As the highly anticipated year-end shopping season such as 12.12 Sales draws near, Palo Alto Networks urges heightened cybersecurity vigilance. This period sees a surge in online activities and financial transactions — from scouring for the best shopping deals to holiday travel bookings, ticket purchases, and cross-border money transfers for holiday gifts— this holiday shopping season is a prime time for cybercriminals to take advantage of the unsuspecting digital shoppers through phishing scams, fraudulent websites, and payment fraud.

The impact is evident in the losses reported in the Philippines in 2024, totaling $8.1B due to online scams. With online activity set to surge during the upcoming shopping season, this underscores the critical need for heightened cybersecurity awareness.

“As the Philippines’ retail and e-commerce sectors continue to expand, the need for strengthened cybersecurity becomes even more critical,” said Oscar Visaya, Country Manager for Palo Alto Networks in the Philippines. “The first line of protection is always proactive defense. Businesses must proactively secure their platforms and consumers should remain vigilant to ensure safety and security this holiday season.”

The rise of online shopping, digital payments and holiday planning has transformed consumer behavior in the Philippines but has also introduced new risks. High online transaction volumes during key events like 11.11, Black Friday, and holiday travel planning create opportunities for cybercriminals, especially as consumers increasingly leverage digital payment methods for their transactions. Locally, 53% of consumers use QR codes while 68% rely on mobile wallets, increasing exposure to cyber threats.

As online transactions surge, consumers face growing risks from threats like APK attacks — malicious software targeting mobile apps—and deepfake scams. To stay safe, consumers need to be on guard about their online security, especially during peak holiday seasons. 

Palo Alto Networks offers the following best practices to ensure a safe experience:

• Verify Authenticity: Double-check emails and offers before clicking on any links. Look out for misspellings, unusual domains, and suspicious attachments.
• Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Enable 2FA for all accounts, especially when shopping online, to provide an extra layer of security.
• Shop Through Official Channels: Avoid unofficial or unknown websites. Stick to trusted and secure online shopping platforms.
• Beware of Phishing Scams: Be cautious of deals that seem too good to be true and fake order confirmation emails.
• Strengthen Passwords: Use strong, unique passwords for all online accounts and consider using a password manager for added security.
• Avoid Sharing Personal Information: Never provide sensitive personal details like social security numbers or banking information in response to unsolicited requests.

At the same time, businesses must strengthen their defenses against cyber threats. Common threats during peak periods include social engineering tactics like phishing scams, which trick employees into sharing sensitive information, and ransomware attacks, which can lock down critical systems until a ransom is paid. Additionally, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks can overwhelm retail websites with traffic, causing potential downtime and disrupting the customer experience.

To effectively mitigate these risks, businesses should adopt a Zero Trust approach that emphasizes strict verification for every user and device accessing their networks, ensuring that no implicit trust is given. By integrating comprehensive threat detection, response, and data protection into a Zero Trust framework, businesses can enhance visibility, streamline security operations, and enable real-time threat responses. This approach not only safeguards sensitive data but also maintains a seamless user experience, ensuring both protection and convenience for consumers.

“Whether you’re a business owner, employee, or consumer, cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. With the holiday season and Christmas shopping in full swing, Filipinos may feel more inclined to act on attractive offers without verifying the source. Always verify and adopt a Zero Trust thinking. If the offer is too good to be true, it probably is.  By fostering a culture of vigilance, we can protect ourselves and others in a landscape where threats are constant” added Visaya.

High-profile and popular influencers on TikTok should rethink their approach to brand-sponsored campaigns since followers better engage and trust the authenticity of smaller creators over super influencers when it comes to paid content.

The study published in Psychology & Marketing from the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management aims to help brands and businesses develop more successful strategies on the social media platform by delving into how users interact with sponsored user-generated content. They found engagement around brand-sponsored content mirrors TikTok’s own image as an unfiltered, raw, and authentic platform.

Consumers questioned the authenticity of super influencers (over half a million followers), showing less engagement with their sponsored posts relative to their non-sponsored content in contrast to smaller creators (15K followers) who did not experience a drop when promoting similar sponsored content. The niche engagement felt by smaller influencers in promoting sponsored content can be attributed to their size, which makes them able to foster a stronger sense of trust.

Although popular influencers may face challenges with sponsored content, when they promote smaller, lesser-known brands, engagement remains strong. However, endorsing large, well-known brands often results in lower consumer engagement due to perceived lack of authenticity.

