BTS Officially Selected As The New Ambassadors For Filipino Brand SMART
The BTS members aren’t just CF kings in South Korea. Following their recent song recorded for a Coca-Cola Indonesia advertisement, they’ve scored a new role as brand ambassadors for Filipino brand Smart.
Smart, also known as Smart Communications, Inc., is a provider of cell phone data and wireless broadband. With over 75 million subscribers, Smart is one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the Philippines. They also sponsored the Mnet Asian Music Awards last year. Now, after signing a deal with Big Hit Entertainment last December, they’ve officially announced that BTS will be joining them as brand ambassadors, headlining Smart’s new 2021 campaign: “Live Smarter, Live with Purpose”.
Recent data from Twitter showed that the Philippines is the fourth largest supporter of K-Pop online, following the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia. BTS was also the most mentioned K-Pop act in the Philippines on Twitter last year, making them the perfect choice for Smart’s campaign.
Of course, their popularity isn’t the only reason they were chosen. In a statement regarding the ambassadorship, Smart president and CEO Alfedo Panlilio credited BTS’s success to “their meaningful and uplifting music that brings hope and encouragement to fans especially in the bleakest of times“. He went on to say it’s “a big honor to welcome BTS to the Smart family“, with the hope they’ll inspire more Filipinos to find purpose and live smarter.
Just like BTS who are able to inspire millions of young people all over the world through their music, Smart Prepaid aims to bring about amazing experiences to the Filipino youth through technology to make life easy, fast, and simple.
— Jane Basas, Smart SVP and consumer wireless business head
Surprisingly, BTS aren’t the first South Korean endorsers for Smart. They join actors Park Seo Joon (Itaewon Class),
Son Ye Jin (Crash Landing on You),
and Hyun Bin (Crash Landing on You), all of whom have featured in the brand’s advertisements.
According to insiders, BTS recorded their first television commercial for the campaign in Seoul last weekend in a nine-hour shoot. The advertisement will be released between January and March 2021, but an introductory video has already been released on Twitter.
Eager fans may have noticed that the Twitter is region-locked to the Philippines, but worry not if you’re overseas—you can watch the video wherever you are right here: