Building brand love in the Next Normal: How Mang Inasal redefines moment marketing for and with the customers

In an ever-changing digital landscape, brands have to get with the times in order to stay relevant and connected to their consumers. Sounds challenging, but it can definitely be done!

Enter the concept of Moment Marketing. For brands like Mang Inasal, Moment Marketing is taking advantage of the “here” and the “now” to bring brands to the forefront of consumer conversations, especially through something as fast-paced as social media.

“Social media opened a huge door for brands like Mang Inasal to connect real-time with customers,” said Mang Inasal’s Head of Digital and PR, RJ Jabeguero-Rodillo. “These platforms serve as avenues where we get to discover what makes our customers happy, ‘kilig’ and excited. These overflowing emotions signal to us what we can ‘trendjack’ and enable us to bring the brand within those conversations. Relationship-building with customers is now made faster all thanks to social media.”

Mang Inasal and the value of real-time social listening

In 2022, Mang Inasal has redesigned a digital marketing strategy that puts its customers at the heart of the entire ecosystem. It developed a powerful, real-time social listening muscle that has allowed it to ride on trends that are most relevant to its customers.

In this year alone, Mang Inasal was able to create buzz on social media with several marketing initiatives, such as the “16 Cups Challenge” that happened after SB19 member Stell’s mention of his own Mang Inasal record. It became a three-day trending topic on Twitter, evolving later into a nationwide challenge. This challenge was recently honored in the Marketing Excellence Awards-Philippines with a Silver Award under the Excellence in Viral Marketing category.

Mang Inasal’s most recent concert sponsorship with K-Pop performance powerhouse, SEVENTEEN, shows exactly how well-positioned Mang Inasal is when it comes to its consumers’ interests.

“SEVENTEEN’s fans, the Carats, have been tweeting Mang Inasal to support their idols. And as a special Christmas gift to them, we’ve granted their wish as we were among the sponsors of the SEVENTEEN WORLD TOUR [BE THE SUN] – BULACAN,” Rodillo said. 

Meaningful connections through its digital presence

Mang Inasal’s digital presence has truly evolved past the traditional brand monologues and digital posters. Through its community-powered strategy, Mang Inasal has significantly surpassed engagement targets by 240% and improved positive sentiments across channels, due in part to its more authentic brand tone, raw user-generated content, and community-centric messaging.

“For Mang Inasal, Moment Marketing is important because we want to be with our customers wherever they are and that includes the trends that matter to them,” said Rodillo. “It excites us knowing that we are part of the conversation of our consumers because it’s a validation that we remain relevant to them.”

From being mere observers of social media to being an online friend listening to its customers’ voices, Mang Inasal’s brand has transformed into an entity that ‘phygitally’ [physically-digitally] takes care of the communities it serves – both within its physical stores and digitally across social media platforms.

“Mang Inasal is continuously learning today in terms of Moment Marketing and we can’t wait what 2023 has for us,” Rodillo concluded. “But so far, our strategy is working for us because it allows the brand to sincerely connect with the consumers who talk about us, and create moments that will make them remember us more meaningfully.”