Blogapalooza - Fireside Chat

Summary

In this interview, Bernie of Pwani Foundation talks with Ace Gapos, CEO of Bloga Paloa, a pioneering influencer marketing company in the Philippines. Ace shares insights on the nascent influencer market in 2015, the evolution to a thriving industry by 2024, and the importance of understanding and innovating around customer needs. She discusses the launch of Creator merchandise to support influencers beyond their fame cycle and emphasizes the value of working with key influencers to create demand for businesses.

Takeaways

• 🚀 **Early Market Entry**: Bloga Paloa entered a market with new digital needs, not entirely new but with a shift towards digital advertising.
• 🌟 **Growth of Influencer Marketing**: The industry has grown exponentially since Bloga Paloa's inception, with influencer marketing becoming a significant part of digital marketing.
• 🆚 **Competition**: With growth, competition has increased, which Bloga Paloa sees as a positive force driving them to provide more value.
• 📈 **Market Education**: One of the initial challenges was educating the market about the concept and value of influencer marketing.
• 💰 **Pricing Influencer Work**: There's an ongoing challenge in putting a commercial value on influencer work, which was traditionally uncompensated.
• 🔗 **Dual Customer Focus**: Bloga Paloa serves two types of customers: businesses seeking digital marketing and influencers/creators looking to monetize their work.
• 👕 **Creator Merchandise**: A recent business unit focuses on creator merchandise to provide a lasting revenue stream for influencers beyond their peak fame.
• 🛠️ **Supporting the Backend**: Bloga Paloa supports the logistical backend of merchandise creation, allowing creators to focus on their content and audience.
• 💡 **Innovation Strategy**: Innovation should stem from a deep understanding or 'genius' of the field to ensure relevance and effectiveness.
• 📚 **Market Understanding**: Bloga Paloa's innovation is rooted in a deep understanding of the needs of both brands and content creators.
• 📈 **Creating Demand**: To create demand, work with influential people in the target field to leverage their influence and credibility.

Q & A

What was the influencer marketing landscape like when Bloga Paloa started in 2015?

When Bloga Paloa started in 2015, influencer marketing was not as established as it is today. It was a time when businesses were beginning to embrace digital marketing, and there were new needs in the market that Bloga Paloa aimed to address. The industry was not entirely new, but it was evolving with the rise of digital advertising.

How has the growth of influencer marketing impacted Bloga Paloa?

The growth of influencer marketing has been significant since Bloga Paloa's inception, with the industry expanding exponentially over the years. This growth has been beneficial for Bloga Paloa as it has allowed the company to enjoy the industry's expansion and adapt to the increasing demand for influencer marketing services.

What were Bloga Paloa's main challenges when it first started?

One of the main challenges Bloga Paloa faced when it started was educating the market about influencer marketing. There was a need to inform people about the concept and value of working with influencers, as it was a relatively new field at the time.

How does Bloga Paloa define its customer profiles?

Bloga Paloa serves two types of customers: businesses and brands that use digital marketing for their advertising needs, and the community of influencers and content creators who are looking to monetize their online presence.

Can you describe Bloga Paloa's approach to a recent marketing campaign?

Bloga Paloa recently launched a business unit focused on creator merchandise. The idea is to help influencers capitalize on their fame by creating merchandise that their followers can purchase to support them, ensuring a continued stream of income even after their peak period of fame.

What is Bloga Paloa's strategy for innovation?

Bloga Paloa's strategy for innovation revolves around understanding its core competencies and the needs of its market deeply. The company focuses on identifying fundamental needs within the influencer and content creation space and innovates to meet those needs, ensuring that its services remain relevant and valuable.

How does Bloga Paloa maintain its competitive edge in the influencer marketing industry?

Bloga Paloa maintains its competitive edge by staying lean and mean, operating like a startup even after years in the industry. It focuses on innovation that stems from a deep understanding of its market and the needs of its customers, ensuring that it continues to provide value and stay ahead of the competition.

