"WORLD"-OF MOUTH ADVERTISING

By Roger Pe
Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 16, 2011

This South Asia country used to conjure images of economic neglect, natural disasters and poverty. Would you want to go there after your oh-so-chic Paris trip? Perhaps no.

Unbeknownst to many, it is now making a name because of its main attraction: Cox’s Bazar - the world’s longest ocean beach with towering cliffs running parallel through it.

Along with once sleepy town Glendalough, Ireland and Engelberg, Switzerland, they are now listed by tourism bible Trifter (online publisher of the world’s biggest destinations) as the Top 3 most beautiful places in the world to visit.

They finally belonged to the map after advertising repackaged their image.

Just like the cinderella story of two of the Philippines’ biggest tourism magnets today: Camarines Sur and Palawan.
Against the more established Manila, Cebu, Boracay, Bacolod, Davao and Baguio, no one ever thought that Camarines Sur, not even in your wildest dreams, would one day become the country’s number one destination.

It is officially the country’s biggest tourism star, upstaging even neighboring Albay (home to majestic Mayon Volcano), a phenomenal achievement acquired within such a short time.

The secret: sheer belief in advertising and making all its communication materials: tv commercials, website, down to new media - all looking fresh, dynamic and interesting.

Used to be known only for Penafrancia festival, abaca, perennial typhoons and your lowly ‘laing’, the province has awakened and given birth to a new moniker: CamSur.

A drastic turnaround and 360-degree image re-invention, CamSur, reborne, emerged from its cocoon, and shed off the crude, boring ‘cottage’ advertising style we were accustomed to see.

The provincial government invested on a number of viral tv commercials, each with a strategic approach positioning the province as a dream vacation, a paradise for honeymooners and a world-class destination for extreme sports.

“CamSur Romance” featuring Caramoan, locale of the French Survivor reality tv show, “Dream Vacation”, “Sweet” and “Lago del Ray” were some of the tv ads it produced.

They’re all beautifully photographed and attempted to create a new genre: local tourism advertising.

CamSur’s biggest attractions are its world class Watersports Complex with the best cable park in the world and Gota Village Resort in Caramoan.

If you build it, they will come, so goes the saying. Indeed, tourists came in droves to CamSur. Credit the man who believed and put his faith in brand advertising: Governor Lray Villafuerte.

From January to September 2010, CamSur posted a remarkable 52.90% incremental growth over the same period in 2009.

310,063 foreigners visited the province in 2010 compared to 206,937 in 2009 or a 49.83% increase. Domestic tourists in the province also ballooned: from 1,229,029 in 2009 to 1,569,109 in 2010.

THE LAST FRONTIER

Many years ago, we only knew Palawan as a penal and leper colony, malaria-infested with nothing but large tracts of primeval rainforests.

Accessible only by a few commercial boats sailing two nights and a day (or longer) to reach Manila, or by a solitary Philippine Airlines Fokker plane, the Philippines’ largest island province was hugely undeveloped.

When Ramon V. Mitra, Sr. started modernizing the province, things began to change. Puerto Princesa, became a city in 1970 and word-of-mouth pushed Palawan to everyone’s consciousness.

The main airport was transformed to an alternative international gateway capable of handling jetliners and more than 8 daily flights during peak season.

Today, around 6 Airbus jets fly to Palawan everyday and more luxurious, faster ships ply the Manila-Palawan route.

Inch by inch, the province climbed from obscurity to top-of-mind recall.

El Nido, Coron, Busuanga, Calauit, Puerto Princesa's two World Heritage sites - New Natural Wonders of the World candidate Underground River and Tubbataha Reef, and the mother of them all, the stunning Amanpulo built by the prestigious Aman Resorts Worldwide advertised Palawan to the world.

Brand Palawan was slowly being created due to sustainable eco-tourism and rare flora and fauna: the province main selling proposition.

Unlike CamSur, which is compact, Palawan seems to be an entire country, much larger in land area and its attractions are scattered in many municipalities, separated by bodies of water.

“That makes transportation more difficult than places that are conveniently located in areas accessible to all kinds of transportation,” Palawan governor Baham Mitra laments.

But Mitra rejoices in the fact that “Palawan’s tourism spots are natural wonders, their beauty lies in the natural symmetry of sand, sea, and rocky formations grouped together as in a symphony.”

God-made versus man-made, that seems to be Palawan is to CamSur.

With more and more positive feedbacks riding on its crest, Palawan is penetrating deeply into our domestic and foreign households without really trying.

