The Philippines’ advertising industry can’t be any more traditional that in is now. A tri-media campaign used to consist of the following: TV, Radio, and Print. If you were anything aside from those three, you’d be given the cold shoulder. That’s why I was very glad to find out that non-traditional channels were the main topic of discussion during the recently concluded advertising congress in Subic.

The irony of this in GamesMaster’s short but meaningful life, is that we were a print medium that fell in the non-traditional category. Hence, the non-traditional way of selling ourselves to advertisers.

When I made the video more than 4 years ago, I had only one thing I had in mind — establish how big gaming has become in the Philippines. I did this by stating the numbers – both local and foreign. Nevermind that I was talking to 30-something brand manager moms most of the time (all they cared about was YES! magazine), I also had to establish that gaming was there to stay. With the negative publicity that gaming was creating, it became a very interesting challenge.

One example had brand L foregoing any ads in GamesMaster because the brand manager’s kid was kicked out of school due to excessive Ragnarok play (Yes, that cost us some ads). Another challenge we had to face was the dilemma of product features. Whereas fashion brands could be incorporated into any lifestyle magazine’s editorial pages, there was simply no way to convince Mario to wear a certain brand. He was stuck with his jumpers, and so were we. “You might have tried playing Super Mario Brothers at least once in your life” was not an applicable line in the advertising world.

Nevertheless, GamesMaster was still able to hurdle all these challenges. We were able to get Nike, Adidas, Levi’s, Lee, Jag, Penshoppe, Rexona, Axe, Milo, Globe, Smart, and many other lifestyle brands that had nothing to do with gaming. If we were allowed to sell ads to alcohol brands, I believe we could have gotten even more. While we helped open the industry’s eyes to this new world, GamesMaster was able to establish a clearer picture of the Filipino gamer.

Next: Who is the Pinoy Gamer?

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