Paving the Road to Recovery in the Philippines

Highlight decisive actions taken and steady progress

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP, the Philippine central bank) needed to get its story heard against a backdrop of other government institutions discussing their own economic challenges and various initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. An additional reputational challenge was that for several months, the Philippines was at the bottom of Bloomberg’s best and worst places to live during the pandemic.

To ease market fears, BCW’s task was two-fold. It needed to deepen the general public’s awareness and understanding of the Philippines’ reform-based recovery strategy and to raise confidence in the opportunities emerging from the country’s growth prospects.

Pandemic an opportunity to utilize PR as a policy tool

In 2021, as the pandemic endured, BCW worked with the BSP to reorientate its communications strategy to humanize monetary policy and bring the central bank closer to the people. Adopting a multi-channel approach, BCW guaranteed the BSP’s initiatives and the Philippines’ positive economic indicators reached a wide audience.

The BSP refreshed its narrative, emphasizing resilient economic fundamentals and its reform-driven recovery strategy. To ensure it stood out in a crowded space, regular engagements with international business media, industry specialist media, and authoritative think tanks were planned. This was supported by social media amplification and materials on owned media channels.

Results help sustain economic recovery

Positive messages on the Philippine economy had a global reach of more than 1.7 billion. Altogether, proactive media efforts drove 33% of all positive coverage on the Philippine economy.

The communications strategy boosted the country’s global reputation with credit rating agencies and institutional investors. The Philippines generated record-high foreign direct investments. Then-BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno was named the ‘Global Central Banker of the Year 2022,’ a first for the Philippines, and the ‘Asia-Pacific Central Banker of the Year 2022’ by the FT Group’s The Banker magazine. The ‘Economy PH’ Facebook page organically grew its followers by over 10%, year-on-year.

Awards won

• “Global Central Banker of the Year 2022” by the Banker magazine
• “Asia-Pacific Central Banker of the Year 2022” by the Banker magazine
• “Gold Standard Award for Country and Trade Promotion” by PublicAffairsAsia and PRCA