campaign. Adding to the haul is a 2016 Silver Anvil Award for PR Program in Education and Literacy, as well as a Merit Award in the 2016 PANAta Marketing Effectiveness Awards.
Indeed, in the past 30 years, The STAR has proven itself as an effective communicator of its own brand as well as of its clients. It has shown that despite the evolving platforms for communications, the company can adapt and come up with outstanding messages and creative ideas to further push these messages towards their intended audience. And it just keeps on getting better and better as the communications landscape continues to evolve in the years to come.