why the loren legarda campaign collapsed – the drama queen factor

loren legarda’s ratings in the poll to begin with was bad,, mar roxas dominating the polls for vice-presidentiables from the very beginning, with mar enjoying double the ratings that legarda was getting.

recent movements in the polls for the vice-presidential race show dramatic changes – with jejomar binay resurgent, roxas softening while legarda collapsing badly. 

what? jejomar binay?  

that is the question most have been asking, binay has not done anything spectacularly different and attention calling in the recent weeks., how did binay manage to now be in the running in the election?

first, it’s the halo effect from a resurgent erap estrada. estrada and binays poll results rose at about the same time. estrada gaining in the polls had a positive effect on binay.

more than that, binay’s poll ratings went up as he gained supporters from the collapse of legarda in the polls. it appears a large part of those who abandoned legarda went to binay and much less to roxas. binay was the biggest beneficiary of the collapse of the legarda campaign.

we think advertising has a lot to do with it as well. from what we have seen, legarda have had a lot more tv ads aired over binay. but a look at the ads of legarda tells us these were ads that she should have not aired at all.

the ads of legarda depicted her as the essential drama queen  with her melodramatic, pa-drama effect delivery of her lines, the slow motion camera movements (or at least that is how it seems) and the ho-hum messages.  the legarda tv ads was just too personal and intimate  – the idea of  loren legarda taking care of everyone, the mother hen who will fix everything.

what makes these ads worst is the way she delivered her lines. she delivered all of them in a hushed, slow paced, tear jerky type of delivery that it makes the whole ad insincere, fake  and we are sure to many very funny. it was just too much on the emotions. or at least a trying hard effect on tugging at the hearts of voters.

we have written about legarda here before the election and we called her the drama queen for keeping us in so much in suspense if first will she run for president, then next as vice-president, then with what political party. in every interview during that time, she kept on the drama of suspending for all of us to watch the number of times she changed her mind and the length of time she needed to decide what to do with here political career.

we think in theses ads legarda simply  carried true what she really is – a drama queen.

• at last – loren legarda joins manny villar as VP. but let’s wait till 3:30 pm for the drama queen to say it
• drama queen senator loren legarda to announce 2010 plans within the week! oh, oh – here we go again!

manny villar’s “opo” tv ad

presidentiables change tv ad executions to save their campaigns

Cover of April 2010 issue of Entrepreneur Philippines (left) where this blog was quoted; title page of article on the right

quotes from this blog on the advertising ran by the presidentiables were published in the april 2010 issue of Entrepreneur Philippines Magazine (cover photos, above). we like to run some parallel points to those quoted in the magazine.

the heaviest spenders, aquino and villar have been churning out new executions in a fast clip. that is the way to go – they need to put on air the ad most relevant to voters. politics and national issues change very rapidly. most national issues take at most has a lifespan of 3 days. there are very few instances when issues take weeks on the front page and headlines.

first, it’s not easy to come up with new ads frequently specially for political campaigns. the second biggest problem is scheduling. the presidentiables are constantly on the move, travelling to the provinces for sorties, in some instances at least 4 different locations in a day. getting them in manila for a tv shot is very difficult. you can of course shoot the commercial where the presidentiable is but that will be very costly for them.

the biggest problem is getting the ad or the storyboard done by the ad agency. not many ad agencies have the ability and the smarts to churn out tv ads in a huff. the challenge is very daunting and huge – you need to read the the issues properly, read the pysche of the voters , then you write the strategy after which you write the storyboard.  the first leg is the most difficult.

while we recognize the campaigns are doing well in airing new tv spots, we are not necessarily saying they are airing the right ads.  we all be talking about those next here at the 2010 Presidentiables Blog.

page 65 of the Entrepreneur Philippines Magazine

 the noynoy aquino ad campaign has very recently taken a different strategy.it is now on a bandwagon, winner’s approach claiming back the “people’s campaign” platform he started with. this ad portrays aquino, not directly said but obvious as the eventual winner.

this is a high risk approach. it is too much of a soft ad that we think is inappropriate at this time when election time is still weeks away, the issues raised against aquino have not been answered and his closes rival, manny villar is not about to give up anytime soon.  more on the villar ad campaign in a later post.

