MANILA – Smart Communication has beefed up Smart Padala just in time for the holiday rush by allowing users to send and receive money to and within the Philippines regardless of their mobile network.
Called Smart Padala Pick-Up Anywhere, the idea is to expand the text-based cash remittance service to serve practically anyone with a mobile number in the Philippines for as low as Php 25 and at the speed of a SMS message.
In comparison, the National Baseline Survey on Financial Inclusion by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that the average round-trip to reach a financial access point takes 22 minutes and costs Php 43.
Pick-Up Anywhere was also introduced alongside a brand refresh celebrating its 10th anniversary, which includes a new logo and new taglines “Kahit nasaan ka, may malapit na” and “Padalapit ka” – touting Smart Padala’s unique business strategy of tapping thousands of retail outlets to become Smart Padala Center partners.
“Both the money sender and the beneficiary don’t have to commute to a far location, brave the traffic, and line up at specific centers just to send or receive money. They have thousands of Smart Padla Centers nationwide to do the transactions,” Lawrence Ferrer, vice president of Smart eMoney, the digital finance unit of Smart and parent company PLDT.
Ferrer pointed out to adobo that the Smart Padala logo has integrated the emblem of sister company PayMaya, a reloadable Visa Card also launched by Smart eMoney in September, to show their partnership.
Details behind the collaboration is scant, but Ferrer said that Pay Maya and Smart Padala will work hand-in-hand. “We want people with Pay Maya accounts to be able to enjoy the benefits and services of Padala.”
Smart kicked off a publicity blitz with a radio jingle and two gritty short films created in-house led by Jason Domanday, video content supervisor of Voyager Innovations, the digital unit of Smart.
Rather than have a celebrity explain how Smart Padala works, the series features Risa, a cheerful Filipina mom, and Mang Berting, a sari-store owner and Smart Padala Center partner, who shows how the service works in relatable situations set in the suburbs of Manila using low-tech feature phones.
According to the same BSP survey, around 44% of Filipino adults had remittance transactions in the past six months this year, with 91% sending to their families and 6% to their friends.
Meanwhile, for those who received remittances, 90% received from their families while 7% received from friends. Top line items for puposes of remittances receive is for food (71%), education (39%), medical expenses (28%) and emergencies (22%).
