FreakOut Philippines Inc.: Approaching a Confident Creative Strategy for Digital Advertising Marketing

Renichiro Niwa is a student at Musashino Art University, one of the top art universities in Japan. He specializes in spatial design and digital art, and travels around the world as an entrepreneur to spread Japanese history, anime, and other cultural content to the world. https://lit.link/renichironiwa

FreakOut is a leading advertising technology firm that empowers businesses to reach their target audiences with precision. FreakOut SEA offers a suite of innovative solutions that leverage local marketing knowledge/expertise, data-driven insights and cutting-edge technology. With that, why don’t you join me in learning more about FreakOut Philippines Inc. with its General Manager, Hazel Dominguez. 

Overview of Business

FreakOut is a prominent player in Southeast Asia’s advertising ecosystem. Our Southeast Asia operations are heavily focused on ad-tech, and we work closely with local and regional advertising agencies and publishers to drive innovation and success for our clients.

Operational Structure

FreakOut operates under the strategic guidance of FreakOut Holdings. Our Southeast Asia business is headquartered in Singapore, but the respective branches are driven by highly experienced and localized teams who possess deep expertise in their respective markets. Despite this strong local focus, we foster regional collaboration to enhance technological development and facilitate knowledge sharing across our markets

In the Philippines, our team is notably lean, consisting of just 10 people. Among them, we have our creative team that does the advertising work, and we have an operations team that makes sure all the advertising products are properly implemented. We also have an administrative department and a finance department, and of course, we have a sales team that deals directly with clients and sells solutions.

Creative Business and Client Transactions

I lead the business in the Philippines and manage the creative team for each project. The team receives the campaign brief from the agency or direct client, and then we brainstorm together..

We take input from the creative team as well as the sales and operations teams when it comes to strategy. When creating a specific solution, we need to meet the client's criteria, not just provide something creative and attractive. At the same time, we make sure that we are also meeting the client's KPIs (key performance indicators). Ultimately, we provide a service to the client, so we need to make sure that the client is satisfied. Once the design is completed, the sales team, who are directly serving the client, communicates what the client wants together with the creative team. Since we come up with various solutions, the results may vary, but we often do rich media executions to do a lot of creative work. In other words, this is the only time that the creative team can work and deliver a higher quality creative.

Certain formats are already standardized, and what the creative team does is to make sure that all the elements are in place and are executed. There are also times when the client has specific instructions. For example, they want something new, they want something different, or they want something that is not standard. In this case, we need to spend more time brainstorming than usual and also provide input to the creative.

Development of creative business

As a development of creative business, it ranges from animation and video products. For example, we also deal with movie production companies as well as OTT. Every time they release a movie or a new show title, we get very excited because we get to be more experimental on things, especially in animation and effects. So, in some cases, we have done campaigns for each client and made innovative proposals. This is how we design. We think that movies are one of the most exciting industries we work in because we can do more on the creative side. So, we usually come up with creative strategies by repeatedly brainstorming and talking about how to animate them and make it visually appealing.

Success stories and the strength of repeat business

FreakOut's success stories in the Philippines include repeat business. For example, when we receive inquiries from clients ranging from FMCG, movies, e-commerce  or even competitors, they look at our past achievements and portfolio and say: "Oh, so you were the one who created these" or "We want something like this, we want you to make it for us" which leads to an appeal of trust and achievements. The success of one project has a great impact on other companies, leading to the next job. This is a success story in terms of creativity, which can increase awareness and influence and lead to sales of a particular product. These clients are repeat customers, and campaigns are not one-offs, rather, successful campaigns are implemented and executed, resulting in repeat business.

Creative business model

There are many creative companies, large and small, in the Philippines. Which company to choose depends on the particular client. For example, there are large advertising agencies with a long history and track record, and there are also small creative agencies in the Philippines that can provide the same quality at a lower cost. Of course, the cost will be higher if you hire a large company, but it all comes down to the relationship with the client. There may be cases where you need to work with a larger agency with a global orientation and budget.

As for the client, I think there is one agency or company that does the creative direction, strategy, and media placement for a particular client, but there are also certain cases where they ask a smaller agency for creative direction and a larger agency for media implementation.

Current clients often take this approach, and in the case of large companies, they may not need to ask an agency or creative agency because they may have a team in-house. Recently, many companies have been building their themes and digital marketing in-house, as it is relatively cheaper if they have an in-house team because it makes more sense to have your creativity.

Entertainment market and demand in the Philippines

In the Philippines, we feel that customers are doubtful to spend money on entertainment such as movies, theater, animation, and digital art. The Philippines is known throughout Southeast Asia as a market that does not pay a lot for entertainment. However, if it is high-quality content and unique, not found on other platforms, there is a reason to pay.

As for the target demographic, the amount of money paid for entertainment varies greatly among the low-income, middle-class, and upper-class groups. For the low-income group, paying for entertainment is not a priority, but for the middle to upper classes, there is a high demand for high-quality entertainment.

In urban Manila, digital art museums have started to erupt in recent years and are often reported in the news. The government is trying to realize such projects because there is an increasing demand for immersive experiences. Many of the younger generations are happy to pay money to take photos and post them on social media, so the demand is expected to increase in the future, especially in urban areas.

Hazel has extensive experience and success in the digital creative industry, and has demonstrated leadership in numerous projects. Her sharp creative sense and technical skills have been an essential element in the growth of FreakOut Philippines, and it is expected that she will continue to contribute to improving the company's brand value through innovative projects. As a company, we can expect to further expand our market while incorporating the latest technologies, making leaps in new business areas and providing added value.

Visit www.techshake.asia if you would like to know and connect more with Freakout Philippines Inc.