Sans sustained and aggressive promotional money, Palawan’s word-of-mouth advertising is proving to be a potent weapon, enabling it to move closer to Cebu and Boracay as one of the country’s major tourist destinations.

Relying mainly on its scenic wonders to sell to the world, it gets free advertising – from people’s endorsements and institutions.

A billboard at Naia Terminal 3 departure area, for example, provides free publicity for Palawan.

“We want to take Palawan to the next level,” says Palawan Governor Baham Mitra who is excited to know that his province is also on the brink of joining Maldives, Dubai and Fiji on the world tourism stage.

When completed in 2013, the multi-billion-peso Coral World Park, now being built in Coron, Palawan, will be the world’s biggest integrated undersea resort complex.

“We have the Strategic Environmental Plan that provides framework for the conservation and protection of our environment and sustainable development,” Mitra says.

Kayangan, a mountain lake located in Coron town, is one fine example, having been elevated to Hall of Fame as the country’s cleanest and greenest inland body of water. Barracuda Lake, near Kayangan, is also a Hall of Fame Awardee for the cleanest and greenest lake.

A staunch clean-and-green advocate, even from the start of his 12-year congressman career, Mitra is exerting a concerted effort to preserve Palawan’s natural and cultural heritage.

WORLDWIDE FREE PUBLICITY

Last year, Palawan staged the latest season of popular European adventure show “Les Aventuriers de Koh-Lanta”.
Called the last frontier by renowned French explorer and marine researcher Jacques Cousteau, the 10 episodes reality show, shot entirely in El Nido provided free publicity for Palawan to an estimated 8 million viewers in France, Belgium, Switzerland and North Africa.

Prestigious National Geographic Magazine picked Palawan as one of the 20 best destinations in the world this year, its biggest advertising endorsement so far.

The only place in the Philippines to be given the accolade thrilled the youthful Palawan governor no end.

“We are more than excited to see Palawan elevated to world-class status because of sheer word-of-mouth advertising,” Mitra says.

Lack of promotional funding is Mitra’s biggest challenge. But the man who wants to modernize Palawan just like what his father did is undaunted and doesn’t want to rely on word-of-mouth advertising alone.

He knows Palawan’s potential to become a top world tourism mecca is just waiting to happen.

When more advertising budgets come, Mitra wants to sell Palawan as a natural haven blessed with charm and beauty that make it stand above the rest in accordance to the SEP Law and in keeping with the image of Palawan as the country’s last ecological frontier.

When these are available, he believes the impossible can be attained - the Palawan brand becoming the Philippines’ biggest flagship in the tourism front and its biggest money earner.

COSTING A CASTING OF CELEBRITIES FOR A TV COMMERCIAL

By Roger Pe
Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 9, 2011

How much does a full page ad cost in newspapers? It depends on which broadsheet you want to be seen and make an impactful splash.
It also depends on what page and what day you want to break. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Sunday?

A weekday full-page, full-color ad, for example, costs roughly two hundred and seventy thousand pesos. You’ll shell out roughly 45 thousand more if you want to book a Sunday placement.

Why more expensive on Sundays?

Sunday readership is higher than those on weekdays because, obviously, people are at home, white and blue-collar workers are resting, students don’t have classes and you and the rest of the world are either lounging around in a resort or simply just enjoying the morning breeze by the house garden and reading, what else, newspapers.

Now, that’s the cost of only putting a single ad (insertion, in media parlance). What if you want to make the same ad come out 20 times over a period of two 6 months? Go figure.

What about the cost of making the ad?

Seasoned marketers know that when ad agencies go back to them with production CEs (cost estimates) they know that standard concept and design fees are SOPs for an intellectual property.

They also know that computer, studio time and manhours have to be justifiably factored in and not haggled at exploitative rates.
Photography, and yes, FA (final art, the digital process of making all elements in the ad rendered in high-resolution stage) charges are exclusive of above-mentioned fees, thus would be added to the cost.

In a scenario where even big ad agencies are getting marginalized income, definitely, they aren’t free unless one wants to be hijacked in broad daylight with eyes wide open or run a business going slowly to bankruptcy.

Next, you are asked to use a talent, not just a talent to endorse your product, but a celebrity who could pack consumers in – to your neighborhood grocery or super-duper-hypermarket.

