Smart fuels passions & drives brand affinity in new campaign

Smart Communications, Inc (Smart)’s long-awaited “Live Smarter, Live with Purpose” campaign headlined by the world’s leading pop icon, BTS marks Smart’s first collaboration with the Grammy-nominated artists managed by HYBE, formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment.

It also puts the youth front and center and caters to their aspirations and needs.

“We want to maintain a strong affinity with today’s generation and make sure that we enable their passions and their needs,” said Smart Communications President and CEO and PLDT Chief Revenue Officer Alfredo S. Panlilio during the launch of the campaign.

Panlilio highlighted that the campaign will also help drive the business, while delivering what customers want: Content. “Content is an important part of our business ecosystem, as customers go online to listen to music, play games or watch movies,” he said.

“At the end of the day, real innovation makes the complex simple, which is why our campaign is “Simple, Smart Ako.”  Our goal is to make technology easy and accessible to every Filipino, while we fuel their passions and enrich their love for the Smart brand,” he added.

Jane J. Basas, SVP and Head of Consumer Wireless Business at Smart, said the campaign was a year in the making.

“The planning started in the first quarter of 2020. We wanted the brand to start talking to the younger generation of Filipinos, the Gen Z’s,” she said. “What’s unique about this generation is that they know their voice, they know their capabilities, they know they are a talented bunch. Most of all, they believe that they can change the world. So, we looked for talents that could help deliver that message. And the strongest voice was BTS. So for this campaign, there was clearly one lead for us – it was just BTS,” Basas added.  

Special minisite

Smart FVP and Group Head for Prepaid Marketing Miriam Choa said the company was introducing more products such as Double GIGA, which helps customers pursue their passions online by offering twice the data for their passion apps. Choa also said that a special minisite, smartbts.com.ph, offers exclusive content for fans who access the site on mobile via Smart LTE.

“The importance of good teamwork, hard work and meaningful connections are just some of the values our customers share with the group. They are also persistent and resilient. Their passion for what they do and for being the best at their craft also resonate with both BTS and Smart,” Choa said.

Basas also underscored how relevant the campaign is given the times. “It’s a campaign that encourages the young to keep moving, keep pushing, keep learning, keep improving themselves, keep making sure that their voices are heard, and at the same time, keep believing that they can make this world better. These are messages that we have to embrace as a society,” she said.

Award-winning network

Enabling this campaign is the country’s fastest mobile network Smart, which has consistently won this accolade from Ookla®, the global leader in internet testing and analysis, for three years in a row. For delivering the best experience across all metrics in three essential aspects of service: Coverage (4G Coverage Experience, 4G Availability), Speed (Download and Upload Speed) and Experience (Games, Video and Voice app), Smart also scored a rare sweep in the latest Philippines Mobile Network Experience Awards by third-party analytics firm Opensignal.

Smart’s 5G network was also recently recognized by Ookla as the country’s Fastest 5G Network. To date, Smart forges on with the nationwide rollout of its commercial 5G service as it expands the country’s most extensive 5G network to over 2,600 sites nationwide.

Underpinning this level of performance is PLDT’s fiber infrastructure, the country’s most extensive at 429,000 kilometers. This fiber network also supports Smart’s mobile network, which covers 96% of the population from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi.

These initiatives form a large part of PLDT’s capital expenditures, which totaled P460.7 billion in the last ten years. To address the growing data needs of their fixed and wireless customers, PLDT and Smart are prepared to invest between P88 billion and P92 billion in capital expenditures in 2021.