MANILA, Philippines — “Sobra! (Very much!)”
Such was how Jared Ernest De Guzman, Customer Director, Marketing, for health, beauty and wellness store chain Watsons Philippines, described how big the demand is for Korean skincare in the Philippines.
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“If you look at the segmentation within skincare, Korean and Asian skin – so Japanese, Thai, Taiwanese, and even our local Filipino brands – are really booming,” De Guzman told Philstar.com and other media outlets at last week’s Watsons SM Mall of Asia main mall store re-opening.
He observed that Filipinos’ love of Korean pop culture have made them yearn to have their own P-pop (Pinoy pop) culture, too.
“It’s really the influence probably also of Koreans in terms of their love of their own local skincare, nahawa rin s’ya rito. And also K-love, or the love of everything K, K-pop, K-food, K-skin, it’s also very much the talk of the town,” he said.
To help strengthen P-pop, in time for Buwan ng Wika in August, Watsons Philippines will be staging its first ever music festival, Watsons Playlist, on August 18 in SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Watsons Playlist will feature “all top P-pop acts in the Philippines” and will be a selling venue for “exclusive merchandise,” said De Guzman.
To get access for free tickets to the concert and merchandise, one has to download the Watsons App and become a Watsons Club member. More details about prices are on the brand’s social media pages.
According to De Guzman, every P5,500 purchase from the Watsons App is equivalent to a VIP ticket, which will be sent to one’s email. Tickets would start to be dispensed starting the end of this month.
“The good news as well, ‘yung dating P10,000 na VIP, P5,500 na lang. So sobrang affordable na s’ya,” De Guzman said, “parang bibili ka lang ng dalawa, tatlong serums, may VIP ticket ka na!”
So far, among the performers announced were SB19, Hori7on, Kaia, G22 and Alamat.