What advice does Ace Gapos have for businesses looking to create demand through marketing?

Ace Gapos advises businesses to identify and work with influential people in their field to help create demand. By partnering with influencers, businesses can leverage their audience and trust to manufacture demand more effectively.

How does Bloga Paloa support influencers in the merchandise business?

Bloga Paloa supports influencers by handling the backend processes of merchandise creation and sales. This allows influencers to focus on creating content and promoting their merchandise to their followers while Bloga Paloa takes care of production, distribution, and other logistical challenges.

What is the importance of understanding the market's core needs according to Ace Gapos?

Ace Gapos emphasizes the importance of understanding the core needs of the market, rather than just focusing on surface-level trends. By delving into the deep desires and requirements of customers, Bloga Paloa can innovate and provide services that truly address those needs, leading to more effective marketing strategies and business growth.

Outlines

00:00

📈 The Evolution of Influencer Marketing with Bloga Paloa

Bernie from Pwani Foundation interviews Ace Gapos, CEO of Bloga Paloa, one of the pioneering influencer marketing companies in the Philippines. The conversation begins with an overview of the company's inception in 2015, a time when the influencer marketing industry was nascent. Ace discusses the early challenges of educating the market about the value of influencer collaborations and the lack of established pricing models for influencer work. Despite these hurdles, Bloga Paloa capitalized on the growing digital advertising trends among businesses, positioning themselves at the forefront of a burgeoning market. The discussion highlights the company's strategic advantage in understanding the evolving needs of both brands and content creators, and how they've adapted to the increasing competition and market growth.

05:01

🛍️ Launching Creator Merchandise: A New Business Unit

Ace Gapos shares insights into Bloga Paloa's recent venture into Creator Merchandise, a business unit designed to support influencers in monetizing their fame through merchandise. She explains the rationale behind this initiative, noting the fleeting nature of an influencer's popularity and the desire to provide a sustainable revenue stream beyond their peak influence. The service aims to alleviate the operational complexities associated with merchandise creation, allowing influencers to focus on engaging with their audience. This strategic move is part of Bloga Paloa's broader commitment to innovating within the influencer marketing space, addressing the core needs of their clientele and fostering long-term relationships with both brands and content creators.

10:04

💡 Embracing Innovation and Customer Obsession for Business Growth

In the final segment, Ace emphasizes the importance of innovation rooted in deep understanding and passion for one's industry. She advises founders to leverage their core competencies and intimate knowledge of their market to drive innovation. Ace's personal experience as a long-time content creator informs Bloga Paloa's strategic direction, ensuring that their services are tailored to the fundamental needs of their customers. The conversation concludes with Ace's advice for businesses looking to create demand: identify and collaborate with influential figures in their target market. This approach, she suggests, can effectively amplify a brand's message and generate interest. The discussion encapsulates Bloga Paloa's philosophy of prioritizing customer understanding and leveraging this insight to fuel business growth and innovation.

Keywords

💡Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a form of marketing where endorsements about a product or service come from influencers rather than the brand itself. In the video, it is discussed as a significant trend in 2024 and a core business focus of Bloga Paloa, which was one of the first companies to specialize in this area in the Philippines. The company's early entry into the market allowed it to shape and respond to the needs of businesses looking to leverage digital platforms for advertising.

💡Bloga Paloa

Bloga Paloa is identified as one of the first influencer marketing companies in the Philippines and the host of the country's first and largest annual networking event for bloggers and businesses. It represents a pioneering force in the industry, having started in 2011 and incorporated in 2015, which is highlighted in the script as a strategic move that allowed the company to grow with the market.

💡Networking Event

A networking event refers to a gathering of professionals and businesses aimed at making connections and sharing information. In the context of the video, Bloga Paloa's annual networking event is noted as a significant platform that helped establish the company's presence and facilitated relationships between influencers and businesses.

