{"id":73930,"date":"2026-04-30T07:48:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=73930"},"modified":"2026-04-29T16:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T08:51:30","slug":"synergy-reveals-split-wallet-reality-where-emotional-roi-drives-brand-relevance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2026\/04\/30\/synergy-reveals-split-wallet-reality-where-emotional-roi-drives-brand-relevance\/","title":{"rendered":"Synergy reveals &#8216;Split-Wallet&#8217; reality where emotional ROI drives brand relevance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Brands striving to remain relevant amid global economic shifts and inflation will navigate a complex \u201csplit-wallet\u201d reality. New data from\u00a0Synergy Market Research + Strategic Consultancy\u00a0reveals that while\u00a09 in 10 Filipinos\u00a0are aggressively practicing cutbacks, they are simultaneously \u201coverconsuming\u201d on brands that offer a high\u00a0emotional return on investment (eROI).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the recently concluded\u00a02026 Market(In)Sights\u00a0conference at the Marquis Events Place, BGC, industry leaders discussed how brands can stay relevant in a changing Filipino market. The consensus: market relevance is no longer dictated by the lowest price, but\u00a0by a brand\u2019s ability to provide &#8220;feel-good&#8221; experiences.<\/p>\n<p><b>Filipinos are consuming from status-seeking to self-soothing<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Synergy\u2019s research paints a sobering picture of the current Filipino consumer, revealing that\u00a0over 4 in 10 Filipinos\u00a0struggle to live on their monthly income alone. They are now making cutbacks in nonessential categories. This underconsumption has led to selective overconsumption in categories that offer a high eROI, as consumers look for brands that provide a sense of relief amid economic exhaustion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe discovered this split-wallet reality,\u201d explained\u00a0Germaine Reyes, President and CEO of Synergy. \u201cWallets are shrinking, but people will still buy something meaningful. It\u2019s not paradoxical; it\u2019s a survival mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ana Pista, President of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines and CEO of Ardent Communications, echoed this sentiment, noting a transition from status-seeking to self-soothing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way we under- and over-consume is very Filipino,\u201d Pista remarked, \u201cWe want to reward ourselves, especially after the restrictions of COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, this selective overconsumption only happens when a consumer feels a deep sense of trust in a brand.\u00a0Miko David, President of the Digital Marketing Association of the Philippines (DMAP), emphasized that brands must anchor in highly credible sources, such as print media, to build trust.<\/p>\n<p><b>Showing emotional connection through representation<\/b><\/p>\n<p>To demonstrate the eROI potential of their products and services, brands must look at the authentic representation of their consumers in advertising. Synergy\u2019s research identifies two specific generations currently in most need of representation to unlock this emotional connection:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gen Z Representation Gap:\u00a043% of Filipino Gen Zs\u00a0feel unrepresented in advertising.\u00a0Jennifer Garcia, Head of Strategy at Publicis Media, noted that to bridge this gap and deliver eROI, brands must stop &#8220;looking like an ad&#8221; and instead embed themselves authentically into the Gen Z lifestyle.<\/li>\n<li>Looming Silver Economy:\u00a0As the\u00a0Philippines\u2019 fertility rate tumbles to 1.7,\u00a0the nation is rapidly transitioning toward an\u00a0aging population.\u00a0Germaine Reyes urged brands to stop ignoring consumers over 55. As life expectancy rises, marketers must rethink how they target the &#8220;Silver Gen,\u201d especially for sectors like insurance, healthcare, and luxury.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To reach both the frustrated Gen Z and the overlooked silver generation, brands must\u00a0target \u201ccommunities\u201d rather than generations.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia suggested that by\u00a0targeting the common interests that build a specific community, which often span across different ages, brands can more easily connect with highly engaged groups that form around shared values.<\/p>\n<p>With brands competing with day-to-day anxieties of both generations,\u00a0Malyn Molina, the President and COO of EON Group, proposed brands to produce ads that find a balance between aspiration and reality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReality is that, yes, things are hard. Yet they wanted to be inspired since they see 24\/7 negative news,\u201d Molina said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the recently concluded\u00a02026 Market(In)Sights\u00a0conference at the Marquis Events Place, BGC, industry leaders discussed how brands can stay relevant in a changing Filipino market. The consensus: market relevance is no longer dictated by the lowest price, but\u00a0by a brand\u2019s ability to provide &#8220;feel-good&#8221; experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":73931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[7991,413,2172,8066,96],"class_list":["post-73930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-ana-pista","tag-banking","tag-finance","tag-synergy","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73932,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73930\/revisions\/73932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}