Enrique Gil’s new role: corporate executive

C-SUITE DEBUT Enrique Gil and Ticket2Me CEO Julie Bautista in a press conference that introduced the actor as Ticket2Me’s new investor and chief marketing officer —Contributed photo

Just the other day, Enrique Gil was wearing his actor hat when he announced his much-awaited comeback film, “I Am Not Big Bird.” The following day, he was donning his entrepreneur hat when he shared his latest business venture as partner of Ticket2Me, the country’s first fully digital ticketing and video platform for online and offline events.

Gil was also named chief marketing officer (CMO) while his manager Ranvel Rufino, a former private banker, will sit on the board. Both will invest and acquire equity in Ticket2Me’s parent company in Singapore.

“It started with me wanting to give back to the entertainment industry,” Gil tells the press. “Three years ago, I decided to step away from the limelight … [but] something didn’t sit right. I need to leave a legacy … so when I get older and it’s no longer right for me to work or perform in front of the camera, I will still be able to provide content and give entertainment. It just completes my story.”

The 31-year-old actor, unknown to many, is also a successful but low-key entrepreneur with several investments and businesses, including his newly setup Make-a-Break Productions with Rufino, and Gil Side Homes, the build-and-sell business that he started with his family many years ago. “Not a lot of people know that I’ve actually been very strategic about my investments, even during the time when I was very active in the entertainment industry,” he says.

Gaining seat at the table

In his latest venture, Gil brings to the table his experience as a performer as well as a music fan who travels to watch international artists perform. “I grew up in the entertainment industry basically my whole life. I have first-hand experience in music, dance, acting. That’s the perspective that I can bring to the company. I know what the viewers and what the fans want to see, what they need, what they like.”

Darwin Mariano, founder of Ticket2Me, describes the business: “Imagine Ticketmaster, Ticketworld or SM Tickets and Netflix had a baby, it would be Ticket2Me. But unlike Netflix that runs on subscription, or YouTube that runs on advertising, we have pay-per-view. It can be recorded, it can be live.” The company’s streaming service was a recent addition to the platform that they built during the pandemic to take the place of physical venues that were shut down.

Ticket2Me started in 1999 as a means for Mariano, who was then in law school at the University of the Philippines, and his friends to watch theater shows. It was a simple website that helped fans buy tickets for theater performances, with Rent Manila, headlined by Bobby Garcia and Monique Wilson, as their first ticketed show. They eventually had to close the service around 2002 when the core team became busy with career and family, then relaunched it in 2018 when Mariano returned to the Philippines from Singapore where he was working at a multinational firm.

SUITED UP Gil with his manager and Ticket2Me co-investor, Ranvel Rufino (left) —PHOTO FROM INSTAGRAM OF ENRIQUE GIL

Growing platform

The company exceeded the P5-million sales mark in 2018, only six months after the platform went live, and has already achieved P145 million in sales as of this month. To date, Ticket2Me has issued over 680,000 tickets to more than 150,000 users, and has worked with over 450 organizers and producers. During the pandemic, Ticket2Me produced shows such as the boy love series “Boys’ Lockdown” (10 million views on YouTube) and ticketed the first-ever virtual reality concert in the Philippines in December 2020 headlined by Alden Richards.

Mariano recalls the first time he heard about Gil, aka Quen, from Rufino, a long-time friend. “Sometime during the summer, Ranvel called me. ‘Dar, I’m the manager of Enrique. I want to maybe talk to you, I want to brainstorm.’ So my original thinking was, gusto ba mag-theater ni Quen? (Does Quen want to join the theater?) I can make a really good show for him.”

It turned out that the actor and his manager wanted to explore areas where they could invest. “They were so excited because when Ranvel started to explain to Quen what Ticket2Me does, the young man’s eyes lit up. He said, ‘Sir Dar, I was reading the life of Jeff Bezos and how he founded Amazon,” Mariano shares.

Their conversation about Ticket2Me’s technology and the data side reminded Gil of Bezos’ story. “It just blew me away that [Bezos] was able to create this huge, huge empire just through data. Just for people to have this tool, it’s amazing. And to be able to share this with everyone, it’s really a good position to be in and I’m grateful,” Gil says.

One-stop digital shop

Ticket2Me’s Version 3, CEO Julie Bautista explains, will be easier to use as a one-stop fully digital shop that caters to live events, livestream and prerecorded content. It also cuts the process for ticket-holders by allowing them to buy online anywhere they are and use their mobile device as ticket. It also allows producers, through the database, to build a community. For artists like Gil, it also saves them from dealing with shady producers and at the same time, helps reach out to their fan base. Among their plans is to bring international artists to the country as well as hold meet-and-greet events abroad for local artists through the platform, either as a live event or livestream/pay-per-view for those who cannot make it to the physical venue.

The company is already preparing for two events that Gil as CMO conceptualized himself: “Manila Madness,” an all-celebrity basketball league, and “Madness Manila,” an electronic dance music (EDM) event. Gil and Rufino will be gathering their friends in the industry for the basketball event, which the latter described as similar to the Star Olympics in the 1990s. This time though, the teams will be made up not only of actors but also influencers and even politicians. The EDM event, on the other hand, is something close to Gil’s heart as a fan of the music genre himself.

“Going to these events, it’s all about the experience. It’s something magical when you’re there … enjoying with everyone. Hopefully, we’ll create memories for our events and our consumers. From the screen to the stage, we just want to keep creating events and content … not only for myself but for my colleagues in the industry, for future artists as well, for fans. That’s the legacy I want to leave,” Gil says.