Your client wants Manny Pacquiao or Robin Padila. Another brand wants Angel Locsin or KC Concepcion. The other wants Kris Aquino, Vic Sotto, Anne Curtis, Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson. Yet another wants a star-studded campaign with a smorgasbord of movie stars – Piolo Pascual, John Lloyd Cruz, Richard Gutierrez, Sam Milby, Jerico Rosales, Sarah Geronimo, etc.

Fine, just cough up 3 to 50 million more.

Depending on who among these stars are up your brand’s alley, they are your best weapon and ally to rake in more money.

Why are celebrities so expensive?

Roly Halagao, one of Philippine advertising’s most reliable casting directors says: “It’s plain and simple:
Celebrities sell no matter what other people say they don’t. It really depends on the celebrity you use. It should be someone who has unblemished integrity, credibility and pulling power.”

Halagao, a faculty member of Masters School For Models put up by Supermodel-maker Joey Espino along ritzy Ayala Avenue certainly knows what he is talking about.

He was the master caster for these highly successful tv campaigns: Alaxan with Manny Pacquiao as celebrity endorser;
Jollibee with Sarah Geronimo, Gran Matador with Ding Dong Dantes, Greenwich with Anne Curtis, Solenn Heussaff, Kelly Misa, John Lloyd Cruz and the gang plus many more.

At Masters School for Models, Halagao handles commercial and basic casting, VTR projection, camera ethics, personality development and intensive tv commercial production training.

He trains students how to become competitive, effective and marketable in advertising. No wonder his models have become world-class like this year’s Supermodel of the World Danica Magpantay.

Samantha Gomez and Charlene Almarvez, 2010 Supermodel of the World, first runner-up, were also two of his students.

The affable guy most recently was part of Nestle’s centennial tv campaign as casting director and was also the first to discover and gave tv commercial breaks to ABS-CBN talents Gerald Anderson, Coco Martin, Neil Coleta, Jovit Baldovino and Lance Dugan.

He also did the same to GMA7 talents Jennilyn Mercado, Luane Dy, Ian Batherson among others and many other Channel 23 MYX VJs like Bianca Roque.

For security and other ethical reasons, Halagao doesn’t want to reveal talent fees of celebrities he has really closely worked with. The highest paid celebrity, he says, gets 40 to 50 million in that range. The rest vary from 3 to 20 million.

The late Fernando Poe was paid a huge sum for doing a San Miguel beer tv commercial, so was Dolphy when he debuted as a McDonald’s endorser a couple of years back.

Sharon Cuneta commanded a prime talent fee at her peak. Robin Padilla whose staying and pulling power, hasn’t diminished is also one celebrity star whose appeal continues to sparkle and therefore still gets good rates.

Why celebrities?

Halagao says, “Consumers’ attraction to celebrities always tilt towards known personalities. How much more if your endorsers are superstars? Pag kinuha mo ang mga ‘yan, talagang benta!”

“From personal appearances for your product launchings to fundraisers to ribbon-cuttings, you can’t go wrong with celebrity-power,” he continues.

Asked what is his secret for lasting in the business, Halagao says, “my feet are always on the ground, I am focused with my work and I master my craft.

You must have an eye for beauty, even if it’s hidden somewhere, “at marunong ka dapat maghanap ng hindi available” (you should know how to find talents even if they are not available).

But are huge celebrity talent fees worth it?

Not everything is a rosy picture for using celebrities.

We all know what happened to Tiger Woods’ brand endorsements when his marital scandal exploded in media.

The superstar celebrity endorser that he was, Tiger Woods signed a 10-year contract with a well-known American brand, which gave him, until the last five years, $40 million.

Ad bible Ad Age tells us that, “putting celebrities in commercials seriously lowers their effectiveness based on an Ace Score research results.
In that survey, “non-celebrity commercials, as a group, averaged 8% above the Ace Score norms for attention, persuasiveness, comprehension, likeability and other characteristics while celebrity commercials, as a group, averaged 1.4% below.”

The magazine, however, was quick to say, too, that recent studies of hundreds of celebrity endorsements revealed that sales for some brands increased up to 20% right after every celebrity endorsement deal.

But it put succinctly: “Celebrity endorsement is always worth investing in if you have the right person and if the celebrity has logical connection with the product.”

In the Philippines, advertisers are such believers in celebrity endorsement it is no surprise you’ll find celebrities even on product packagings and billboards that dot urban landscapes.

“It's an expensive but easy option for companies and celebrities in a hurry to hit sales and stardom,” Halagao quickly emphasizes.

