The changing ad game for Pinoy brands

Beyond borders

MANILA, Philippines — The fast-changing landscape of the internet and social media has reshaped people’s media consumption preferences and habits.

As the world becomes increasingly digitally interconnected, Philippine firms need to keep up with emerging advertising trends to seize opportunities beyond the local market.

This is one of the challenges facing Filipino brands amid the rapidly evolving advertising landscape across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

Arshan Saha, regional managing director for APAC at Aleph, explained that Philippine firms seeking to expand across the region need to refine their messages to fit a target market’s norms and cultural context, rather than simply placing an advertisement.

Aleph helps businesses of all sizes by connecting them to a network of global advertisers in over 130 countries.

“The main challenge is that being visible on a global platform is easy, but actually performing in that market is a different matter and that gap is where most brands struggle,” Saha said.

Asia-Pacific is one of the world’s most dynamic digital systems, with the Southeast Asian digital advertising market alone expected to grow at a 14.5-percent compound annual rate, reaching $63.89 billion in market value by 2031, according to Aleph.

Another challenge that companies face is dealing directly with global platforms, which creates real friction due to cultures, time zones, languages and daily operations.

As a result, advertisers struggle to keep up with new products, policies and best practices, Saha said.

Today, consumers in APAC “discover, engage and purchase” across multiple platforms in a single, continuous flow with the boundaries among media, entertainment and commerce “increasingly” blurring, Saha said.

This means that modern consumers discover products, engage with them and purchase what they like concurrently as they bounce between screens and platforms, he added.

“The main challenge is that being visible on a global platform is easy, but actually performing in that market is a different matter and that gap is where most brands struggle,” Saha said.

Filipino consumers, in particular, have become curators and creators instead of passive spectators, the Aleph executive pointed out. Saha emphasized that digital content creation has become a “primary” way for Filipinos to experience and share content in real time.

“The demonstrated way to capitalize on this is to treat content as a cultural event and to embed local creators into the content strategy, turning single moments into ongoing, multi-platform conversations,” Saha said.

Aleph offers Filipino brands a single commercial partner to access major digital platforms across the Asia-Pacific region, eliminating the need to deal with multiple regional partners.

In the Philippines alone, Aleph represents X, Pinterest, Reddit and TikTok, among others, Saha said.

“All in all, Aleph’s teams based across Asia offer advertisers global reach and local expertise to get campaigns running using custom strategies, analytic tools and payment processes,” he said.

“Aleph can operate with speed and compliance, and it cites exclusive partnerships with more than 50 leading digital platforms across its network.

This year, Aleph launched Aleph Arena, a YouTube account that live-streamed the FIFA World Cup to bring the so-called king of sports closer and more accessible to Filipinos.

Over 5,000 pieces of exclusive content were added to the Aleph Arena channel, with local creators embedded directly into the content, turning 90-minute matches into a 24/7 conversation, according to Aleph.

“This matched a real shift in local fan culture, where football has moved from the sidelines to the center of the Philippine sports conversation and the Filipino fan is no longer a spectator but a curator,” Saha said.

The Philippine market, Saha said, offers many opportunities for advertising and e-commerce today. First, the Filipino audience is highly connected, with mobile phones and smartphones as the primary channels for content and purchase.

Second, Filipinos engage simultaneously with multiple platforms like Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, providing a more dynamic ecosystem. Third, e-commerce has matured as a mainstream commercial channel.

“For Filipino brands looking to capitalize on this shift, the strategic priority should be mobile-first creative, creator-led storytelling and integrated social commerce, moving beyond traditional display advertising to meet consumers directly where engagement happens,” Saha said.

Furthermore, Filipino brands must combine seamless access to major global platforms with localized messaging that reflects cultural norms, languages and behaviors in their target markets, Saha noted.

“Rather than pushing one message everywhere, brands should show up authentically at the exact point where a consumer feels relevance, which requires choosing the right combination of complementary platforms across the customer journey: one for discovery, another for community and another for the moment of intent,” he said.

Aleph sees itself becoming a premier digital growth engine in the Philippines, connecting local advertisers to more than 50 of the world’s leading digital platforms, Saha said.

The company’s long-term vision is to equip Filipino brands with the same digital infrastructure and tools used by global giants so that local startups and established corporations can compete on a global scale, Saha added.

“We are exploring opportunities where we can add value and bring the same fan-first, multichannel approach, but we are selective, and the opportunity has to align with our core strength of connecting global platforms with local audiences authentically,” he said.

“What was learned from the FIFA model–meeting fans where they are, integrating creators and treating content as a cultural event–applies beyond major tournaments to any brand or platform trying to build genuine community engagement,” he added.