FOR Norberto Timbol, working for Unilever is almost like working for the family business.

“I practically grew up in Unilever,” said Norberto Timbol, chairman of Media Arts System and Services Co., or MASSCOM, who has for more than two decades served Philippine Refining Corp. (PRC), now known as Unilever Philippines. “My professional philosophy and orientation actually developed in Unilever from my 26 years of working here.

It was the first company I joined and would never leave ’till my last breath. It’s been my privilege and honor to have worked in this very international company whose training is very global.”

Treating Unilever as his second home, Timbol says he is very appreciative of all the opportunities the company has given him and, of course, to his family.

He still vividly recalls the fruitful years he has gone through while working for such a multinational firm known for its various consumer brands worldwide.

“I began as an advertising manager of Unilever in 1966 when it was still PRC, handling all its advertising requirements and dealing with agencies such as J. Walter Thompson, McCann Ericson, and Ogilvy and Mather,” shared Timbol. “Apart from these tasks with 17 to 20 brands of Unilever under my accountability, I was also responsible for research then. Since my background was in the social and behavioral sciences, not to mention that I was in charge of the Research Council in the University of the Philippines prior to PRC’s invitation to join them, I was very well-versed with consumer psychology and sociology of our people. It also helped me a lot talking to consumers and doing group discussions.”

His early years in the company helped expose him to the booming advertising industry back then. In fact, during the time, he described the advertising scene as “more creative and exciting than any of its Asian neighbors because we had a lot of young people here who were very creative.”

Proof that it was indeed the “golden era” for Philippine advertising, he mentioned big names both in politics and showbiz who actually started as talents in now-classic Unilever advertisements.

“You name it, we have it,” he boasted, citing the Superwheel advertisement of Unilever in the1970s and 1980s that is considered as one of the most creative and classic commercials for its characters from fairy tales. “Imagine we had Elizabeth Ramsey as Cleopatra. That was when the phrase ‘Magpatuka na lang ako sa ahas’ became very common. Also, we had Dr. Prado of Makati Medical Center as Goliath and Apeng Daldal as Samson.”

As for their other brands, he noted the wide range of known personalities they actually discovered.

“For Lux, we have Gloria Diaz, Amalia Fuentes, Helen Gamboa, sisters Susan Roces and Rosemarie Sonora, as well as Kris Aquino. Then for hair, we even had Korina Sanchez for Rave shampoo. For our Pepsodent, we had former senator Orly Mercado and Robert Jaworski. And most of our best actors now like Gabby Concepcion and Richard Gomez also started as our talent for Close Up,” the MASSCOM chairman said. “Truly, it became a vehicle for them to become popular in their own rights.”

These products of his creativity, which he cultivated in his employment at Unilever, plus the expertise he gained from various assignments and conferences abroad, were enough reasons for him to easily return the favor to serve Unilever through the creation of MASSCOM.

Humble beginnings

For Unilever, there was a need for more financial control and management of its advertising budget as media expenditure significant grew during the early 1980s.

Being already a big multinational firm back then, the problem triggered a domino effect to reach critical levels for its subsidiaries in Western Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and even in the United States. For the Philippines, a media evaluation committee addressed the situation by coming up with the best solution: to have an independent media-buying unit to get rid of the problems—or diminish them to a manageable minimum—and the handling of media budgets will be fully controlled by Unilever via a split-check method.

Initiating the creation of the autonomous media purchasing unit, its initiators Unilever London and the local PRC committee, led by former chairman and marketing director Clive Butler, former marketing director Peter Dart and former chairman Cesar Bautista, only had one choice to lead it. And that was none other than Timbol, who was PRC’s senior manager then.

“The whole concept of MASSCOM is servicing them [Unilever] exclusively, and no other competitors should come in and all these things that they require,” said Timbol. “I’m glad it landed on my lap.”

He remembers that “there was a cry for help and I was prevailed upon by the company. They even went as far as telling me that if I won’t accept, they will not pursue the development of the media-buying agency. In fact it was not a matter of offer. The statement was, ‘Bert, we are having so many problems we need you there. We need a company to be set up—we’ll work it out with you, its organization, philosophy and whatever you need. Set it up, capitalize it and you will exclusively serve us [Unilever].’”