“Clients should invest more in what they should say in their ads rather than spend more time on who is going to endorse their products,” a creative director, says.

So is using a celebrity worth looking into?

Going back to what Halagao says, “One must be sure and validate the celebrity’s integrity, credibility and convincing power to consumers.” Very well said.

THE CONSUMER IS NOT A MORON, SHE IS YOUR WIFE

By Roger Pe
Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 2, 2011

That is one of Ogilvy’s most famous lines and if you ask advertising and marketing practitioners if they know what it means, most of them, if not all, will say: “I do.”

Let’s talk about degrees of consumer separation.

The most devastating thing that could happen to a husband is when his wife comes to him and says she is filing a divorce.

Marriage break-up or annulment is painful. The same is true in marketing. Can you stand seeing your customers walk away because you’ve not been faithful in delivering your brand promise?
Consumers stay loyal because of the brand experience they get. When they feel that they’re being shortchanged, watch the cookie begin to crumble.

Are customers beginning to get bored with your brand marriage? Why not woo them with the same passion you made them feel when you first met them?

When brands constantly renew their vows to consumers and heighten the romance, sales honeymoons are just waiting to happen again.

Romancing the consumers is not a nine-to-six-job. We all know that in order to get the desired sales figures, we need to remember the numbers: 24/7, 365 and 360-degree brand caring.

That’ll give you brand omnipresence, top-of-mind-awareness and top-of-the-ladder boost in sales.

The world never sleeps when you sleep. On the other side of the globe, a new brand is about to be launched. Competition is planning its next move. The seemingly ‘perfect’ brand that you thought it was is bound to get obsolete.

As technology gets better, keep your acts together. Because by the time you wake up, things may have changed and enemy is now staring at you in the face.

Recent Manila visitor Steve Dahllof, President and Regional CEO of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Asia Pacific, says: “Our job is to offer the best possible solution. We need to take a closer look and analyze the facts in order to make brands consistently engaging - Round-the-clock, not halfway through.”

A proud advocate of Ogilvy & Mather’s word invention: “Prosumers” (a breed of producers and consumers that are becoming a very influential social group in driving brand success), Dahllof travels around the world carrying in his packed suitcase a multi-layered persona: Creative Director, Strategic Planner, Client Lead and Managing Director all rolled into one.

In more than 450 Ogilvy offices in 120 countries, “we help create a 24/7 marketing environment and spin a 360-degree media-centric communication with clients, combining local know-how and an expansive global network,” he says.

As the industry knows, the process has produced many powerful campaigns, addressing local market needs while still reinforcing their universal brand identities.

“360-Degree Brand Stewardship, says Dahllof, is “the agency’s brand-building weapon, a holistic look at communications, using what is necessary from each discipline to build a brand.”

Leah Huang, Ogilvy Manila PR Managing Director, also says, “we not only communicate, we dialogue with consumers and motivate them to effect behavior change.”

“Our role as 360-degree Brand Stewards is to create attention-getting messages that make a promise consistent and true to the brand’s image and identity,” she says.

Asked if there’s an impending death of advertising and PR, Dahllof and Huang say, “Brands all the more need ad agencies with a holistic approach to a marketing problem. More than ever before, marketers need both advertising and PR because losing control is a terrible thing.”

The Ogilvy touch is always evident in real advertising practice - delivering effectiveness to clients’ expectations. Every Ogilvy staff knows that “If it doesn’t sell, it is not creative.”

In the region, Ogilvy PR was most dominating with its recent successful brand case study: a tourism campaign called “Pambassador” which agencies with travel and tourism accounts may really want to ponder on and take a closer look.

The Ogilvy thinking in that pitch: “Soft power’ is more effective communication strategy on the world stage than messages of economic might.”

“Pambassador” zeroed in on China’s Sichuan province’s capital of Chengdu, virtually not in the radar of foreign investors and with almost nil tourism revenues.

From obscurity, “Pambassador” made Chengdu an investment haven, 12 Fortune 500 companies established bases in the city as a result which saw a 26% increase in tourists in 2010, a spectacular 58% growth in the month after the campaign was launch.

Reinvented, Chengdu became a city that is economically sustainable, friendly and open with more than 60,000 people worldwide applying for permanent residency.

