Campaigns beats Basic for Philippine telecoms launch

MANILA: Campaigns & Grey has snatched the Digitel GSM business, reportedly worth US$1.5 million, from Publicis affiliate Basic Advertising in a tight two-horse race. Until Campaign's win, Basic was the main agency for Digital Telecommunications Philippines' entire Digitel One account. The third and final player in the GSM networking category, after the Philippine Government stopped handing out licences, Digitel is gearing to launch its GSM offering in the second quarter of next year. It plans to spend $200 million to launch its GSM network nationwide. As a newcomer, Digitel faces two dominant, heavy-spending competitors - PLDT subsidiary Smart Communications and Globe Telecom. In addition to their heavy advertising expenditure, both Smart and Globe are also investing heavily to improve their GSM network ahead of Digitel's launch. Despite the global cooling in telecoms activity, Globe will invest $784 million and Smart will commit $335 million to expand their GMS networks and customer base. "The budgeting for media campaigns is still being defined. We intend to become a key player next year," said Patricia Go, director of advertising at JG Summit, the largest shareholder in Digitel, with a 47.4 per cent stake.

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