(click to read: manny villar and loren legarda airs negative ad – attack tv ad against noynoy aquino)

erap estrada has also since revised his advertising strategies. interestingly enough, estrada has dropped his “nostalgia campaign”. that is a smart move. estrada now talks about national issues and performance. it’s good that estrada changed his ad campaign, but we think he was not wise in choosing the issues he talks about as they are on the fringe of the voter mind.

there is however something very irritating about his ads – he appears to be too much in showbiz rather than presidential which among all the presidentiables, only he can actually claim being once a president of the country. once in showbiz, always in showbiz?

read the articles of the source of the quotes.

click to read article : noynoy aquino to lose the election due to advertising blunders

click to read article: presidentiables ad themes: villar-poverty, aquino-corruption, estrada-nostalgia and teodoro-ego trip

manny villar’s kurot sa puso “panata” tv ad

The 2010 Presidentiables Blog quoted at Entrepreneur Philippines Magazine

april 2010 issue

quotations from this blog are featured at the april 2010 of the Entrepreneur Philippines Magazine. check out the article entitled “Meet The Candidates” by jimbo owen b. gulle on pages 62 to 68.

the article picks out quotes on our views on the tv advertising aired by the presidentiables. next at The 2010 Presidentiables are our add ons to the quotes used in the magazine.

Nicanor Perlas for President TV Ad

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manny villar and loren legarda airs negative ad – attack tv ad against noynoy aquino

this was aired in tonight’s prime time newscast at abs-cbn — a negative, tv attack ad versus noynoy aquino.

the execution is a talking head of manny villar and loren legarda with supers that state the attack on aquino. we saw the tv ad only once and the the ad attacks aquino on no/lack of experience and no/lack of achievement. aquino is not mentioned by name but these attack points have been floated around against aquino in the past.

we think the negative ad was aired as a tactical move to arrest the decline in villar’s poll ratings. latest pulse asia, SWS and manila standard polls is showing  aquino widening his lead over villar as villar’s ratings started to deteriorate from the previous polling period.

we will post the ad here once this is made available.

truth from villar’s ad agency on “scroll”, the plagiarized tv ad from an argentina tv ad

Ad agency defends Villar ‘Scroll’ ad

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abs-cbnNEWS.com | 04/07/2010 10:55 AM

MANILA, Philippines – The ad agency of Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manny Villar on Wednesday defended its “Scroll” TV ad, which has been widely compared to the “Truth (Upside Down)” political ad of Argentinian candidate Lopez Murphy in 2006. 

In a statement, TBWA\Philippines admitted that it adapted the Villar ad from the Argentinian politician’s ad. The agency said it belongs to a worldwide network of ad agencies and that many of its ideas for ads have been adapted in several countries. Among its ideas are ads for adidas, Pedigree, Absolut, Apple and Nivea.

“The fact is, many ideas of the local agency have been adapted in many countries in our network, the most recent of which is the work it had done for Absolut vodka. That’s how powerful ideas become even more powerful,” the agency said.

It added: “While the ad format was adapted from The Truth ad by TBWA\Argentina, the message is genuinely Manny Villar’s. And it hopes to inspire a country deeply steeped in hopelessness, negativity and cynicism.”

The agency said that while the local adaptation of the Murphy ad has generated positive feedback, other sectors have used the ad to attack the Villar campaign.

“From the outset, the adapted format was made known to our Client. The agency did not conceal the truth. That’s the truth. And nothing but the truth,” it said.

source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/04/07/10/ad-agency-defends-villar-scroll-ad

 

there are few truths that came out from the above.

• one is that as we had guessed, Santiago/Puno/Mangada/TBWA is the ad agency of  manny villar in the philippines.  (read here: did the manny villar campaign plagiarize a Cannes Lions award winning argentina tv ad?)
• villar knew it came from argentina. apparently, they had told villar about it. so we can assume villar approved of the plagiarism

 

that is it. there are other things but not all of the truth came out.

• we do not know if it was plagiarized or not. the ad agency did not confirm that they paid royalties or that they secured the permission of the argentina client to use the ad here in the philippines.
• it’s not enough that the ad is within the network, they need to ask for and be given permission to use the ad in the country. it is not for  the ad agency to give permission for its use, it’s the client’s. in this case it is the presidential candidate in argentina.

