As businesses downsized to stay afloat in 2020, ActivAsia, an omnichannel brand solutions company, remained stronger than ever, pivoting its operations towards upskilling its people and sharpening its arsenal of services.
ActivAsia was able to create over 800 jobs nationwide on top of its expanded digital and adaptable activations for its clients under these trying circumstances.
“When city-wide lockdowns were first imposed, our number one priority was to protect our purpose of securing and creating jobs for people. To make this possible, we needed to redirect roles and strengthen the relevance of our services,” shared ActivAsia Chief Transformation Officer Millie De Luna-Daluz.
Reinforcing business continuity
Within a month after the announcement of the lockdown, ActivAsia sought an opportunity to support the business continuity of long-time clients Unilever Philippines, Century Pacific Food Inc., NutriAsia, and Hapinoy by rolling out a TindaVan.
This innovation rolled out across 15 highly populated barangays in Metro Manila, bringing goods directly to communities. TindaVan is a stock-to-store retail solution that delivers distributors’ products straight to their consumers, virtually easing foot traffic in the usual “bagsakans”, public markets, or supermarkets.
Taking off from the encouraging results of TindaVan, ActivAsia built a Last Mile delivery fleet almost overnight, bringing the promise of Unilever’s online UStore to life. They trained delivery riders on sanitation protocols and reliable product handling to safely bring products from Unilever distributors straight to the homes of more Filipinos.
Optimizing digital activations
Understanding the key role of digital in the new normal, ActivAsia quickly applied its leadership in brand activation and events to producing more engaging livestream e-vents, blending online and offline tactics to create higher impact experiences for a wide range of audiences.
“Webinars became a household term for most of us last year, so we continue to challenge ourselves to push the envelope and make these moments feel more real to viewers as if we are together, sharing a common purpose at this time when we are screens apart,” said De Luna-Daluz.
Powered by people
“What powers our transformative work is our people, so more than anything, the whole business pivot was actually built on our commitment to them. When COVID hit, we made it our personal mission to do whatever we could to keep every single one in our team. That meant having to unlearn old ways of working and re-train our people so that we could all adapt to our new reality together.” De Luna-Daluz shared.
ActivAsia’s transformative strides not only helped them keep their pool of employees but allowed them to create 823 new jobs in 2020 and Q1 of 2021 as they entered the Retail and eCommerce spaces as well, completing their end-to-end service portfolio for the new normal.
Future Forward
At the recent Unilever Star Awards, ActivAsia was awarded Most Valuable Agency of the year and the coveted Future Fit award.
Together with each member of their 3,500 strong team, ActivAsia continues to build the scale and skill to drive impact from demand creation to demand fulfilment.
To live out their purpose for their people at this pivotal time in history inspires ActivAsia to move forward, serve better, and dream of even more relevant ways of driving #ImpactEveryday.