💡Market Growth

Market growth refers to an increase in the size or value of a market over time. The script discusses how the influencer marketing industry has experienced substantial growth since Bloga Paloa's inception, with the company benefiting from this expansion and the increased competition that came with it.

💡Competition

Competition in this context refers to the rivalry among businesses striving for the same market share. The script mentions that as the influencer marketing industry grew, so did the competition, which pushed Bloga Paloa to innovate and provide more value to stay ahead.

💡Digital Marketing

Digital marketing encompasses the use of digital channels to promote products or services. The video script highlights that Bloga Paloa capitalized on the shift of businesses towards digital marketing, aligning with the company's services and the broader market trend.

💡Content Creators

Content creators are individuals who produce various types of content, often for digital platforms. In the script, they are identified as a key customer segment for Bloga Paloa, emphasizing the company's role in connecting these creators with businesses for marketing opportunities.

💡Commercial Value

Commercial value refers to the economic worth of a product, service, or in this case, the work of influencers and content creators. The script discusses the challenge of assigning a monetary value to the influencer's work, which was traditionally done without direct financial return.

💡Customer Profiles

Customer profiles are detailed descriptions of a company's ideal customers, including their characteristics, needs, and preferences. The video mentions two types of customers that Bloga Paloa serves: businesses and brands looking to advertise, and the community of influencers and content creators.

💡Creator Merchandise

Creator merchandise refers to products, often clothing or accessories, designed and sold by influencers or content creators to their followers. The script discusses how Bloga Paloa launched a business unit to support influencers in creating and managing their merchandise, helping them capitalize on their fame and providing a sustainable income stream.

💡Innovation

Innovation is the process of introducing new ideas, products, or methods. In the video, the CEO of Bloga Paloa emphasizes the importance of understanding one's core competencies and using that knowledge to drive innovation within the company, aligning with the needs of the market and maintaining a competitive edge.

Highlights

Bernie introduces the CEO of Bloga Paloa, Miss Ace Gapos, and discusses the early days of influencer marketing in the Philippines.

Bloga Paloa was one of the first influencer marketing companies in the Philippines, highlighting its pioneering role.

The company also hosted the first and largest annual networking event for bloggers and businesses.

Ace Gapos shares her excitement about being part of the discussion and her role at Bloga Paloa.

In 2015, when Bloga Paloa was incorporated, the market for influencer marketing was nascent and growing.

Ace Gapos discusses the challenges of entering a market with new needs and the lack of competition at the time.

The industry has grown significantly, with influencer marketing expanding rapidly over the past few years.

Bloga Paloa's early entry into the market allowed it to respond to the emerging needs of businesses embracing digital.

Ace Gapos emphasizes the importance of educating the market about influencer marketing and its value.

The company's challenge was to put a commercial value on the work of influencers who were used to non-monetary compensation.

Bloga Paloa serves two types of customers: businesses and influencers, bridging the gap between them.

Ace Gapos talks about the launch of Bloga Paloa's Creator merchandise business unit to support influencers post-fame.

The company supports the backend of merchandise creation, allowing influencers to focus on their content and followers.

Innovation at Bloga Paloa stems from a deep understanding of the industry and the needs of the markets served.

Ace Gapos advises founders to innovate based on their core understanding or passion to establish a competitive edge.

The company's business units are launched in response to fundamental market needs, not just surface-level trends.

Ace Gapos shares her advice for creating demand through identifying and working with influential people in a field.

The discussion concludes with Ace Gapos expressing her hope that the insights shared will provide value to the audience.

