GMA Marketing's Hating Kapatid cited as finalist in Asia's ad fest

MANILA, Philippines - GMA Network, Inc.’s (GMA) wholly-produced TV mini-sine for So Lucky Soda Crackers, Hating Kapatid, made it as finalist in an international advertising festival.

Produced by GMA Marketing and Productions, Inc. (GMPI) with Columbia International Food Products, Inc. (CIFPI), it is among the 73 Philippine entries to join the 1,474 finalists in this year’s Ad Stars International Advertising Festival.

 Hating Kapatid is the only Filipino Network-produced finalist in Asia’s biggest ad festival mounted by the South Korea-based award-giving organization that recognizes exemplary advertisements worldwide.

More than a hundred advertising professionals from 44 countries participated in the preliminary judging of over 10,000 competing entries from 57 countries.

Hating Kapatid, which debuted on GMA’s free-to-air channels last Nov. 16, 2011 as part of GMPI’s sixth Christmas Short Film Festival, tells the story of motherless, school-aged brothers who had to take turns wearing an old pair of school shoes and pushing a cartload of veggies to sell. Both brothers, whose father is ill, have become income earners too early for their age.

A sari-sari store owner, who has become one of their regular customers, feeds them with a pack of branded crackers, which they shared. The Samaritan-like lady also gifted the boys each with a new pair of shoes, and invited them over for Noche Buena, including their sick father, on Christmas Eve.

 Director Louie Ignacio said of his masterpiece, “Hating Kapatid is an inspirational short film that when watched, it’s impossible you wouldn’t feel it’s Christmas.”

GMPI president and COO Lizelle Maralag said that the campaign worked so well for the newly-launched brand. “It hit the audience straight at the heart. The mini-sine had such a powerful impact because, more than its promotional slant, it raised the social awareness of Filipino viewers on the plight of the less fortunate children struggling for a living,” she says.

The ad also received an overwhelming number of good feedback from the online community and trade. CIFPI VP for marketing Elvira Go was so pleased with the material and pushed for the continuity of the campaign through additional 30-seconder commercials.

Go also expressed gratitude for the increasing brand awareness on So Lucky Soda Crackers through the GMPI’s mini-sine. “Hating Kapatid was a risk worth-taking because commercial benefits took the backseat as we tried to fulfill our company’s burning desire to communicate a critical message for man, no matter what his station in life is, to be compassionate and sensitive to others,” she said.

The finalists will compete for the Ad Stars Grand Prix at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center in Haeundae, South Korea on Aug. 23 to 25.

Ad Stars was launched in 2008, and is slowly gaining ground as an indisputable ad festival in the world, according to Ad Star co-chair Euija Lee.