Bonding with Friends and Francis
One of the biggest highlights for the Philippines this year is the much anticipated Papal Visit of none other than Pope Francis this January 15 – 19. Surely, everyone would want to catch a glimpse of arguably the most influential person in the world today. Sadly, some Filipino youth do not seem to be as eager to attend the Papal visit in Manila for their own reasons.
In order to solve this problem, the graduating class of Integrated Marketing Communications students in the University of Asia and the Pacific came up with a marketing communications campaign to invite the youth to participate in the Papal Visit.
The campaign is entitled “Bonding with Friends and Francis” and it features an “online-serye”, which revolves around a character named Frankie Francisco, who is trying to convince his other friends Mark, Bea, Kim, and Josh to go with him to the Papal Visit. Each of the characters has their respective Facebook accounts in order to connect with the youth, who actively engage with their social media accounts.
Currently, the official Facebook page of the Bonding with Friends and Francis Campaign has roughly 1,850 likes. It features various photos and videos promoting the Papal Visit through Frankie and his friends. The senior UA&P-IMC students are also selling keychains named #PapalPlushies in partnership with Popjunklove to help the Pope Francis Center for the Poor. Through all these online and offline activities, the BFF Campaign aims to turn young Filipinos into Frankies and invite their own barkadas along with them to the Papal Visit. These efforts would surely get a boost with the help of the press to spread the news to all Filipino youth.