 

on other matters:

• the ad agency mentioned they have  ads they developed in the country has been used in other countries.  that is true BUT these are the same client in different countries.  for example, absolut argentina and TBWA argentina (or any other country) can use an ad developed by TBWA philippines for absulot philippines. it does not happen that another client of TBWA argentina, let us say adidas argentina will use an ad developed by TBWA philippines for absolut philippines.  ad agencies who will allow things like these will be fired by the clients.   

until the next villar tv ad, then.

aside from first name, does manny villar and manny pangilinan have something in common? – the sin of plagiarism?

the post we have on this blog on the possibility of the manny villar campaign plagiarizing the tv ad of an award winning argentina tv ad is getting a lot of  read. (click to read here: did the manny villar campaign plagiarize a Cannes Lions award winning argentina tv ad?)

it’s quite a coincidence that our other blog, WAWAM! after hours (click to view here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/) a very similar topic is also getting a lot of read.

there are two common denominators: (1) it involves two people with the same nickname, “manny” – manny villar in this blog and manny pangilinan in the other blog.; and (2) it involves plagiarism.

many pangilinan in the other blog delivered at the the ateneo de manila university during it’s graduation commencement exercise for 2010 graduates a speech that was found out to have major parts of it plagiarized from other graduation speeches delivered by barack obama, oprah winfrey, conan o’brian and j. k. rowling.

manny, as in manny pangilinan, was outed at a facebook account for ateneans (Overheard At The Ateneo) where side by side comparison was made that showed what parts were plagiarized. in many instances the plagiarism was severe with the exact words copied.

pangilinan has offered to resign from his post at the ateneo because of the incident. but fr. nebres, president of the ateneo wants to think about it first.

is this a coincidence or what? manny and manny on the same plagiarism sin.

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click to read :  transcript of manny pangilinan’s speech at ateneo graduation rites and the plagiarized parts and links to original speeches

click to read all posts on the topic here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/category/manny-pangilinan/

did the manny villar campaign plagiarize a Cannes Lions award winning argentina tv ad?

the above villar tv ad is a plagiarized version of the argentina tv ad, below. it copies the main creative handle. 

the ad from aregentina is from SAVAGLIO/TBWA aregentina and the local ad agency of villar is reported to be Santiago/Puno/Mangada/TBWA. it’s possible the local ad agency paid royalties to the argentina ad agency or permission was given for use in the philippines.

ad agencies belonging to the same netwrok do share their work with each other through corporate reels and that could have been how the local agency new about the argentina tv ad. there are other ways to know about this ad – the argentina tv ad is an award winning tv ad and that also gives it a lot of exposure among the international ad agencies. being award winning also gives it a lot of exposure to the public like the internet or youtube.

sharing the ad with other agencies in the same network does not necessarily result to it being used in other countries. advertising ideas and concepts are owned by the clients, not the ad agencies. clients pay the ad agencies to write and produce advertising for them, the output is always owned by the client.

if an ad agency network like TBWA philippines would want to use an idea coming from another branch like TBWA Argentina,  the philippine ad agency through the aregentina agency will need to ask the permission of the argentina client.

however, it is very unusual that a client who owns the original advertising will agree to allow another client of the agency network to use the work done for them.

it is also very unusual that the creatives of the local ad agency like TBWA philippines will want to use the creative idea from another ad agency. the  very core of being a creative in the creative department of an ad agency is that you are creative. being creative means being original. there is a lot of pride in their work and abilities.

this whole thing is confusing to us. TBWA philippines, if it is the ad agency of villar, has a reputation of being one of the most creative in the philippine ad industry. we are puzzled why they needed to copy from another even if it belongs to the same ad agency network.  

information from youtube:

This excellent political advertisement, it won the silver lion in the Cannes Lions Contest 2006.

Category: Public Awareness Messages
Title: TRUTH
Advertiser: RECREAR
Product or Service: POLITICAL MESSAGE
Entrant Company, City: SAVAGLIO\TBWA, Buenos Aires
Country: ARGENTINA
Advertising Agency, City: SAVAGLIO\TBWA, Buenos Aires
Country: ARG This excellent political advertisement, it won the silver lion in the Cannes Lions Contest 2006.

