Daang Matuwid failure – after 7 months, Roxas reaches only 4th and flat in the polls

Mar Roxas’ presidential campaign is unique – it is the only campaign that has single-mindedly stayed on one platform and advertising campaign since it launched in end July, 2015 with the formal endorsement of President Noynoy Aquino at Club Filipino. Roxas has stayed on “Daang Matuwid” since that formal endorsement. In the words of Aquino, Mar Roxas will “continue Daang Matuwid”.

With that announcement, Roxas got a huge bump in the polls, surging from a single digit rating to a double digit rating. That was in September 2015 where his rating at Pulse Asia stood at 18% making him a legitimate contender among the presidentiables. The surge placed Roxas at 3rd and very close to Jejomar Binay who was at 2nd, That was the first time that Roxas placed strongly in the polls.

But that surge in September 2015 was the last good news Roxas has gotten in the polls. For seven (7) months since September 2015 that Roxas has stayed on “Daang Matuwid” , Roxas has not gotten any good news in the polls.

After seven (7) months, Roxas is still 4th out of 5 candidates and his ratings has remained flat, just moving within the range of 17% to 20%, close to being within the margin of error. Being within the margin of error means the differences in his ratings are not significant, his numbers have not really changed.

 

 

This means “Daang Matuwid” is associated with failure, the most that it has given Roxas in the last seven (7) months of being single-minded on it is 4th place that is not moving at all. fourth place in an election will not win it.

In marketing and advertising an ad campaign or a brand positioning that is not delivering the results, like a rise in market share or an uptick in volume sales, is immediately dropped and changed into something else.

This action of dropping and changing ad campaigns and brand positioning is even more dire in a political campaign. A political campaign is short, lasting just months and has a definite deadline – election day. Not getting it right by election time means losing the election.

Mar Roxas’ “Daang Matuwid” for sure is a WAWAM!

Read also :

• why Mar Roxas’ “Daang Matuwid” ad campaign is failing http://wp.me/pnw03-1Z5

• Mar Roxas’ “Daang Matuwid” ad campaign is failing him – the numbers show it http://wp.me/pnw03-1YE

 

why Mar Roxas’ “Daang Matuwid” ad campaign is failing

Part 3.

 

 

this is a lethal combination for any campaign or brand – when your own ad campaign is doing badly while at the same time your competition’s ad campaigns are doing very well. you have nowhere to go for strength.

 

 

 

the Mar Roxas ad campaign fails in its advertising strategy. no amount of creative advertising or media spending can make an ad campaign work for you when the strategy is all wrong.

brand positioning is the most important and most powerful component of the advertising strategy. get the brand positioning wrong and everything else is wrong and weak.

the Mar Roxas campaign is so entrenched and totally defined by “Daang Matuwid” that any negative, any comment or any problem with it by extension is put on Mar Roxas. never mind that Roxas has no direct hand on them. voters are not seeing that. the take away of voters is that with Daang Matuwid as failing or having problems, Mar Roxas is failing and having problems.

elections are about the future, the things that will happen for us in the future. that is the reason why elections are about promises that the candidates are making now and will do in the future. Daang Matuwid is about the current and the past. a candidate promising the current and the past will not be going anywhere in an election that is about the future.

 

with Roxas placing 4th out of 5 presidentiables, his marketing and campaign objective is clear and obvious – he needs to convert supporters of his competitors into his camp. his goal is to look for switchers from his competitors, he needs to convert them to his camp.

“Daang Matuwid” does not do that. in fact the reason supporters of his competitors are supporting others is because they are promising something other than “Daang Matuwid”. promising “Daang Matuwid” is not giving them reason to switch. all that it will do is sustain his current power base which based on the surveys is a small minority.

 

 

 

dropping “Daang Matuwid” is a very major and serious change that the Mar Roxas campaign needs to do. it is necessary. keeping it in the campaign as a brand positioning will not move up Roxas’ standing in the surveys and not move him to win in the election.

there should be some consumer research that the Mar Roxas campaign can do to confirm my views on Daang Matuwid. regardless of the consumer research , the numbers that we have now supports my view – Roxas’ ratings are flat and he ranks 4th out of 5 candidates.

Mar Roxas’ “Daang Matuwid” ad campaign is a WAWAM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duterte-Cayetano TV Ad – powerful and meaningful messages

the omnibus Duterte-Cayetano TV ad positions them as the tandem for change. the set up is dirt is being thrown at the Duterte and Cayetano poster by those against change – “lumalabas na and mga galit at ayaw sa pagbabago” . scenes showing ordinary people putting up the Duterte-Cayetano posters and ad materials in their homes follow the intro with the copy talking about the changes that the tandem will give the country : “kapayapaan sa paligid”,” kaayusan sa ating gobyerno” at “kaginhawahan sa ating buhay”. the ad ends with their tagline – “Para Sa Tunay Na Pagbabago”.

it’s simple to understand and a powerful ad. “change” for the better is what most of us want and specially as it relates to peace and order, order in governance  and progress. the things that the Duterte and Cayetano tandem is promising are probably among the top things that people want to have or even to change in the current administration.

the tagline “Para Sa Tunay Na Pagbabago” may not be the best one for the ad but emphasizing “change” in it will make people notice. the ad does not really explain or make a point on where the “tunay” or real change is or what it means making  it disconnected with the rest of the ad.

the ad will appeal to 83%  of the voters. 83% is equivalent to all the respondents who did not select Roxas in the latest SWS survey.

this ad is a stark contrast to the whimsical and wild ads for Duterte which are in animation and full of over-promises pushing the ads into being incredible and unbelievable.

the ad will get the Duterte-Cayetano tandem noticed.

Mar Roxas campaign airs a mini attack ad

was talking about the need for an attack ad by the Roxas campaign. this one takes the form of an attack ad. https://t.co/0IrvWCpsnj

— WAWAM (@wawam) January 26, 2016

note : we are still looking for ways to post the video here. we will post it here once we are able to find a way to do it. 

just tonight, the Mar Roxas campaign aired what i can call a mini attack ad, a small version of the attack ad that i was tweeting about in the afternoon today.

we would have done a more aggressive and a definitively hard hitting attack ad than the one Roxas aired. and because it would be hard hitting, it would be best done by the Liberal Party and the LP senatoriables which is called an omnibus attack ad.

but it is an ad in the right direction. it is an ad better than what Roxas has aired previously and the times and situation that Roxas is in calls for such an ad.

 

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

If only there will be someone who can help us really inform people that A NEW PHILIPPINES IS POSSIBLE then more will know why we are voting and campaigning for Nick Perlas. Here is a video that could be the TV AD OF NICK PERLAS FOR PRESIDENT.

CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW THE TV AD.

If you want to MAKE THIS TV AD POSSIBLE CONTACT US AT 09088-PERLAS (737527)

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.