Leadership. Dedication. Transformation.
A look into the life of The Philippine STAR EVP and Agora Award recipient Lucien Dy Tioco
BEHIND THE LEADER OF EVERY successful media company are capable, cunning and intuitive vice presidents that helped the president in steering the company toward that success.
In the case of the New York Times president and CEO Mark Thompson, there’s Kinsey Wilson, who is the newspaper’s EVP for Product and Technology, in charge of developing the newspaper’s digital services.
Likewise, Rich Battista, president and CEO of Time Inc., the company that publishes magazine brands such as Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune,
People and Life, is assisted by EVP and chief revenue officer for global advertising Mark Ford, who is responsible for driving advertising sales revenue for the company.
If there’s an equivalent to both Wilson and Ford in The Philippine STAR that assists president and CEO Miguel Belmonte in steering the company toward marketing and advertising success, it’s former SVP and newly-appointed EVP Lucien Dy Tioco.
For 29 years, Dy Tioco has been with the post- EDSA Revolution newspaper, starting off as a mere employee before slowly rising among the ranks through sheer hard work, determination, and passion. Much of his 29year employment in The STAR was spent in helping navigate the company — from becoming the most successful newspaper enterprise in the country to one of the largest print-based multimedia enterprises.
EARLY YEARS
Dy Tioco was born in Manila on July 18, 1965. In an interview with The STAR, he described his childhood as “uneventful” and that he wasn’t drawn into marketing or advertising until later on in life.
“I had specific interests as a child, but it never blossomed into something outstanding. For example, in high school, I was really into sports. I was into track and field and gymnastics. Probably what was stopping me was basically my shyness. I was a very introverted person until after college,” Dy Tioco stated.
Nevertheless, while Dy Tioco lived a very ordinary childhood, he was able to catch some of the skills and interests that proved useful for him in adulthood.
“I was into popular music and writing, although I didn’t like writing about politics. And I come from a family with an advertising background. My sister was an account executive at Business Day, which was the precursor to
BusinessWorld. My father was formerly an advertising executive at McCann and Ace Compton before the latter became Ace Saatchi & Saatchi. I got exposed to the media because he would usually bring home newspapers, which got me into the habit of reading newspapers,” Dy Tioco said.
JOURNEY TO STARDOM
Dy Tioco completed his basic education at Far Eastern University and Marist School, after which, he took up a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism at the University of Santo Tomas and graduated in 1985.
His first job was at OctoArts International as part of the Artists and Repertoire (A&R) division. For two years, he managed which artists and songs the recording label could produce and sell. The job gave him experience in spotting creative executions that could possibly trend and become popular in various media platforms.
“I was so knowledgeable of the music industry so much so that when I applied for OctoArts, they made an opening for me even though they didn’t have one,” Dy Tioco said.
Notwithstanding his knowledge of the music industry, what Dy Tioco really wanted to explore was the newspaper industry. After working for OctoArts, he had a short stint at The Manila Times before finally moving to The STAR in 1987.
“I told my dad that among the numerous newspapers then, I seemed to like The STAR. It’s something new and exciting. It was very different because it had a yellow corporate logo, among the blues and the reds,” Dy Tioco explained.
The first job that Dy Tioco landed in the newspaper was as branch coordinator for the Classified Ads unit. His role was to monitor and inform the unit head about the performance of classified ads branch offices around the country. Later on, with the appointment of Grace Glory Go as the company’s marketing director, Dy Tioco got his first break, which was handling marketing research.
“It was more of monitoring the competition. At that time, we were 23rd in terms of readership and advertising revenue so we had a lot of catching up to do. That job gave me the exposure on how to size up the market,” Dy Tioco stated.
Handling marketing research for six months also prepared Dy Tioco for his next break — as junior account manager.
‘IN THE ZONE’ TO SUCCESS
Among the first accounts assigned to him were those by McCann and Saatchi & Saatchi. His first project was the 1988 Seoul Olympics supplement. But his first major revenuegenerating project for The STAR was the 1990 Sharp lockout issue. It was the newspaper’s first lockout project and the first of its kind in the industry, wherein all the ads in a particular newspaper issue were from a single advertiser. The lockout project soon became an annual project and ran for 10 years.
The 1990 Sharp lockout project became Dy Tioco’s claim to fame, which led him to becoming senior account manager and, thus, being assigned larger, more innovative and more complex marketing campaigns and advertising executions.
“Part of the excitement in the early years of The STAR was the abundant room for improvement. Being the 23rd newspaper at that time, we always had a hard time catching up with the top two papers at that time. As we went around the ad agencies and advertisers at that time, we are often left out. There was really an element wherein we had to try harder to get our clients to notice us. That’s where I invested on, in getting to know and establishing a relationship with our clients, and more importantly, finding ways for them to best advertise in our newspaper,” Dy Tioco explained.
As account manager, Dy Tioco worked not just with clients but also with writers, layout artists and fellow account managers during the collaborative process of executing each project.
“When I was an account manager, my colleagues fondly called me ‘ autistic’ given my tendency to be focused and engrossed in a particular project, as if I am always ‘in the zone.’ At that time, I already had a bigger passion — or more of a mission — to make The STAR to be widely appreciated by advertisers and readers. And so, I was looked to for opportunities on how the team could do better and grow,” Dy Tioco said.