“This likely stems from the perception that more popular creators prioritize commercial interests and monetary gains over genuine connections with their audience and the sheer size of their audience may dilute the personal connection with viewers,” says Argiro Kliamenakis, an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Telfer. “This issue is exacerbated when large influencers promote large brands, as these brands are often perceived as inauthentic and profit-driven, leading to lower engagement with this type of content. Therefore, larger brands may find greater value in sponsoring multiple smaller creators and employing other promotional strategies with larger influencers to encourage organic content.”

With authenticity instrumental to reaching audiences, brand managers should exercise discretion when choosing brand partnerships and look to leverage the authenticity of micro-influencers or niche content creators with engaged followings which can lead to favorable responses to sponsored content. Smaller brands can also engage with more popular creators to take advantage of their influence and visibility without sacrificing consumer engagement.

“This research provides valuable insights into how brands can effectively engage audiences on TikTok, shedding light on the nuances of consumer behavior on this platform, which can help brands and businesses develop more successful strategies,” said Kliamenakis, who points to the emerging popularity of TikTok Lives offering another aspect that needs to be looked at. “It would be valuable to investigate how consumers respond to these emerging content formats and how they might influence engagement and perceived authenticity.”

Research from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) finds that being on the cutting edge of technology is not enough to ensure success in the market, and managers must strategically time launches to create a source of opportunity and credibility for the firm.

The study, led by Dr Thomas Robinson, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Bayes, with Dr Ela Veresiu, Associate Professor of Marketing at Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, develops a framework for guiding organisations on the best situations for a product launch.

The research identifies four timing situations that can confront marketing managers. Knowing the features and traits of each timing category allows firms to develop a launch strategy leading to success:

• Synergistic timing is the optimal, legitimate launch condition whereby a firm and its stakeholders share norms about when things should occur. Here the market is ready for a product and stakeholders are ready to embrace change.
• Flexible timing consists of low firm-led coordination but high stakeholder willingness to change. Consumers and other stakeholders initiate the legitimacy of a launch moment by being open to a product’s prospective utility. Flexible timing can become synergistic timing if a firm decides its product is sufficient for early release, or it can buy time with consumers by sharing prototype failures or ‘drip-feeding’ information about a product.
• Inflexible timing occurs when there is little appetite from stakeholders to change their timing expectations, so the firm must induce appetite for new technology that can overcome stakeholder caution about the future. To move from inflexible to synergistic timing, managers should aim to restrict a product’s tech functionality or increase its dependency on human intervention.
• Antagonistic timing arises when both stakeholder willingness to change and firm-led coordination are low, and launching new technology should not be a priority in this instance.

The conceptual paper draws on the 2013 release of the Google Glass augmented reality (AR) experience, which failed because it launched at the wrong moment. The firm itself was not adequately prepared, nor were consumers ready to accept the functionality of the device, leading to the glasshole moniker. A decade later, consumers are ready for public filming and social media sharing. Legislation is also in place in a way that now makes Ray-Ban’s Meta Smart Glasses a very desirable device.

Launching new technology in the market is therefore, according to the research, a social game, in which timing is an issue of poise and tact when engaging with stakeholders. Offering time signals consideration, respect, and mindfulness. Not offering enough time is rude and gets in the way of understanding and feeling comfortable around the new technology.

The research was supported by a comprehensive review of literature looking into the role of time in market legitimacy, using the Business Source Complete database to extract academic articles around subject – plus articles from 20 4*,4 and 3 ranked marketing journals that contained key words. The resulting sample of 172 articles were then coded to identify key and recurring themes around time.

Dr Robinson said insights on the role of timing are essential for firms to improve the odds of success at launch.

“While 30,000 new products are introduced every year, 95 percent fail,” he said.

 “Consider a marriage proposal on the first date, a request for more time after ten years in a relationship, waiting too long to thank a relative for a birthday present or serving a dessert before the mains at a dinner party. Stakeholders have strong timing-norms about pacing, sequencing, coordination and planning that impact the readiness of the market.

“While marketers often have a linear view of technology, our research on timing reveals that it is not always the case that the old is simply replaced by the new – often old, failed technologies have a comeback.

“Product categories like AR glasses rose from their own ashes in ‘phoenix markets’, suggesting that it can be worthwhile to revisit old failures. Smartwatches, electric cars, and social media were all initial failures that later succeeded. Substantial losses could have been avoided had they had better timing frameworks.

“While the timing framework is developed for launching new technologies, our research also has broader applications for rebranding and mergers, political marketing, understanding the fashion cycle, service design and the experience economy.”

‘Timing Legitimacy: Identifying the Optimal Moment to Launch Technology in the Market’ by Dr Thomas Robinson and Professor Ela Veresiu is published in the Journal of Marketing.