Bayad Center bags Best Franchise Marketing Program award

Bayad Center’s Tatak-Sigurado campaign took home the Best Franchise Marketing Program Award – Service Category at the 2019 Franchise Excellence Awards held last August 6 at the EDSA Shangri-la Hotel in Mandaluyong City, organized by the Philippine Franchise Association (PFA) in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

This is an added feather in Bayad Center’s cap, having been inducted into the Hall of Fame roster of the Franchise Excellence Awards last 2017 for winning the Outstanding Filipino Franchise Award for the third year. While the brand has received numerous accolades from past years, this is the first marketing campaign award for the biggest and widest multi-channel payment platform company in the country.

“Tatak-Sigurado, which translates to seal of security, was created to address several issues brought about by bogus entities representing or associating themselves with Bayad Center,” Wendell Kristian P. Labre, Bayad Center’s Head of Marketing said.

“We have been receiving complaints about unposted payments only to find out that these were made through fly-by-night payment centers who represent themselves as Bayad Center,” he said. This issue exacerbated what already was the challenge of convincing consumers to trust third-party collecting establishments.

“Despite the multitude of traditional and digital payment options available now, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ recent study on financial inclusion showed that 99% of Filipinos’ transactions are still paid through cash. Trust has remained a critical barrier-to-trial when it comes to payment substitutes. In fact, majority of households, especially those in the provinces, would still prefer to go and line up for hours at a biller’s office rather than pay at a payment center near them. This is what we also wanted to address,” said Mr. Labre.

With the blessing of their principals, the company added “A Meralco Company” to its official logo, and mounted a campaign informing people to look for the Meralco and the Tatak-Sigurado logo.

Through the campaign, Bayad Center leveraged on its brand and on its parent company, Meralco, to drive home the fact that it is backed by one of the biggest and oldest companies in the Philippines. Bayad Center thus created the tagline “Basta hanapin lang ang Tatak na Sigurado, yung may Meralco sa ilalim” and propagated it through a strategic marketing campaign utilizing a mix of on-air, online, and on-ground executions. This added to the credibility of the brand, resulting to more than 10 million monthly transactions in Bayad Center counters during the campaign duration.

The Tatak-Sigurado campaign was also an opportunity to let its customers know of Bayad Center’s other products and services. Beyond bills payment, it also offers several types of insurance coverage, airtime top-ups for various utilities and financial services, loan payouts, airline ticketing, remittance, and even hospital reimbursements for dengue.

The Tatak-Sigurado campaign also dovetailed with Bayad Center’s plans to expand its footprint beyond the Meralco franchise area.

In terms of its relationship with franchise owners, the Tatak-Sigurado campaign served to reinforce Bayad Center’s credibility and commitment. “When you are looking for a business you can engage in, you look for something that is well-established, something that has been tried and tested. Bayad Center has been in the business for more than 20 years now, powering over 30,000 payment establishments nationwide, and processing more than 10 million payment transactions every month. We let those numbers speak of our track record,” Manuel L. Tuason, President and CEO of Bayad Center said. 

Going forward, Bayad Center now wants to build on the success of the Tatak-Sigurado campaign and continue to deepen its understanding of its clients’ needs. To match the different payment behavior of Filipinos, the company now offers varied payment channels to address each payment need. These include a website, a mobile app, automated payment machines, authorized partners and collecting agents, and brick-and-mortar branches.

 “The key is continuous learning and understanding of what the consumer needs and wants,” Mr. Tuason said. “With this customer-centric mindset, Bayad Center remains at the forefront of the payments industry  and at the heart of every Filipino home and community.”