Marketing Leader of the Year Mike Sena Is Changing How Cebuana Lhuillier Tells Its Story

The Cebuana Lhuillier marketing chief’s Gold recognition highlights a broader strategy to make financial services more relevant, accessible, and connected to the everyday lives of Filipinos.

As Cebuana Lhuillier continues to grow beyond its traditional pawnshop roots, the company is also changing the way it talks about money, financial services, and the role these solutions can play in everyday Filipino life.

Helping lead that transformation is Emirosco Michael “Mike” Sena, First Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Cebuana Lhuillier, who recently received Gold as Marketing Leader of the Year at the Marketing Excellence Awards 2026.

The recognition reflects Sena’s role in bringing together strategy, creativity, customer understanding, and financial inclusion as Cebuana Lhuillier expands into a broader financial services ecosystem.

“Mike has played a pivotal role in transforming how we build and communicate the Cebuana Lhuillier brand,” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, President and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier.

According to Lhuillier, Sena has helped make marketing a meaningful driver of both the company’s business and financial inclusion agenda.

Building Around the Financial Needs of Filipinos

Cebuana Lhuillier has steadily expanded beyond its roots in pawning.

Its portfolio now includes bridge financing through pawning, small loans, money transfers, savings, protection, entrepreneurial support through the Cebuana Lhuillier KaNegosyo Center, and opportunities aimed at helping customers build wealth.

Under Sena’s marketing leadership, the company has also worked to change perceptions surrounding pawning.

Instead of presenting it only as an option during financial difficulty, Cebuana Lhuillier has positioned pawning as a practical way for customers to unlock the value of assets they already own.

That approach forms part of a bigger story: financial needs change over time, and people may require different services at different stages of their lives.

For one customer, the priority may be accessing funds or sending money to family. For another, it may be saving, securing protection, building a business, or growing financial resources.

The company’s expanding portfolio is designed to respond to these different priorities.

Connecting Different Services Through One Story

Campaigns such as CebuanaAmazing All-In have helped bring that strategy to consumers.

Rather than focusing on a single product, the campaign showed how different Cebuana Lhuillier services can work together to address the realities and aspirations of Filipino customers.

This approach has also changed the role of marketing within the organization.

Communication is no longer limited to promoting individual financial products. It also helps explain financial topics in a more accessible way and connects services with situations Filipinos encounter in everyday life.

Building Conversations at Digital Scale

Cebuana Lhuillier’s digital presence reflects the reach of this strategy.

According to the company, the brand has more than 10 million Facebook followers, along with 528,000 TikTok followers and 531,000 Instagram followers.

Its campaigns in 2025 generated 9.9 billion impressions and 3.6 billion engagements, demonstrating the scale of the conversations created around its brand and services.

Beyond the numbers, however, the company’s marketing strategy is built around familiarity and trust.

By connecting financial concepts with relatable stories and cultural insights, Cebuana Lhuillier aims to make conversations about money easier to understand and more approachable for its audience.

Recognition for Leadership and Teamwork

Sena’s recognition at the Marketing Excellence Awards 2026 comes alongside another achievement for the organization.

While Sena received Gold for Marketing Leader of the Year, Cebuana Lhuillier’s Integrated Marketing and Communications Group received Bronze for Marketing Team of the Year.

Together, the awards recognize both individual leadership and the work of the wider marketing organization behind the brand.

Building for the Next Stage of the Filipino Financial Journey

Looking ahead, Sena’s focus is on making Cebuana Lhuillier’s expanding portfolio easier for customers to understand as their circumstances and financial priorities change.

Whether someone needs immediate access to funds or is looking to save, protect assets, manage resources, grow a business, or build wealth, the company wants its services to be relevant throughout that journey.

For Cebuana Lhuillier, the story is therefore becoming bigger than pawning.

It is about becoming a financial partner that can serve Filipinos across different moments and different stages of life.

Sena’s Marketing Leader of the Year recognition puts a spotlight on the communications strategy behind that transformation—and on how a familiar Filipino brand is evolving the story it tells about financial progress.