Most books on advertising and marketing use case studies in the American setting. They are not always relevant to students and to practitioners in a developing country. They also tend to make complex principles even more difficult to understand and apply.
"How to Make a Benta: Anecdotes, Lectures, & Articles from the Advertising Wars" breaks that mold. Punning his own surname for the title of the book (Macabenta literally means "to make a sale"), Greg B. Macabenta writes in a style laced with humor and packed with revealing insights drawn from campaigns that are considered classics in Philippine advertising and ethnic marketing in America - campaigns created by the author himself: Milo "Olympic Energy", Nescafé "Great Cities of the World", Milkmaid "Grow Tall Little Man", Insant Nido "World's Number One Child", the Wells Fargo Remittance Account launch that won the 1996 Gold Effie for the most effective non-English campaign in the U.S., and the brilliant combination of TV advertising and community outreach that helped gain a 27% volume growth for San Miguel Beer in the U.S.
A key chapter is a primer on public relations, crisis PR, and the touchy topic of "suppress" relations. And for the adventurous and entrepreneurial, the book offers tips on breaking into the U.S. market.
Spiced with intimate, insider anecdotes, "HOW TO MAKE A BENTA" is a virtual history of Philippines advertising over the the past half century. It is a valuable resource for students of advertising and enjoyable reading for industry veterans.