Transcripts

[Music]

welcome everyone uh this is Bernie of

pwani foundation uh so you probably were

just as inspired as I was in the case

study of bloga paloa which as you know

is one of the first um influencer

marketing companies in the Philippines

and it also hosted the first and largest

annual networking um event for bloggers

and businesses here in the the country

um and we're so happy to have with us

here today uh the CEO herself Miss Ace

gapos thank you so much for joining us

Ace thanks so much Bernie for having me

very excited to be here great all right

so we'll start with our first question

uh we have three questions for our

fireside chat today so for the first one

um you know influencer marketing now is

such a big thing in

2024 but back when you know blog of pooa

started or was incorporated in 2015 it

was it's probably a different story

could you tell me or tell us um a little

bit more about how the market was like

so were you entering a a new market or

was there already an existing Market who

were your competitors or

players um and who were your customers

sure right um we started very early in

this industry and so it was a little

challenging for us back then because we

had to sort of figure out how the market

would think and act um but definitely

there was a market already and when I

say there has been a

market uh there have always been

businesses that

advertise and we were very lucky to come

in at a time when most of these

companies are starting to embrace

digital

so while it's not entirely a new

market this Market has new

needs so um it was a very good time for

us to respond to those

needs uh but compare comparing that to

how things are like right now of course

you know influencer marketing has grown

the industry has grown maybe triple time

times 10 over the past couple of years

and so we've been enjoying that growth

as well but with growth always comes

competition which is good you know back

in the day we did not have any

competition there was simply no one

getting into that space because is there

even a space you know so um because the

industry has grown more and more similar

companies have been trying to take a

bite of the pie and I'd like to believe

that's good for us because you know

options are always always very good it

it pushes us to be more competitive

provide more value uh but you can see

you know you can see how really the

industry has grown from the time when we

started in 2011 up to this day um yeah

from having a market that has new needs

to right now there's just so much Market

we can't even service

everybody so

yeah yeah that that that has been the

growth right so you're very lucky

actually because you mentioned um in the

case study that um you were able to

build this network since Bap paloa

started as you know the the annual

networking event in 2011 so um when it

was incorporated in 2015 it wasn't you

weren't starting from scratch now you

already had an existing Market that's

right

uh maybe you could share with us a

little bit about what it was like

entering um entering the space uh during

that time what were your challenges and

also what were the advantages for you as

as you know as as blog of BL already had

this existing Network yeah the major

challenge to be honest is informing

people educating them about influencer

marketing because if I take myself back

to that time no one was talking about

influencer marketing what is influencer

marketing you know so a lot of the

earlier challenges that we had were

really about educating the market about

influencers about influencer marketing

about working commercially with content

creators so um one of the major ones I

would say would be that and then

challenging also of course to put value

to put a price on the influencer work

because they've been used to doing that

without anything in return you know just

free products you know free experiences

and so now that the time has come that

it actually has commercial value how do

you put value in that so that's still an

ongoing challenge to be honest up to

this point there is no standard pricing

uh for Content creators and influencers

but it's been something that we've been

working on not to standardize but to

work around these

limitations yeah um would you mind

sharing with us again is who or what are

your customer profiles just so that we

can give the audiences a quick Rec yeah

we Serv as two types of customers on

both ends first would be the businesses

the brands mostly these are companies

that really advertise and use digital

marketing for their marketing activities

the second part of the stakeholders

would be the community of influen ERS

and content creators of course these are

different people usually these are

creatives and these are individuals with

different needs so you can imagine us

being the middle uh providing value to

the brands providing value to the

content creators and providing value to

their

interactions great great so um as you

know the case study here um is really

about customers and

markets um could you share with us um a

marketing campaign that you worked on

recently and how you um tackled the

specific customer segment um and you

know created a demand for for your

specific business

unit um okay that's a tricky question

now because we work with a lot of brands

from different verticals maybe I could

just talk

about our recent the most recent

business unit that we've launched it's

the it's a Creator

merchandise and um the reason why we the

reason why we launch this is because I

