Cebu City, Philippines - Widest reach at lower cost.These are the key words that encouraged some Filipino companies to use digital tools like mobile phones and the Internet to sell their goods and services to the Filipino consumer public. This new wave in marketing was one of several subjects discussed in length in last week's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Conference on E-Governance and Digital Marketing at the Cebu International Convention Center. Donald Patrick Lim, president and chief executive officer of Yehey! Corp., said along with the development of ICT as the new marketing tool came the growth of a new breed of consumers like prosumers or producers and consumers of information. He said the shift from consumers to prosumers helped make marketing more dynamic and gave rise to the difference from the use of one medium to multi-media. “(From a) passive to a participative audience, (from) standard, straight information to infotainment and broadcasting to narrowcasting...from mass advertising, we saw a shift to whisper campaign or buzz advertising. Word-of-mouth endorsements is becoming more powerful,” said Lim of prosumers. The prosumers’ emergence has also encouraged companies to adopt a paradigm shift in the way they view business, Lim said. For instance, budget airlines that advertise online consider themselves part of the Internet retail industry rather than the airline industry, the Yehey! Corp. president said. “Internet retailing for airlines is about ease of use and selling them ultra cheap. These airlines earn from ad space and other services posted in the website,” Lim said. Lim, who is also president of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines, said the Internet has grown from being a novelty item for the technology-savvy to being an accepted communication tool to every person. “It took television 13 years to penetrate 50 million homes. Internet achieved the same growth only in 5 years,” he said. Worldwide, Lim said Internet usage grew from 19 million users in 1994 to 125 million in 1999. “Plus, there's a 30 percent growth year on year,” he told conference participants. In response, Globe Telecom enterprise segment product manager Baby Sto. Domingo said companies avail of mobile advertising because of its “targeted and customer-centered advertisements.” Sto. Domingo said a fraction of Globe's 21 million subscribers has registered confirmation to receive mobile ads. “We have several pilot test formats with several advertisers in 2007. For the past 15 months, we launched 200 mobile marketing campaigns,” she said. Sto. Domingo said a tobacco firm whom they worked with reported a 25 percent increase in sales due to mobile ads. /Reporter Chris Evert Lato | 