Category: Public Awareness Messages
Title: TRUTH
Advertiser: RECREAR
Product or Service: POLITICAL MESSAGE
Entrant Company, City: SAVAGLIO\TBWA, Buenos Aires
Country: ARGENTINA
Advertising Agency, City: SAVAGLIO\TBWA, Buenos Aires
Country: ARGENTINA
Creative Director: Ernesto Savaglio
Copywriter: Ernesto Savaglio – Alexis Alvarez
Art Director: Pablo Carrera
Agency Producer: Eduardo Suárez
Production Company, City: AWARDS CINE, Buenos Aires
Country: ARGENTINA
Director: Jojó/Bosco
Producer: Fernando Rambo Damiano
Editor: Awards Cine
Music: Fernando Sorín
Account Supervisor: Ricardo Martino/Diego Campos Galante

gilbert teodoro airs an epic fail tv ad, a push against surveys and himself. Teodoro has ADS? Sindrome!

this is supposed to be part of the arsenal to what an analyst calls to be teodoro’s “Battle Of  The Bulge”, a last ditch, huge effort to turn the tide of failure that seem to be the campaign’s destiny.

that is a good objective. but what we do not find good is this tv ad which seem to be not going for anyone or any principle in particular, it is going against surveys.

contrary to pronouncements by teodoro himself that he does not care about surveys, this ad confirms he does care for surveys. he cares for it so much that he feels compelled to put up an ad that goes against it. the way this execution was laid out, you would think teodoro is going against an opponent named “survey”.

well, he is not. he is however suffering in the surveys. his best rating is 7% and his latest ratings at the SWS is 6%. he has been perennially stuck at 4th. that is definitely not a good thing as it shows he in unable to convince and convert voters to his side.

i thought teodoro will climb to a respectable double digit rating by now, but that seems to be expecting too much considering it is just a few weeks till election time.

this ad is a high risk ad for teodoro. this ad actually calls attention to his poor showing in the surveys. ads, specially political ads, are supposed to highlight the good things a candidate has. this one begins the ad with calling attention to a failure of the teodoro campaign – his very poor showings in the surveys.

we do not know exactly how much of the voters are familiar with the survey results but for those who are not, this ad will push them to find what the surveys are saying about teodoro. and when they do, they will see that teodoro is a loser in the surveys. the net effect then of this ad is that more people will now pay attention to survey results and every time the voters see the results, they will see teodoro doing very poorly at them.

i don’t think there is a single tv ad for any mass consumer product where it begins it’s tv commercial telling it’s target market the brand has a very small market share  or that research shows the brand is not being proffered by many consumers or only a few consumers prefer the brand.

the equivalent message of political surveys to mass consumer brands is that a poor showing in political surveys mean the candidate is not preferred by many voters. that kind of message is hardly any positive motivation to convert non-users or non-preferers to your side.

in fact that kind of message may even demoralize or turn off his current supporters. there are not many people who will want to continue to support a loser.

we understand the intent of including surveys at the beginning of the ad. this ad is meant to show that teodoro is gaining support from a growing number of voters. they want a bandwagon effect.

that is a valid advertising idea. but did they have to use teodoro’s poor showing in surveys to set up the message of growing support for teodoro? did they have to use a negative message at the start of the ad to communicate a positive message?

no, they did not have to. there are many other ways of setting up the commercial.  in fact there a lot more positive ways of doing so.  the negative start of the ad with the message of teodoro’s poor showing in the surveys has the effect of teodoro shooting himself in the foot.

the ad also suffers from other fatal errors, to us the most major of which is the obsession of people saying his name over and over again. teodoro’s problem goes beyond name recognition. getting the people to say his name many times over in the ad is not doing anything to help him get elected.

they should have asked the on-cam talent to tell the audience why they are voting for teodoro rather than just saying his name. they had a few of those but we don’t understand why of all attributes they want people to remember about teodoro, it needs to be “batang-bata” or “maka-Diyos”.

while those are positive attributes, they do not give any meaningful  addition or address problems of the teodoro campaign. rather than give these worthless attributes, they could have chosen attributes that are consistent with his platform or those that debunk negative attribute people have of him. in other words, they should have used attributes or messages that will help him get elected.

this is a definite WAWAM! and yes, teodoro has ADS? Sindrome.

the miracle that teodoro’s campaign wants us to believe will happen

we are reacting to these statements made by the teodoro campaign officials about the chances that that teodoro can still win this election.

source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100331-261738/Dont-count-Teodoro-out-yet-says-Palace

Don’t count Teodoro out yet, says Palace
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 07:03:00 03/31/2010

MANILA, Philippines—Though he remains a poor fourth in the surveys, administration standard-bearer Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro should not be counted out of the presidential race, Malacañang said Tuesday.