“Because of that bigger passion, I was very assertive when it comes to the outcomes that I wanted for our projects. It wasn’t always easy getting colleagues to share your perspective, but it made me learn on how to deal with people in terms of relationships both externally and internally. That made me realize somehow that you have to make ways to expose and share that kind of passion you have for a particular project or client,” Dy Tioco added.
His days of being passionate, assertive and “in the zone” proved beneficial for Dy Tioco. His belief in what The STAR could become at that time in terms of marketing and advertising led to an increase in confidence from his bosses. In 1997, at 32 years old, the management appointed him Advertising Manager. Three years later, he was promoted to Advertising Director.
RACE TO MARKETING LEADERSHIP
In his capacity as Advertising Manager, Dy Tioco turned his mission of moving The STAR forward in the sales and marketing race as the mission of his entire marketing team. He persuaded his account managers to find better ways for clients to advertise in the newspaper. He introduced road shows, client presentations and special sections on food, lifestyle and motoring, such as Flavors, Family and Wheels, which were born around that time. These new options made advertising in the newspaper even more exciting.
Aside from innovation, luck seemed to be on Dy Tioco’s side at that time. In 1999, advertisers initiated a large-scale advertising boycott against a rival newspaper, which became sort of a blessing for The STAR as advertisers switched to their platform. Throughout the boycott, the newspaper’s market share jumped from 24 to
Dy Tioco was never the type of person who rests on his laurels. Even though e STAR was already named Marketing Company of the Year, he continued to push the envelope further in terms of what the company could achieve. I want to leave a legacy wherein e STAR will thrive for a long time. at no matter how platforms have changed, e STAR as a newspaper will remain relevant.
37 percent, before settling at 32 percent after the boycott ended.
“It was the exposure The STAR was waiting for. When the boycott simmered down, advertisers realized that we have a nice platform and service to advertise with. Our strategy, which was hinged on delivering on the content that our clients want, innovation and customer feedback, paid off. Since then, The STAR never came back to where it was. It was all uphill from there, until we overtook our competitors and the battle became just between three newspaper giants,” Dy Tioco recalled.
His successful marketing feats resulted in two distinctions for Dy Tioco. In 2005, he was named VP for Advertising in charge of all advertising streams and strategies. The following year,
The STAR was awarded Marketing Company of the Year in the annual Agora Awards by the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA). That award for the company proved to be a validation of Dy Tioco’s transformational leadership that brought The STAR in front of the marketing race.
Pushing the digital envelope
Dy Tioco was never the type of person who rests on his laurels. To continue polishing his marketing and management skills, Dy Tioco pursued an MBA at the University of Western Australia, which he completed in 2004.
And, even though The STAR was already named Marketing Company of the Year, he continued to push the envelope further in terms of what the company could achieve. With the explosion of the internet in the country at that time — the arrival of social media websites such as Friendster, YouTube and Facebook — Dy Tioco saw that there was no other direction for The STAR to go other than digital.
“When things were becoming more digital, that was when I already prepared the team, transforming them from transactionbased account managers into becoming an advertising solutions-oriented team. We had to go beyond selling just the print space and offer clients a well-rounded service where The STAR’s content can become a primary leverage point for advertisers to advertise effectively,” Dy Tioco explained.
He added, “At that time, our clients want to make their marketing efforts more effective without making it look like a press release. So we conducted research, and we found out that our readers were hungry for more lifestyle content. They like to know more about the brand beyond the press release. That created the opportunity to introduce new advertising solutions that addressed these concerns.”
From 2007 to 2013, the advertising solutions that Dy Tioco referred to began to take shape and new platforms such as The
STAR’s improved website, mobile phone application and social media accounts were created in order to host these advertising solutions.
Among the first new advertising solutions was Engage, a publicity program plotted in a media plan framework and presented as part of newspaper content. It takes advertorials to a new level — this time, branded articles were written by the paper’s notable columnists and writers, thus lending credibility and authenticity to any brand.
This was followed by Stellar, a branded creative solution that covered publicity programs, creative executions on print, digital and social media, events and activation, and multimedia offerings that begin and end with print.
Live offered print advertising solution plus more such as events, activations, special outdoor advertising offerings and other media ventures.
All these new advertising solutions paved the path for Dy Tioco’s vision of a new way of experiencing The STAR. Dubbed as “Philstar 2.0,” the advertising solutions were hosted in a oneSTAR, all-STAR portal that can be accessed via the website, mobile application, social media accounts, and more recently, television with the launch of Philstar TV. Since its inception, Philstar 2.0 has won two awards: a 2013 Quill Award and an Anvil Award in PR Tools category in 2014. Thus, with the advent of the digital and information age, The
STAR was able to maintain its position as the leading newspaper in the advertising and marketing race through its careful, creative and innovative multimedia strategy. And it has redefined the industry by being the pioneer print-based multimedia enterprise.
All of Dy Tioco’s hard work has helped made the print industry remain a viable source of advertising revenue even as print media suffered a decline in readership and market share in other countries and markets. Thus, it came as no surprise that Dy Tioco was named SVP for sales and marketing in 2012 and, more recently, Executive Vice President.
As he assumes his new and greater role in the company where he started in 29 years ago, Dy Tioco said, “We are going to continue with our growth. There are still plenty of opportunities to tap and frontiers to explore where our business can thrive.”
He added, “I want to leave a legacy wherein The STAR will thrive for a long time. That no matter how platforms have changed, as a newspaper will remain relevant.”
In his capacity as Advertising Manager, Dy Tioco turned his mission of moving The STAR forward in the sales and marketing race as the mission of his entire marketing team.