Edu bets on timing, message of upcoming political ad

Administration vice presidential bet Eduardo “Edu" Manzano claims to know the secret of an effective advertising campaign. It’s all about the timing and the message, he told GMANews.TV and GMA News during a campaign sortie in Valenzuela City on Friday.

However, even though rivals have spent substantial amounts on their own advertisements, the former Makati City vice mayor has yet to air his own commercials. But this has not reduced his optimism regarding his upcoming commercials which he claimed would boost his numbers in the surveys. "Iyong iba, daan-daang milyon ang binubuhos pero hindi naman umaangat ang numbers [Others spend hundreds of millions but still do not fare any better in the surveys]," Manzano said. In a late February Pulse Asia survey, Manzano lagged behind four other vice presidential candidates and only earned a two-percent rating — the same rating he got in January. Pouring too much money into an ad campaign could eventually tire voters, he said. Candidates who spend too much on television, radio, and print advertisements run the risk of saturating media and become victims of what analysts call “ad fatigue," he added. "I will listen to the advice of my advisers to review our message. Let's review the timing," said Manzano, who is running alongside Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr. For his campaign, Teodoro has been carrying the "Galing at Talino (Skills and Intelligence)" theme. For the presidential preference in the same Pulse Asia survey, Liberal Party's Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Nacionalista Party's Manuel "Mar" Villar Jr. both suffered a respective one-percent and six-percent drop in their ratings. Meanwhile, Manzano's running mate Teodoro — who have been scarce in the political advertising arena compared to the LP and NP bets — achieved a two-percent improvement in his ratings. Some political analysts later said that one of the possible reasons for Aquino and Villar's ratings plunge was "ad fatigue." Among Manzano's rivals, LP's Manuel "Mar" Roxas II and NP's Loren Legarda seemed to be the powerhouse ad spenders before and after the start of the campaign period on February 9. According to a report of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Roxas spent around P184 million within the two months that preceded the start of the campaign period — or from November to December. Meanwhile, during the entire week before February 9, Legarda suddenly jacked up her TV ad spending to almost P50 million or about 63 percent of the value of all her tri-media ad placements from November 2009 to January 2010. But Manzano said he believes that the traditional way of personally meeting with the voters was still the most effective campaign strategy. "Wala pa ring tatalo doon sa actual na lalapit ka sa tao. Doon ako komportable... Doon ako nagsimula bilang government official," said the former vice mayor of Makati City. [Nothing beats actually getting close to the people. I'm comfortable with that. That's what I did when I was starting out as a government official.] He also said his team is relying on alternative forms of advertising through the Internet and social networking sites like Facebook, Friendster, and Twitter. Asked when his television advertisements would be coming out, Manzano said he did not know since it will be the party who'll decide when to lay down their advertising cards on the table. "We agreed that we will first finish our [ad] product and give it to the party to decide when to air it. But that will air, eventually," he assured. 'Greatest love of all' Manzano's visit to the Silvestre Lazaro Elementary School in Barangay Ugong was part of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party's scheduled sortie in Valenzuela City on Friday. Teodoro had joined Manzano in the first part of Friday's sortie when the tandem visited Colegio de Sta. Cecilia and Our Lady of Lourdes College in the neighboring Gen. T. De Leon village. After the visit in the two schools, Teodoro no longer dropped by at the Silvestre Lazaro Elementary School. Manzano, in explaining to the adulated students and teachers Teodoro's absence, said "May iba pa po siyang pupuntahan. Pero makakakaasa po kayo na sa start ng campaign period for local elections ay makikita nyo kaming magkasama ng mas madalas." [He has to go somewhere else. But we promise that you will so more of us together when the campaign period for the local elections starts.] A woman in the crowd, obviously disappointed by Teodoro's absence, later told GMANews.TV, "Paano namin siya iboboto kung hindi namin siya nakikita [How will we vote for him when we weren’t even able to get to see him?]." Still, an amused crowd cheered when Manzano delivered his speech and when administration senatorial bet and lawyer Raul Lambino broke into a song number, belting out the Whitney Houston classic "The Greatest Love of All." Lambino, a law professor at the University of the East in Manila, said their party is still banking on what he called as "high-quality campaigning." "Kami lang po ang hindi naninira ng ibang kandidato kapag kami ay nangangampanya [We are the only party that does not employ mud-slinging during our sorties]," Lambino boasted. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV