Nature’s Spring online shopping safety campaign wins at 19th Philippine Quill Awards
CEBU, Philippines — Nature’s Spring’s public safety campaign on online shopping was lauded by the country’s top communications professionals and practitioners at the recently concluded virtual awarding ceremony of the 19th Philippine Quill Awards.
“Online Shopping 101: A Facebook Live Event with Alex Gonzaga” won a coveted Excellence Award for its outstanding use of social media in the communication skills division of the competition hosted by the International Association of Business Communicators Philippines.
The campaign, launched and executed in March of 2021, involved staging a Facebook Live broadcast to give the public needed reminders about guarding their personal information and ensuring safety whenever making transactions online. Alex Gonzaga, actress, social media darling and one of Nature’s Spring’s endorsers, was tapped to host and headline the campaign.
The rise in e-commerce transactions and in cybercrimes
But why was there a need to do a public safety communications campaign? The short answer: the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital transactions, both for consumers and businesses. iPrice, in a report, noted that total sessions or visits to shopping applications in the Philippines climbed to approximately 4.9 billion during the height of strict implementation of community quarantine measures in 2020.
This exponential rise in online transactions is even noticed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which has said that it saw gigantic increase in the volume of transactions in electronic payment facilities InstaPay and PESONet by 624% and 130%, respectively.
While the rapid adoption of digital transactions and of digital payment facilities are welcome developments, these also gave rise to issues of cybercrimes and online scams. PNP’s Anti-Cybercrime Group noted a 37% increase in reported number of online scams for the period of March to September 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
This made apparent the vulnerability of ordinary Filipinos in being duped online for seeking the best deals possible amid the personal and financial hardships brought by the pandemic.
Nature’s Spring's a heritage of public service
Nature’s Spring launched its own e-commerce website shop.naturespring.com.ph in mid-2020 in response to the customer’s needs to balance convenience and safety.
"We saw a boom on how the public quickly embraced e-commerce, especially during the pandemic. As a brand, we wanted to give consumers a reliable guide on what things to consider when buying online, such as tips on getting the best deals and ensuring their safety against online scams," Michael Embestro, national marketing manager for Nature's Spring, says.
This resulted to its public safety campaign “Online Shopping 101”.
Online Shopping 101 was designed to be an interactive social media-based campaign where the brand, through Alex Gonzaga, can freely talk about experiences when shopping online, such as looking for the best deals, problems often encountered and ways to protect one’s personal and financial information whenever shopping online.
Alex’s perky personality, huge reach and appeal to the masses to get the message of being safe whenever transacting online, makes the campaign even more effective.
“Happy ako to work on this project kasi mahilig ako bumili online lalo na nung time na nasa bahay lang ako. Tingin ko dapat ma-share yung mga tips and lessons learned while shopping para maging safe ang mga tao sa pagbili online," Alex shares.
This is not the first time Nature’s Spring used its voice to provide public service.
The brand was established in Cebu in 1991 to respond to the unavailability of safe drinking water after Super Typhoon Ruping devastated the province. Since then, it continued to make being a responsible member of the community a lead motivation for doing business.
Its ResponsiBottle campaign sought to raise public awareness in proper recycling of PET bottles and ending the use of single-use plastic packaging. Its Adopt-A-School program in Mandaue provides beneficiary schools with teacher training, teaching aides and facilities, while also ensuring upkeeping of classrooms, laboratories and libraries. And its Adopt-A-Watershed program has become a driving force in Cebu’s efforts in reforestation and urban greening.
Over the past 30 years, Nature’s Spring has truly demonstrated that it earned the tag of being Tubig Para sa Pinoy. This latest recognition shows just that.
"We are thankful to IABC Philippines and the evaluators of the 19th Philippine Quill Awards for this distinction. This is the icing on top of the joy we've felt in being ‘kasama sa daloy ng buhay ng bawat Pilipino’ for more than 30 years already,” Embestro says.
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