I was recently interviewed by Beth Morrissey from ABS-CBN (News & Current Affairs) about how the Presidential candidates are using Social Media and the internet in the 2010 campaign. It was a pretty interesting discussion we had since she was genuinely interested in internet marketing and she had a pretty good grasp of the topic. It was really more like an exchange of ideas than an interview. Anyway, let me just share the share the article which was posted on the ABS-CBN News website. New media consultant Carlo Ople is skeptical that politicians in the Philippines will be able to replicate...

The latest SWS and Manila Standard surveys show that it’s a deadlock between Senator Noynoy Aquino and Senator Manny Villar. It’s also the same for their social media Friend numbers. Right now Noynoy is at 850,000+ while Manny is closing in at 812,000+. However at this point it’s no longer about having the most number of friends on social media. The campaign staff of both teams fail to realize that they can actually use social media to win in the upcoming elections and it just puzzles me why they haven’t figured this one out. In this short post, let me give free unsolicited...

I wouldn’t really call this black propaganda but it’s definitely still political propaganda. A month ago, GMANEWS.TV came out with an article which questions Noynoy Aquino’s legacy. The article talks a lot about Hacienda and all the negative things that the Aquinos were dragged into. One of the most controversial topics is how Noynoy Aquino defended GMA during the Hello Garci hearings (that’s for another blog post though). I won’t talk about politics in this post but allow me to just post a screenshot of a rather interesting ad that I saw on Facebook. I don’t...

The Liberal Party has been releasing online ads lately promoting Noynoy Aquino merchandise. Obviously the money will be used to fund his campaign. Online fundraising was key in Barrack Obama’s win in the US. However the question is if it will really work in the Philippines? This post will analyze the current local e-commerce landscape and will end with a recommendation to politicians who want to ramp up funding from the internet in a more effective manner. Noynoy Aquino Fund Raising Ad Kudos to the Liberal Party First, let me applaud the Liberal Party for being one of the few who seriously...

My fellow blogger and good friend Brian Ong asked me on Facebook last night how he can remove the Manny Villar ads on his blog. Apparently this is also a concern shared by a lot of bloggers and website owners as well. Having political ads on your site has a lot of implications, the most obvious one being that your viewers will think that you actually support the candidate being advertised because it’s in your site. Here’s a more compelling reason to filter ads though – adsense earnings. I noticed that the CTR of my various sites went down over the past few months. I decided to...

This is a follow-up to my earlier post Philippines Internet Marketing advice for Presidential Candidates. Search Engine Marketing plays an important role in online campaigns because Filipinos tend to do their research through Google. This was validated by the Yahoo! Philippines and Google popular keyword search studies which were released late last year. For this article, I just keyed in the names of the candidates on Google and checked out the first 10 results. Ideally the first hit should be their official website and all the others should be positive reviews or endorsements. Joseph “Erap”...

Internet Marketing in the Philippines is technically still at it’s infancy and this is reflected by a lot of the online campaigns being done by politicians running in the 2010 elections. It’s actually quite interesting to see what they come up with but most of the time they’re really not maximizing the potential of the net and social media. There is so much more they can do and quite frankly right now almost all of them have contained internet marketing to one box: paramihan ng Facebook friends. Here are 3 tips that I just wanted to share for the campaign teams: 1. If you’re...

One of the major issues I raised during one of the marketing forums of the upcoming campaign was that politicians should be very responsible when it comes to advertising and social media. However it looks like the ugly head of black propaganda has finally shown itself and it will probably even get out of hand once the election is close. I spotted this very direct ad that attacks Senator Manny Villar, Gibo Tedoro, and former President Erap Estrada. This is probably related to the Jalosos rape case. I read through the site of “Mark Jimenez” and it really didn’t pull any punches...

I made a list of politicians who are running for national office in 2010 who have websites. It’s amazing how many of them are now turning to the web to help them win their respective campaigns. I’ll be doing an analysis of their sites in the coming weeks. Check out the list after the break.

My girlfriend logged out of Multiply last night and we were really surprised to see a funny yet weirdly entertaining political advertisement from Senator Mar Roxas. There’s him with his famous Padyak, complete with the young kid on the side car. The Padyak is moving forward and you’re prompted to click on it multiple times to make it go faster. Then you crush a bunch of rocks labeled corruption and you’re finally led to the final banner which you can see in the screenshot above.

