How Sun Life helped bring The STAR into branded entertainment
MANILA, Philippines — The partnership with Sun Life inspired The Philippine STAR to create ‘Single/Single,’ an award-winning series that redefined how entertainment and brand storytelling could work together.
Every new platform presents the same question:
How do you remain true to your purpose while speaking to audiences in a different way?
For decades, The Philippine STAR answered that question through journalism. As media habits evolved, however, the publication began exploring how its editorial strengths could extend beyond print and into television, digital video, and, eventually, entertainment.
The next frontier was no longer simply about creating content. It was about creating stories that audiences would actively choose to watch.
When entertainment became the message
Early experiments with financial literacy content on YouTube revealed an important challenge.
Educational videos delivered valuable information, but they often struggled to capture sustained audience engagement.
"Tackling financial literacy did not generate much engagement on YouTube," recalls PhilSTAR Media Group Executive Vice President Lucien Dy Tioco.
"It was too complex for our viewers at the time, so the goal was to create something they could easily digest."
That realization led to an ambitious question:
What if important life lessons could be woven naturally into an entertaining story?
The answer became “Single/Single,” a romantic comedy mini-series that explored relationships, careers, adulthood, and financial responsibility without ever feeling like a lecture.
Among the first companies to embrace that vision was Sun Life.
Their "It's Time" campaign, featuring Piolo Pascual and Francis Magalona, shared many of the same themes: preparing for the future, making thoughtful life decisions, and building financial security.
Rather than forcing a brand into an existing story, the partnership aligned naturally because both the campaign and the series sought to encourage young Filipinos to think differently about their futures.
A new kind of collaboration
Once the concept was approved, Cinema One joined the project as a production partner.
At the time, the network was known primarily for films, making “Single/Single” one of its earliest ventures into serialized television storytelling.
"It marked a breakthrough for the network and for branded entertainment," Dy Tioco says.
Starring Matteo Guidicelli and Shaina Magdayao, the series ran for two seasons of roughly twelve episodes each, before eventually inspiring a feature-film adaptation released in 2018.
What began as a branded-content experiment had evolved into a successful entertainment property.
Balancing story and brand
Creating that balance was perhaps the project's greatest challenge.
"Since it is a brand-driven series, the difficult part was how to balance the content and deliver it in a way that benefits not just our partners but Filipino audiences," Dy Tioco explains.
To preserve the integrity of the storytelling, The STAR brought in then-columnist Pepe Diokno, who would later become one of the country's most respected filmmakers.
His creative direction helped ensure that “Single/Single” remained emotionally authentic while naturally incorporating the values shared by its brand partners.
The result demonstrated that branded entertainment did not have to interrupt a story.
When handled thoughtfully, it could become part of the narrative itself.
A breakthrough that changed the industry
The series received multiple recognitions, including Anvil Awards for its public relations campaign and financial literacy advocacy among millennials, as well as Quill Awards from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) for excellence in communication.
Its success also encouraged companies across industries — from real estate to banking — to explore long-form branded storytelling as a new communications platform.
For The Philippine STAR, “Single/Single” became one of its most successful commercial ventures, generating more than P120 million in revenue while establishing the publication as an innovator in multimedia storytelling.
More importantly, it demonstrated that journalism, entertainment, and brand communication could coexist without sacrificing credibility or audience engagement.
Stories without borders
Looking back, the partnership with Sun Life represented far more than the launch of a successful series.
It showed that meaningful ideas are not confined by the platforms on which they begin.
The Philippine STAR entered entertainment not to leave journalism behind, but to discover new ways of fulfilling the same mission: helping people understand life's most important decisions through stories that resonate.
By taking that leap, The STAR proved that newspapers could do more than report culture. They could help create it.
And with partners such as Sun Life willing to invest in bold ideas, “Single/Single” became another milestone in a forty-year journey defined by innovation, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to telling stories that matter.