Now perceived as the “Panda-Land” of China by 51% of potential tourists and key opinion leaders, Chengdu rose to the occasion, largely through Ogilvy’s exceptional levels of PR Relations and media coverage which subsequently delivered the following results:

Around 40% of key opinion leaders across Asia, North America, and Europe had heard about the “Pambassador” campaign (source: Penn Schoen Berland)

More than 8.5 million people from 178 countries saw the campaign website. Nearly 61,000 applicants from 52 countries entered the “Pambassador” search competition.

160 media outlets globally covered the story, including the Wall Street Journal, AFP, USA Today, international TV networks including American ABC and CBS, British BBC, Global Al Jazeera, Japan’s Kyoto News, CTV (Canada), RAI (Italy), CCTV (China) among many others.

Moreover, “Pambassador” was described as “the new best job in the world” in a 2-minute TV feature on ABC’s Good Morning America to 4-5 million daily viewers.

Social media coverage was substantial with a highlight being a feature on Perez Hilton’s blog (www.perezhilton.com) with over 7.2 million web hits a month and 1.7 million Twitter followers

No less than Mr. He Huazhang, Vice Mayor of Chengdu recognized the outstanding success of the campaign:

“We are very impressed by Ogilvy’s competence. This is one of the most successful campaigns we’ve done in recent years,” he said.

The success of “Pambassador” campaign was also cited by UN Secretary-General of Ban Ki-moon saying “efforts to protect the Giant Panda have also contributed to raising global awareness of the importance of biodiversity and ecosystems.”

DAVID OGILVY

The guy who founded one of the world’s largest ad agency networks celebrated his 100th birthday last month.

Over the past 60 years, Ogilvy helped build countless brands together with people who practiced what he preached. American Express, Sears, Ford, Shell, Barbie, Pond’s, Dove, and most recently, IBM and Kodak were among them.

The former college dropout, chef and door-to-door salesman who became a copywriter was honored by no less than the world’s biggest advertising festival, Cannes, and rolled out its red carpet calling him – “The man who inspires.”

Ogilvy won 12 Gold Lions and won its best ever result at Cannes securing the "Network of the Year" category as well.

In total, the network won 61 Lions across all categories, scooping up 17 Silver and 32 Bronze Lions, as well as having 133 Finalists in this year's festival. Ogilvy Argentina was named Direct Agency of the Year and Ogilvy Brazil took third place in that category.

At the end of the festival, the Ogilvy network helped push WPP* (Wire and Plastic Products, a UK manufacturer of wire baskets, in which Sir Martin Sorrell invested following his search for a public entity to build a worldwide marketing services company) to the cream of the crop, beating the usual suspects, Omnicom and Publicis Groupe as Holding Company Network of the Year.

WANTED: A BALANCE OF CREATIVE AND EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING

By Roger Pe
Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 25, 2011

Who doesn’t wear a pair of Nike shoes? Kids wear it. Teens wear it. Men and women wear it. Your old folks wear it. The globe practically wears it. The iconic brand is such a blockbuster it took Cannes by storm.

Over the weekend Nike captured the Grand Prix Lion in the juiciest categories of all, Film.

Nike’s entry “Write The Future” created by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam is a riveting, pure electric spot kicking off the brand’s global World Cup advertising campaign last year.

No less than the world’s soccer gods Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Franck Ribery starred in the 3-minute film. The story is simple: Should they bring home the world’s favorite sport's top prize, statues will be erected in their honor, babies named after them, even guest appearances on "The Simpsons."

Creative advertising that is just bloody hell effective.

On the local turf, you are walking in a mall or some busy side of a city’s business district. A dentist comes up to you from out of nowhere and say your teeth have, aww, bacteria.
Obligingly, you say yes to the invitation and, voila, a state of the art teeth scanner appears. You are shocked to see the truth: indeed, your teeth are all covered with bacteria even if you just brushed your teeth.
Product freight follows, introducing (beep) toothpaste that gives you whiter teeth in just two weeks. Fast forward, look, ma, no stains and your teeth are whiter than ever before.

Is the ad effective enough to convince you to buy the product?

Here’s a beautifully produced, cinematic tv commercial with a gorgeous looking girl running in slow mo in a picturesque landscape with sunflowers blooming in explosion. She doesn’t speak any lines except give a mysterious, teasing smile until the very end of the ad, and that’s it.

Can an ad get noticed just because it looks stunningly beautiful like a Hollywood film? Bernbach, the acknowledged father of modern advertising said, it is no guarantee. He said, “How many people do you know who are impeccably groomed... but dull”?

We’ve seen many would-be-queens lose their grip on the title because they scored badly in the dreaded Q and A. A hairline away from the crown, they quickly vanished to the exit door after they spoke.