“There’s no reason for anyone to throw in the towel,” Gary Olivar, deputy presidential spokesperson, told reporters. “People, when they start campaigning, they should be serious about it.”

it is the late stages of the campaign and for teodoro to continue to get only single digits ratings in the poll does say it is time to throw in the towel.

changes in voter attitudes do not happen fast – it takes time for the messages to reach the voters and it takes time for the voters to act on them.

even on that one, there is no assurance that the voters will react  favourably to your message. the other candidates are doing their own efforts which probably already has reached the intended voters.

for those in the laggards group like teodoro, the task is not just to get his message to reach voters, but more than that, it is to convert them to his side.

conversion is one of the most difficult tasks in marketing. conversion is much harder than persuasion.

Olivar advised the public to wait for the results of the next survey, which he said would cover the March 26 kick-off of the local campaign and factor in the political machinery of the administration coalition.

“We have the word of administration party spokespersons and leaders that we will start to see the effects of their grassroots strength after the local campaign started on March 26,” he said.

this is a very tall promise.

the only way teodoro will turn the tide in his favor is he has done something massive, something different and something really smart in the last few weeks since that last poll was taken. we did not see teodoro doing anything earth shaking during the time.

the local “political machinery” is a myth the ruling party keeps saying whenever they are losing in the polls. to them it is really no more than a made up silver bullet.

political machinery did not deliver and in fact was non-existent in the last senatorial election where almost all the opposition candidates won seats and almost all the admin candidates lost.

the reason for the loss? gloria macapagal arroyo. and that reason continue to be present now and in particular with teodoro who has been given the kiss of death.

Party secretary general Francis Manglapus said the surveys would not reflect the true sentiments of voters until 10 days before the end of the campaign period, when the electorate had made a firm choice.

“This thing is far from over,” he said by phone.

Manglapus, who said he doubted the “science” behind surveys, agreed that the surveys had failed to take into account such factors as “command vote” and “regional strength.”

surveys capture voter sentiments at the moment of the survey. have several survey points and you can connect them to form a trend. the trend for teodoro is not a good thing.

“command vote” and “regional strenght” are cute new words to say “political machinery” which as we have said previously is a myth.

it is strange that the impact of political machinery is being portrayed here like a switch or a faucet where it’s effects are felt only when it is switched on.

these local officials who are supposed to form the political machinery has always been in their locality from the very beginning. why has their impact not been picked up by the polls? it appears they have not been doing anything and will only start on the official start of the local campaign.

if the impact of the local machinery is not being felt now, it will not be felt 2 months from now during the election.

“We just started to send out our message last Friday,” he said, referring to the start of the local campaign. “We’re just starting to crank the machinery.”

if this is true, then this party is in trouble for it’s mismanagement and poor strategizing in this election. they knew from the very beginning that teodoro was an underdog in this election. knowing that, the smart manager should have started this much earlier.

Manglapus, however, conceded that the delayed move to air advertisements on television and radio contributed to Teodoro’s poor ratings. He disclosed that the party would step up the airing of these ads and the road shows.

the problem with teodoro’s adveritsing is not just being late in airing them. first of all, we disagree – they were not late at all. they were aired at  about the same time as the other front runner aquino.

the problem with teodoro’s ads is that they were bad commercials and that they do not have enough money to air them. ad people will tell you, however, that even if teodoro had the same amount of money villar ad, it will not help at all since the ads are weak.

“The election is 40 days away, and the local campaign has just started. Now the real movement and growth of our campaign by leaps and bounds will be seen,” he said.

this is fine IF teodoro do not have competition. teodoro’s campaign is not in a vaccum. he competes with other presidentiables. so it will not happen.

the teodoro campaign needs a large dose of reality.