The Palawan Group of Companies brought home two Gold awards at the MARKETECH APAC NEXT Awards Philippines 2026, recognizing campaigns that tackled different financial services challenges but shared a common starting point: understanding how Filipinos actually live, spend, send money, and protect their families.
PalawanPay’s “There Na” won Gold for Most Innovative Brand Awareness Campaign, while Palawan ProtekTODO’s “Sachet” earned Gold for Most Innovative Consumer Insights Marketing Campaign. Both campaigns were developed with The GIGIL Advertising Group Inc.
While one campaign focused on remittance and the other on insurance, both looked beyond the usual financial services playbook. Rather than asking consumers to change their behavior, the campaigns found ways for the brands to fit into behaviors that were already familiar to Filipinos.
Turning remittance into a story Filipinos could instantly recognize
Palawan Express Pera Padala has earned the Filipinos’ trust as a remittance service since it started in 2003, but the rise of e-wallets was changing how Filipinos send and receive money. As more consumers turned to digital channels for convenience, PalawanPay, the Palawan Group’s e-wallet platform with over 23 million users, chose not to compete simply on transaction fees or app features. Instead, it looked at what remittance actually means to Filipinos.
For OFWs, sending money home is rarely just a financial transaction. It is a way of providing for family, expressing care, and staying connected to home despite the distance. “There Na” took that emotional truth and translated it into a distinctly Filipino idea.
The light-hearted campaign turned OFWs into superheroes through a familiar Filipino pop culture reference. After sending their hard-earned money home through Palawan Express and PalawanPay, the OFWs transformed into a well-known Filipino hero, punctuated by the familiar expression “There na!”—the phrase families use to let loved ones know that the money has already been sent. The Palawan Group released its “There Na” ads featuring brand ambassador Marian Rivera, who famously portrayed Darna in the beloved 2009 TV adaptation of the iconic comic.
The idea gave PalawanPay a more memorable way to talk about remittance than simply listing app features. By connecting the service to a familiar family experience, the campaign reinforced Palawan Express and PalawanPay’s role as a link between OFWs and the families waiting for them back home.
Making insurance fit the way Filipinos already live
If “There Na” found an emotional truth in remittance, “Sachet” started with a behavioral truth in everyday spending. Developed by Palawan Group’s insurance arm, PPS Insurance Agency, Inc. (PPSIA), Palawan ProtekTODO sought to address a familiar perception challenge in the Philippines. Many Filipinos understand the importance of protection but still see insurance as something expensive and beyond their means. Its research surfaced a common belief: insurance is “pang-mayaman lang.”
Rather than trying to convince Filipinos to completely rethink how they manage their money, Palawan ProtekTODO looked at how they already make limited budgets work.
That led to the sachet economy—the everyday practice of buying products in small, affordable portions, or tingi-tingi. Palawan ProtekTODO turned this familiar behavior into the foundation of its marketing strategy, reframing insurance as something accessible in small, manageable amounts.
The result was “sachet insurance,” with protection starting at ₱20 and available at more than 3,800 Palawan Express branches. The same thinking was applied to family protection, with the Premium Pamilya 100 plan offering coverage for up to six family members for a year for ₱100.
The campaign brought the idea to life through a light-hearted factory assembly-line film showing how ProtekTODO “manufactures” insurance in sachet form. By giving an abstract financial product a visual language that Filipinos already understood, the campaign made insurance easier to grasp and less intimidating.
Making financial services accessible to all
For Bernard V. Kaibigan, Chief Marketing Officer of the Palawan Group of Companies, the two recognitions reinforce the value of starting with real consumer experiences. “These awards affirm our belief that the best campaigns are those that resonate with real people and help solve real problems.”
That thinking is reflected in very different ways across the two campaigns. “There Na” made digital remittance more relatable by tapping into the emotional role money plays between OFWs and their families. “Sachet,” meanwhile, made insurance feel more attainable by connecting it to the everyday economics of tingi-tingi buying.
Together, the two Gold wins reflect an approach to innovation that goes beyond new technology or product features. For the Palawan Group, it can also mean looking closely at familiar Filipino behaviors and finding a smarter way to make financial services part of them.
For the Palawan Group, innovation is ultimately about making financial services work better for the sukis they serve—more accessible, more relevant, and easier to understand in the ways that matter in everyday life. This is also the reason why they take their bricktech approach seriously. Kaibigan further emphasized: “We want to empower our Sukis to manage their finances wherever they are. Whether through our branches or the PalawanPay app, our services are designed to be accessible and convenient. With our 3,800-strong branch network and PalawanPay, our Sukis can transact whenever and wherever they need to. Pwede sa branch, pwede sa app.”