Anyone who has ever told you that you’re a dumb blonde is unpalatable, much more insulting. In advertising, form over content can sometimes mean disaster.

And so do content over form. All meat but it’s ain’t neat, all substance but consumers don’t wanna glance. Just the same, it is an impending disaster.

BALANCE IS THE KEY, CREATIVITY AND EFFECTIVITY IN TANDEM
As ad agencies continue to parry the onslaught of change, and as Cannes, the world’s biggest advertising, finally relents to mount the Creative-Effectiveness category for the first time in its more than 50 years, a new breed of ad people is emerging.
They are the Better Managers, the ones who are able to give clients a good balance of effective advertising without relegating the creative side of it to the din of the back door.

Matec Villanueva, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer of Publicis Manila, is one such.
“To survive the rising tide of change in advertising one must know how to balance the agency’s output: produce effective advertising that walks in tandem with the world’s creative standards,” Villanueva says matter-of-factly.
Villanueva loves to stress her tandem partnership with Marlon Rivera, President and Chief Creative Officer of the agency. “He is my chef de cuisine and I am the maitre‘d,” she points out.

The power of two recently produced Nestle’s hugely successful centennial project commemorating the food company’s 100th year in the country as “Kasambuhay Habambuhay” (Companion in Life, For Life”). The ambitious magnum opus debuted in Cannes last week to a capacity crowd amidst a thunderous applause.

The love story of childhood friendship enduring through time, good and bad until a new generation of romance repeats the cycle, had Nestle products woven discreetly in the story, unobtrusive in their presence and as important part of Filipino family life, a triumph in product subtlety, casualness and respect for the consumer,

“It’s the casualness that people remember”, Villanueva reminds us who cannot hide her admiration for Nestle Philippines Chairman and CEO, Country Head John Martin Miller.

“We sold him the idea. It wouldn’t see the light of day if he didn’t take the risk,” Villanueva says.
The 100-minute “short film anthology,” showcased the wide expanse of Filipino advertising creativity and what it can accomplish.

Handled by directors who had done Nestle product commercials before the “The (H)owl and the Fussyket” by Chris Martinez, “Unplugged” by Raul Jarolan, “Isang Tasang Pangarap” by Sid Maderazo, “Tingala sa Baba” by Henry Frejas, and “Sign Seeker” by Carlos Directo were among the crowd favorites in a gala showing.

Villanueva who seemed to have inherited Minyong Ordonez’ business acumen is also a stickler for balanced time management.

She makes sure that Publicis Manila’s staff - from management to rank-and-file have a work-life balance, believing that one’s life after work shouldn’t be compromised.

“We must see the other side of the world to get a brighter picture of the whole world,” she says.
A balance of everything, made Villanueva accomplish her target: produce double-digit agency growth every year for an agency she once turned down to lead.

Villanueva and Rivera have been instrumental in leap-frogging Publicis Manila to an enviable industry success. In a scenario where majority of ad agencies are scrambling for new business pitches in a diminishing pie, the two focused on their existing accounts as their biggest source of growth. And how they did it with much aplomb.

“Because we’re such an effective agency who also believes in market research data which always backs up our thinking that ultimately always redounds to contagious ideas, “ Villanueva proudly mentions.

Villanueva who never thought she would be in advertising right after college stumbled into advertising through the back door. She worked in an activation unit of Basic Advertising, the predecessor of Publicis Manila.

Today, she has grown bigger than what she thought she’d ever achieve. Under her helm, Publicis Manila is now one of the industry’s most financially vibrant agencies and has also become the industry’s biggest insighting agency.

Like the Nestle centennial story where a new generation of romance repeats the cycle, Villanueva believes in nurturing new leaders, just as her former mentors Minyong Ordonez, Tony Mercado and Nonoy Gallardo showed her the way.

“A responsible leader must be able to nurture future leaders. Otherwise he or she becomes a failure,” Villanueva says.
A balance of everything, a balance of good people nurtured to produce what advertising must accomplish at the end of the day, that is the Villanueva way.

*The Cannes Grand Prix winner in the new creative-effectiveness category was U.K.'s "Sandwich" campaign for PepsiCo's Walkers potato chips by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London, in which Walkers turned the town of Sandwich into the most exciting place in England to prove that its potato chips paired with a sandwich make lunch more interesting. Five other Lions were awarded, including two for the U.S. and only 10 made it to the shortlist.