From food stalls to bills, loans and insurance, many Filipinos do it all in one app: GCash, the e-wallet run by Globe-affiliated Mynt, with 94 million registered users. Ahead of its October 20 listing, the country's largest IPO, this piece traces its growth through a marketing lens.
When Jollibee opens a new store abroad, long lines form from the night before, often led by Filipinos living locally. Jollibee Foods Corporation now runs more than 10,000 stores in 33 countries, two-thirds of them abroad. This piece examines how Filipino communities overseas became its foothold.
For years, Korean actors and K-pop idols were the faces of major brands in the Philippines. From around 2024, local idol groups known as P-pop moved to center stage, led by girl group BINI and boy group SB19. This piece traces the shift from the Korean wave era to the P-pop boom.
On Facebook Live in the Philippines, sellers show clothes and cosmetics one by one while viewers flood the comments with 'Mine!' The first to type it wins the right to buy. This piece uses data to trace how this selling method, which began as a side hustle, grew into a sizable market.
When September arrives in the Philippines, Christmas trees go up in malls and Christmas songs fill the radio. The four 'Ber months' from September to December make up what is known as the world's longest Christmas season. This piece looks at how it came about and how brands use it.
Live product demonstrations, contests anyone can enter and partnerships with the media are now standard tools for companies everywhere. In the 1920s, Filipino-born entrepreneur Pedro Flores combined them into one package and set off a global yo-yo craze. This piece traces the marketing behind it.
Topping up a prepaid phone just by giving your number at a store counter is routine across emerging markets. The electronic reload, or e-load, is traced to Smart Load from the Philippines' Smart Communications. This piece looks at how the service began and the marketing that made it spread.
With about 110 million people and a median age in the mid-20s, the Philippines has a marketing environment unlike any other in Southeast Asia. Using published data, this piece sets out six ways Philippine marketing differs from the rest of the world.
