Advance Papers, which started operation in the early ’80s by manufacturing ruled pads and notebooks, began using celebrities as endorsers only a year after their entry into the market. They found this effective because people, especially those from the provinces, favored products with celebrities endorsing them. With this kind of promotion, Advance Paper became the country’s biggest notebook producer in the country.
Advance Papers first tapped the services of the early Regal Babies, among them Maricel Soriano, Snooky Serna, Albert and William Martinez. Through the years, Advance Papers has featured on the cover of its notebooks many other young and promising stars.
This school-year, Advance notebooks feature young love teams like those of Heart Evangelista and John Prats, Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz in addition to Carlos Agassi and Judy Ann Santos in the company’s Movie Stars selections. Teen stars, on the other hand, includes Richard Gutierrez, Chynna Ortaleza, Oyo Boy Sotto, James Blanco and Shaina Magdayao. In Stars 101 feature other young stars: Carlo Aquino, Hazel Ann Mendoza and Angelica Panganiban.
Notebooks with cartoon characters are also very popular among students. Advance carries well-known and well-loved characters such as Looney Tunes from Warner Bros.; Scooby-Doo; Dexter the boy genius from Dexter Laboratory; Tom and Jerry; the Flintstones and Nickelodeon’s Rugrats. Aside from these licenses, the company also uses original artworks for themes such as Teen Notes, Sweet Pastels, Fancy and Falcon Florals.
The company is also diversifying into non-paper products such as writing instruments, crayons and other school and office supplies.