MANILA, Philippines – What does it take for an advertisement to become a hit in the Philippines? Not much, if an advertiser plays the proverbial cards right.

Whether it be in a terrestrial medium (television, radio, print) or digital (YouTube ads, infographics) the core of every effective ad lies in its message. 

Google released on June 24 its YouTube Ads leaderboard for the first half of 2015. The list contains 10 ads on YouTube that Filipinos watched over the past 12 months.

Here are 3 of the 10 ads on the list:

“Bounce” by Colgate-Palmolive Philippines

Palmolive has always been heavily reliant on star power – in this particular ad’s case, rising teen stars Julia Barretto, Janella Salvador, and Liza Soberano for its ads. But what makes this ad stick? An upbeat, catchy beat, easy-to-follow choreography, and repetitive lyrics – the perfect ingredients for a last song syndrome (or LSS, in colloquial parlance). 

“We always want to make our campaigns more interesting,” Colgate-Palmolive Philippines marketing director Rani Al Hajji said. 

Al Hajji also explained that as marketers, they had to do the shift to add more weight to digital, both in mindset and approach. “This kind of execution – we never did this on TV,” he said. “There are little details that actually help engage a lot of people online, with people doing their own versions of this song and dance thing, and it reflects the good business we have so far.”

“Mother’s Day” by Nestlé Philippines for Nido

The ad, released on Mother’s Day, opens with a married couple leaving their young daughter in the care of her maternal grandmother to, what is assumed, attend an event. The first few moments between grandma and child seemed like a struggle. But toward the end, the twist turns the story into a heartwarming account of love across 3 generations.

Nido is no stranger to Mother’s Day campaigns, but Nestlé Philippines’ creative services head Jayel Ladioray said that in creating a cinematic experience with the right amount of drama, they had to resist the temptation of writing out a plot that bore more similarities to Disney movies than real life.

“This time around what was key to us was the tension,” Ladioray said. “A good story always has to have some sort of conflict.”

“Finally” by Procter & Gamble Philippines for Ariel 

It was an ad that spawned a thousand memes, mainly attributed to its adaptation of the CeCe Penniston dance floor hit for its jingle. 

“Filipinos know that Ariel is one of the best detergents in the market, but we wanted them to be aware that it could be affordable too,” Ariel brand manager Czar Callo said.

Callo said the ad’s launch was big, releasing the material across all touch points, from TV to radio to print to digital. With ubiquity comes buzz, but the Ariel team did not expect the amount of chatter that it did online.

“To be honest, we weren’t prepared for the amount of organic content that came in,” Callo added. “But this commercial already delivered a lot for us, and that’s enough to make us happy.”

Key trends

Google identified several key trends in each of the top performing ads, and they are the following:

Local creativity. 7 of 10 in the ads leaderboard have a distinctly Filipino flavor, from using the vernacular to injecting relatable cultural nuances. Ariel’s “Finally” ad hit the sachet economy best representative of the Filipino consumer, and Palmolive’s “Bounce” video put together 3 of the most popular TV stars to sing and dance a jingle that serves as a guaranteed earworm.

Marketers thinking like filmmakers, not as ad makers. Nido’s tale of motherhood down the generations tugs at the Filipino viewer’s heartstrings. It’s still an ad, but it keeps things more about the story than the product. 

Seizing the moment. Nido chose to make their message relevant by linking their ads to a widely-practiced celebration – Mother’s Day.

Made-for-digital. Ads are produced with YouTube’s audience in mind.  And with a year-on-year growth of 60%, the future of Philippine media is driven by demographic that wants their content uninterrupted, on-demand, and readily accessible mobile. (READ: Cheaper, celebrity-endorsed smartphones, tablets rule) – Rappler.com