“GMA 7’s promotions for Babangon – a new strategy?”

Last January, three Telenovelas were launched simultaneously by rival network ABS-CBN Channel 2: LOBO, PALOS and Kung Fu Kids. ABS-CBN which is noted for a very elaborate promotional campaign for its coming tv shows went high gear and in full speed for the launching of the three shows. As one of my officemates complained then, “the tv plugging and ad spots came out almost every commercial break in almost all the shows. In addition, Piolo Pascual joined the 1 versus 100 game show and Angel Locsin made the rounds of all the talk shows to promote the Lobo. Well, the elaborate promo campaign if we were to believe the results of AGB Nielsen did not result to high ratings of the three shows compared to the shows of GMA 7.

In the case of the latest telenovela of rival GMA channel 7 “Babangon Ako’t Dudurugin Kita”, ( I played the daddy of Ms. Dina Bonnevie) the usual tv ad spots came out very rarely. In fact, it only started to come out more frequently after the ending of Marimar. The tv ad spots for Babangon definitely paled in comparison to frequency of the tv spots of the three telenovelas of ABS-CBN when it was launched last January. The fact that it was a holy week before the premier episode, for holy Thursday and good Friday, there were no regular programming. As usual, old movies about Jesus Christ or with religious theme were aired during the two days cease fire. This added to the situation that indeed few tv spots for the new show were aired. It was only last Saturday, that I saw tv ad spots of Babangon.

So, I asked myself, had GMA 7 conceptualized a new promotional strategy to drum beat its latest show?  Watching the GMA showbiz talk show “Showbiz Central” hosted by DJ Mo, John Lapuz, Raymond Gutierrez  and Ms Pia Guanio, last Easter Sunday, I found the answer to my question!

GMA resorted to old formula of creating issues and intrigues among the main characters of “Babangon Ako’t Dudurugin Kita”.  This is a proven sure fire formula where the stars were being interviewed with intriguing questions with the hope that the questions and answers will elicit interest among the viewers and eventually urge them to watch the show.

From the opening spiel of “Showbiz Central”, the issues and intrigues were already lined up: Had Patrick Garcia already broken up with pregnant gf Jennylyn Mercado? Is Ian de Leon already going steady with Diana Subiri? Is LJ Reyes now going steady with a millionaire nephew of Henry Sy?  Is Jenny Miller’s relationship with her non-showbiz bf affected with her hot kissing scene with Marvin Agustin? Is Paolo Contis satisfied with him always casted as a contravida? Is Glydel Mercado mad at Dina Bonnevie because husband Tonton Gutierrez is paired as Dina’s loveteam?  Is Marvin Agustin courting Angelika dela Cruz? Is JC Devera going steady with Yazmien Kurdi? And finally, Pia Guanio will have a one-on-one interview with Ms. Dina Bonnevie who plays the role of Evita. Of course, everybody knows that Ms. D’s ex-husband Vic Sotto is now Pia Guanio’s current bf.

 All the issues and intrigues were tackled  in detail with the casts of Babangon being interviewed on the issues that affect them and they gave their “honest answers “ as the talk show went on. What was a big disappointment was that a few minutes before the show ended, Pia announced that her interview with Ms. D will not push through because Ms. D just arrived from Bangkok and could not make it! A full tv ad then of Babangon was aired.

 Will it work? Let us wait for the AGB Nielsen  survey results!