see a lot of creators doing very well

with their content but I also see how

fast the I would call the fame cycle is

like know so one day you're famous next

day you're not and for most

influencers this is what happens to them

so again going back to the Creator

merchandise no we want to make sure that

when their wave of Fame is done the

community that has supported them when

they were at the prime of their Fame

would still be continuing to support

them and so that's through merchandise

you know I mean if I'm a follower of

influencer X I love influencer X very

much if influencer x puts out a shirt

I'm going to buy that to support

influencer X and if influencer x keeps

on innovating making new merch I want to

buy that too because I want to support

influencer X and um it's been growing in

popularity for influencers and content

creators here because we support the

entire back end if you know if you have

some understanding on how merchandise

Works in in theory it's so easy but the

back end of that is hell so we we

support the back end for the creators

and the all they have to do is think

about how to post how to promote that to

their

followers and um yeah all of the

difficult tasks are taken care of by us

so uh that is creating Demand on the

influencer side they would want to work

with us for their

merch uh and again that comes from the

understanding of this same cycle of how

influencers think how influencers work

how the market response to influencers

that's it yeah so you you did mention in

the case hudy that um since you have so

much knowledge about the market it's

quite easy for you to understand you

know what are their needs you what are

their pain points so what you talked

about just now um is blogi if I'm not

mistaken that's right but you also have

other products or business units and

this uh as we talked about stems from

your kind of interest and you know

motivation to to innovate and to adopt

this lean but mean method no um as a

startup even though you started years

ago you still operate as a startup so

can you tell us a little bit about your

strategies for Innovation your

principles no um and motivations for

doing that to establish your Competitive

Edge and today is growing in influencer

market right um I believe that

innovation has to always

have your Genius at the core what do I

mean by that uh it's difficult to

innovate on something that you don't

really understand okay it's not

impossible it's just difficult and

challenging and so you know when I talk

to

Founders I

I help them determine what's the genius

what's what what are you very very good

at or what is something that you really

really understand because if you know

this to the core then it's going to be

easy to innovate so I could talk about

my experience no uh I have been a

blogger since I was 11 and so this is

something putting out content this is

something that I know to the core I have

lived it I have been it ever since and

so the way that I understand this is

very very deeply rooted compared to

possibly somebody who just entered the

space because of the commercial

opportunity you know um and so maybe if

if this is a Founder I'm speaking with

and the founder is going to ask me about

how to innovate I would always advise

you go to that core of what you really

understand or I mean I don't want to

romanticize that but some Founders would

talk about it as passion as love but you

go to that because that's going to make

it easier for you so for me you know for

me very specifically as the founder uh

again I understand this industry very

well as a content creator I know it as a

brand representative I know that and so

we've always been innovating Within

These Paces recognizing the need of the

people that we serve right so remember

the business units that we've been

launching all throughout these years all

of these correspond to a very

fundamental need of the markets we want

to serve and again we won we don't want

to make it superficial we don't want to

do look at surface level you look at the

core what do they need and that's where

you innovate

in that's very well said is and I think

the root of you know businesses should

always

be understanding the customer first and

I think that will always set you

for um

success that's right you have to be

obsessed with a customer you read it

many times successful entrepreneurs are

obsessed with a customer and being

obsessed is not surface level you get to

know them you really you know really

know their desires their deepest need

and that's where you put the innovation

in right great maybe as a last question

is um what is your advice for people who

are wanting to create a demand for their

businesses so as a marketing expert what

is your advice for people using

marketing as a tool to create more

demand um it would be good to

identify the key people who are

influential in their

field uh and I think if they are able to

work with these

people then it would be easier to quote

unquote manufacture that

demand uh and you don't have to look far

you know for for

mothers uh for baby products mothers are

key people you know so I they work with

influential people they try and see if

these people could work with them in

making that demand

higher right so again the key is people

first always always

all right well that ends our fireside

chat Ace um thank you so much for all

your insights and your

time I appreciate it thank you for

thinking of me thank you for inviting me

I hope that we're able to give value to

whoever will be watching this

[Music]