Author’s Note: This is a re-post from my political blog – Juan Country. Published it here because it also has a lot to do with internet marketing. I’ve been hearing about MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando’s latest online gimmick from several friends for the past 2-3 weeks. I finally decided to check it out this weekend and I was really surprised. In his bid to boost his popularity for the upcoming 2010 elections, he came up with something that really blew me away. He came up with a “Be the MMDA Chairman” flash game on his official website. To support the game,...

Coming fresh from a coffee session with Senator Manny Villar, I wasn’t expecting to be part of another political blogging event anytime soon. However, I was able to get an invite to another event for another potential contender for the 2010 elections. This time it was the youngest presidential aspirant – Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero. In our session, Chiz talked about a wide array of topics both personal and political. We talked about his previous romantic relationships, his reaction on the infamous “Le Cirque Dinner”, his plans in 2010, and a lot of other...

One of my personal goals is to be able to meet all the aspiring candidates for the Presidency in the upcoming 2010 elections. I’ve already worked with Senator Roxas’ team and I was able to talk to him at length during several events and activities. I was recently invited to join a bloggers coffee session with another Presidential candidate, Senator Manny Villar. I wasn’t really expecting an invite for a session with him since I used to work for one of his rivals so it was a pleasant surprise for me to get that call. We had a really nice conversation going at Bo’s Coffee...

I was watching TV the other day when I was able to catch Senator Manny Villar’s latest 30 second TVC. I was expecting the same old “trapo” advertisement but I was actually pleasantly surprised with his latest material. His Akala Mo Campaign is catchy, hip, and relevant. What’s most important, I think, is that it’s positioning Senator Villar away from traditional politics. Anyway, after the TVC, there’s a picture of the senator with a huge space dedicated at the center promoting a website – www.akalamo.com. The website is reminiscent of Ako Mismo wherein...

I made this short video just this morning to summarize what has been happening with our Facebook Stop Con Ass Movement. I’m very happy to let everyone know that we now have more than 71,000 sign-ups! Only a matter of time before we reach the 100,000 mark. To all the congressmen who voted “Yes” and have dreams of running for a national position, you just lost 71,000+ votes. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do sign-up and join our cause! Lastly, let me just remind everyone of the EB which will happen later at 6PM, Menu Restaurant, in Metrowalk. Have a good weekend everyone!

Congressman Roilo Golez is a good example of how politicians should use social media in their information drives. In the recent Facebook EB vs Con Ass, Cong. Golez was our guest of honor, and he gave a short speech on how social media can be the prime mover to drive ideas to the “tipping point”. He explains that by posting information across various platforms, you multiply the reach exponentially because it is easy for others to pass the information along like a grapevine. Watch his 2 minute speech after the break. Really good stuff.

I just came from the meeting with the core members of the STOP CON ASS CAUSE Facebook group and I’m happy to let everyone know that the 2nd Facebook EB vs Con Ass will be held this coming Friday, June 19, 2009 (6PM – 9PM). We’re still finalizing the venue but it will probably be in one of the restaurants in Metro Walk. We’re also coordinating with the offices of some of our guests from Congress and the Senate. Hopefully we can get a few of them to attend the EB to share their insights on what happened that fateful night in Batasan. Please block off your schedule already...

I was just reading the latest articles on the recently concluded Anti Con-Ass rally on Inquirer.Net. According to the police, this rally had the lowest turnout, around 6,000 based on their estimates. The organizers, on the other hand, claim that they had 13,000-15,000 warm bodies. You got to ask yourself the question: despite all the outrage this issue has generated, why only 15,000 people went to the streets? I’m sure there are varied reasons but at the end of the day the measurement of success for events like this is the number of participants. Sadly 15,000 is not representative of the...

A few months ago, I was invited to a forum hosted by the Liberal Party. We had Jo Hansen, US President Obama’s campaign consultant, talk about how Obama won the election. There were a lot of topics covered and it would be one hell of a lengthy post to write everything in just one go. I’ll try to split it up in smaller yet themed articles so that it can be easily read and appreciated better. One of the key messages that Mr. Hansen stressed was that Obama really made it a point to use all the tools available to him at that time.

Around 5 years after the fact, high level government officials are finally learning to embrace technology and new media. An officemate plurked that none other than the President of the Republic of the Philippines, President Arroyo, is now on Twitter. I’m 99% sure this isn’t the real President Arroyo, but at least it looks like she’s doing it, haha. Her PR Team is probably the one