And so began their unique relationship.

“We officially started our operations on January 1, 1987. So we do strategic planning, placement and buying,” said Timbol. “There were five things that we were emphasized to meet: trust, loyalty, confidence, expertise and Unilever experience. These tenets of Unilever we continue to fulfill and deliver on.”

“Our contract doesn’t have a prescription period,” Timbol stressed. “While a regular advertising agency has a three-year contract, we are the only media company in the world that does not operate with a prescription period.” 

He attributed this to the fact that the lawyers themselves saw to it that the expertise should be within the company. “As an exclusive media-buying arm of Unilever, MASSCOM provides it with the services it needs under the Philippine setting. It’s almost like a department of Unilever.”

Continuing good ties

IN keeping with its well-defined contract with Unilever, which has a clear provision stating that the trust it gave to Timbol extends to his children, MASSCOM is now a family-run business with its heirs apparent onboard. 

“As stated in the contract, if my children are willing to work and are qualified for the position as I evaluate them, then, they should be part of the company because Unilever itself trusts the Timbol name. They entrusted the family to handle their monies because they have that confidence. That’s why they are here,” said Timbol. “But in fact, I never wanted my children to be here. It was their decision to work here.”

Since the late 1990s, the young Timbols have been working in the company. Siblings Lorraine, Elaine and Raymund handle tactical-level management and introduced new trends in media negotiations and strategic media planning.

“I was encouraged to work here at MASSCOM because I was exposed to my dad’s work since my childhood days,” said Raymund. “So from elementary to high school, I used to hitch a ride going home with dad. I used to walk from Philippine Normal College to PRC in United Nations Avenue. Hence I said to myself, I’d love to work in the same company as my dad.”

For Elaine, who shifted to mass communication from economics in college, she said it was also “the experience, wherein we went with him in all his trips, the road shows and all those singing contests in promoting Superwheel that made me realize to take up a media and advertising-related course in college. So the relationship of our family that my dad has built with Unilever, and its people whom he has worked with, we continue and keep it now that we are working here.”

Passing the baton to his children, the elder Timbol said he’s very demanding when it comes to training them.  “I expect them to know as much and to be as good as I am,” he shared. “I’m glad that from what I found out, they pick up the good points and threw away the bad points.”  

Apart from the chance of working with his children, the Timbol patriarch took advantage of being with his children all the time, thus strengthening their family relations.

“In fact, unlike other families, we part ways only during weekends. But throughout the week, we see each other. We eat breakfast together while discussing the problems of Unilever. We eat merienda while talking about our new campaigns. And we eat our dinner while brainstorming on strategies for our brands. So we’re breathing and living Unilever,” Raymond stressed.

“That’s the blessing of it being a family business, that you cannot get anywhere. The only downside of this is it’s difficult to plan a vacation together because we need to be here always,” added Elaine.

The legacy of a family business

LIKE other businesses, the first 10 years of MASSCOM were very crucial. Being on top, Timbol experienced the major change in the media-advertising setting in the country.

For one, there was really no media expertise in marketing in the mid-1980s. So MASSCOM assisted the brand managers in marketing and media, as well as advertising agencies whose primary concern were creative outputs and account management, which have nothing to do with the marketing of Unilever philosophies and principles.

It was only when MASSCOM started that media management got the full attention because Unilever wanted it to be one of the key aspects of marketing.

Another development that happened industry-wide when MASSCOM was set up was that the media always got their money on time.

“Their money [the payment to media outfits by Unilever] does not come from us. All we do is we just buy [slots] from them. Then, they bill us. We check it [the bill] if it’s correct, before we send it to Unilever for payment. In other words, financial control of media money is done by them [Unilever], not by us,” explained Timbol.

But the most significant accomplishment in its over two decades of operations is that it has maintained its moniker as the “only homegrown company servicing a multinational,” Timbol said. “And while we are very independent as a corporation, our discipline, philosophy and thinking, nevertheless, will remain Unilever.”