As the Philippines’ top weekend variety show, “ASAP”, celebrated #ASAPKapamilyaDay last Sunday to honor the Filipino family, ABS-CBN Corporation and The Filipino Channel (TFC) also launched two video campaigns that invite Filipinos everywhere to take charge of their families’ future by actively participating in the Philippine Presidential Elections 2016.

ABS-CBN unveiled its new star-studded station ID with the theme of “Ipanalo Ang Pamilyang Pilipino” (Make the Filipino Family Win) while TFC debuted #Vote4ASelfieWorthyPH – its first global video campaign that was shot and edited entirely using smartphones.

In partnership with ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs, TFC also launched its Overseas Filipino Voting site on ABS-CBN’s Halalan 2016 website to provide voters a one-stop shop of Philippine election-related information and details on how they can participate: http://news.abs-cbn.com/halalan2016/ov

The Overseas Filipino Voters as Philippine Elections 2016’s “Gamechangers”

How can an overseas Filipino voter really make a difference in the Philippine Presidential Elections this year?

The simple answer is for them to register and vote. But the path to making that happen hasn’t been encouraging during Philippine elections in recent years. When overseas voting was made possible in the Presidential Elections of 2004, 64.89 percent of the 359,296 registered overseas Filipino voters actually voted. By Presidential Elections 2010, a mere 25.99 percent of the 589,830 active voters casted their votes.

When TFC partnered anew with the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs Overseas Voting Secretariat (DFA-OVS) and the Commission on Elections Office for Overseas Voting (COMELEC-OFOV) to register and mobilize qualified overseas Filipino voters for this year’s Presidential Elections, the challenges were: one, to register over 800,000 overseas voters, and two, to increase voter turnout to about 50 to 60% percent of registered voters.

With the help of TFC’s Overseas Voter Registration PSA campaign tapping popular and respected ABS-CBN news personality Atom Araullo to push COMELEC’s i-Rehistro, an online system that enabled Filipinos to accomplish their registration applications as overseas voters, the current number of registered Filipino overseas voters has reached over 1.3 million.

Overseas Voting Secretariat Chairman and DFA Undersecretary Rafael E. Seguis said that if 1.3 million overseas voters could influence at least three family members in the Philippines, their sector could bring about 5.2 million votes to their preferred candidates.

“This is a definite gamechanger for Philippine politics,” said Seguis.

#Vote4AselfieWorthyPH: Making the Voice of the Overseas Filipino Matter

For its global campaign to reach Filipino voters in partnership with DFA and Comelec, TFC tried a totally different tact for 2016.

Jay Santiago, creative director at ABS-CBN Global, explained his team’s journey in producing the video. “We were very excited to do this project of our Global Corporate Affairs & PR because this was an opportunity to do something different,” he said. “The group’s direction was to deviate from the usual government type advisory which usually flies over the heads of the target market. We pushed for unconventional ideas that we felt would be more appreciated by the target audience – something that is more interactive than the usual.”

Santiago talked about the “Selfie” concept: “The Philippines, being the ‘selfie capital of the world’ shows us how the mobile and digital technologies have penetrated the lives of Filipinos. Selfies also promote the locations where they were taken. Posting selfies is like telling the whole world what the person is up to and how he or she feels about it. The team saw the power of selfies and its ability to influence opinions and perceptions about a country. We decided to use what has become a universal activity to harness its storytelling power and use it as handle for our message.”

Santiago and his team also applied the same rationale for their yet-to-be-shown “Groufie” version for the campaign. To be authentic with the process, smartphones were used to shoot and edit the videos.

TFC has invited all Filipinos to take their own selfies with a backdrop of what they want to change in the Philippines, post them on their social media accounts with the hashtag, #Vote4ASelfieWorthyPH, and these will automatically (if not private accounts) be published in the social media stream on http://news.abs-cbn.com/halalan2016/ov

“Digital has made the world smaller,” said Santiago. “When a tree falls in the forest, we will hear it if you post the video online. With this campaign, the image of the Philippines is now shown on the world stage. Filipinos see this upcoming election as an opportunity for change. They feel that this is the time to paint a picture perfect Philippines. A selfie-worthy one.”

The creative team was comprised of: Jay Santiago, creative director; Audielyn Avecilla-Riola, regional accounts management head; Charles Bautista, copy group head; Cayla Ursabia, regional account associate; Maureen Paril, producer; Barbie Javier, copywriter; Maureen Paril, producer; Rowena Mijares, production coordinator; Paz Amor Valera, production assistant; and Edber Mamisao, Kuwentista Productions Inc. director. Meanwhile, the Halalan 2016 Overseas Filipino Voting Site was created by the team of Abraham Baladad, technical and production system head, News Digital Media of ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs with Scrum Master and IT Management Consultant John Michael Bien and web developers Aldrin Mirasol and Regie Francisco.