THE PHANTOM OF UNITEL

BY ROGER PE


If you can slow motion your life, what amazing things can you see?

Scene 1: From the thick rainforest foliage, the rustling leaves followed her path to a field of swaying blooms. Petals of varying hues danced with the breeze, trickles of rain pirouetted with the morning dew. Soon a rainbow arched in the sky, birds and butterflies fluttered by.

A picture speaks a thousand words. But however it is peppered with picturesque words and three-dimensional adjectives, it is just a picture. Immobile and has no emotions.

A moving picture makes you speak words by the hundredfold. It stretches your imagination farther than it did before.

But what if you can hold time in your hand or film a scene that’s faster than a speeding bullet? Or catch each frame in slow motion, with stunning details? What poignant stories can you tell, what poetic words can you spin?

Let us whet your visual appetite.

Last month, you probably saw how BBC aired a huge ocean scene, shot beneath the surface, revealing a 4-meter tall monster barrel wave. Clearly visible was a vortex created by the birth of a wave that formed other vortices. Filmed in high definition, using a high-speed camera, it captured the action at several times slower than normal speed. The result was never before sharply caught on camera.

Many Manny Pacquiao followers, the ones who’ll not stomach any graphic gore, would hide under the table had the fight filmed with the same type of camera. Every replay would have been much more dramatic, blood curdling at the very least. Imagine each boxer’s muscle fiber twitching, blood and sweat unleashed, and the splatter flow slow motion towards you. You could be knocked out by the visual spectacle punched your way.

SEEING IS BELIEVING

Having put in layman’s term how slow motion can capture what ordinary cameras have never previously allowed you with utmost clarity, let’s get to the technical bottom of it all.

The Phantom is a revolutionary high-speed camera that delivers 35mm depth of field. At virtually any desired resolution, it can bring you ultra-high frame rates beyond 2K in excess of 1000 fps at 1080p and 1500fps at 720p. If that’s a mouthful, well, it is not just a high-speed camera – it combines all the high-imaging qualities of expensive specialty cameras.

With the Phantom’s HD resolution, creative people can shoot thousands of pictures-per-second and enable them to have a seamless control of speed, including time duration – tools they need to tell a story in stunning new and dramatic ways.

The Phantom is the only one of its kind in the Philippines and exceptionally rare even in Asia’s top production houses. Unitel’s latest camera trophy further ups the ante where time, money and quality finish are the essence in Philippine tv commercial production.

Unitel is the country’s undisputed leader in tv commercial production output since it revolutionized the industry 24 years ago. It is also into quality filmamaking, continuing to professionalize, digitalize and bring new technology to the industry today.

“Quality-wise, the Phantom blends well with 35mm film and has a fast and simple workflow. A regular 16mm photosonic shoot would cost 160K for the camera, filmstock, processing and telecine (the process of blowing a tv ad up to the size of a moviehouse screen). With the Phantom, clients would spend less but get much more,” says the ever-evolving Unitel President Tony Gloria.

Gloria was chosen by the Philippine 4A’s as one of 25 mavericks of the ad industry in 2003 and Creative Guild of the Philippines’ Lifetime Achievement awardee in 2005. Advertising tv commercial director Sockie Fernandez, calls him a real visionary leader who always tried to innovate and went against the usual.

TOP DIRECTORS’ CHOICE

Multi-awarded and veteran tv commercial director Jun Reyes who has made some of the Philippines’ most memorable tv spots, is all praise for the Phantom. “The camera allows you more creative rooms to put a storyboard to life. By capturing special fleeting moments, creative people can put poetry and romance in varying degrees of slow motion. It’s amazing,” he says.

Larry Manda, another top-ranking director known for his beautiful camera-work, puts it succinctly: “With the Phantom, images look like a graded film print. The blacks held up beautifully, the whites fall off smoothly and all do not bleed easily. You get a 35mm depth everyone desires. New rhymes, rhythms and pure visual poetry can now be seen through this state-of-the-art tool.”

Long-time Philippine resident British cinematographer and ace director Matthew Rossen is all praise for the Phantom. “Even more interesting than running up to1000 frame per second at 2K is the Phantom’s 35mm sensor. If there is a data camera that can capture the subtleties of film, this could be it,” he says.

A Pinoy tv commercial director who has done tv ads in Europe, Martin Arnaldo exclaims the advantages of using a Phantom camera: “With the Phantom, you can keep on shooting at ultra-high speed without worrying about film stock and you can instantly see what you just shot. And because it’s very light, you have hand-held freedom to design high speed shots, bringing new movements to slow motion.”

Has the economic downturn affected Unitel’s high-speed trek to excellent work? Maricel Royo, VP for Client Services and Operations, is quick to respond: “Production houses come and go. When recession comes, the tough gets going and the industry always comes back to the real thing - the solid one that gives them higher value - excellence all these years.”

Almost a quarter of a century creating the best moving images in the Philippines and Southeast Asia and five prestigious Production House of the Year awards later, Unitel has remained an industry leader in innovation and creativity. Constantly reinventing itself, the pioneer has never stopped growing and unafraid to take risks, making us to ask: If you want to do a damn good tv commercial, which production house should you go?

PHILIPPINES BIGGEST CANNES ENTRIES EVER

BY ROGER PE



There are too many award shows but if you ask most Philippine creative people, there are only 4 on the radar: D&AD, Cannes, One Show and Clio.

The country has already secured a book nomination in this year’s D&AD. Leo Burnett’s “Counting Sheep” for McDonald’s 24-hour Delivery (Broadcast innovations) just might hit metal. A Pencil win just might make history. A historic win just might ignite new fascination to a show considered as the Holy Grail of advertising. Win or lose, the ad is in the book.

But this year, the Philippines’ biggest tranche of entries was couriered to Cannes, not London. According to Mundi Ocampo of The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Corporate Affairs, the country is sending a total number of 265 entries fanned across various media, breaking last year’s record of 167.

Inspite of the unending debate on the importance of awards, especially during an economic meltdown, Filipino delegates have also signed up for the Palais des Festival’s grand advertising extravaganza.

Philippine ad agencies, which have struck pay dirt in Cannes with Gold, Silver and several Bronze Lions in the past, are upbeat, riding on the crest of Brillante Mendoza’s stunning Best Director (“Kinatay”) win in last month’s Cannes Film Festival.

BUTCHERED BY CRITICS, AWARDED BY CANNES

BY ROGER PE
Adoi, May 26, 2009


Cannes is barely a month away but the Philippine advertising industry is already celebrating with a major triumph.

Reason: one of Manila’s favourite production designers just bagged a plum award at last Sunday’s Cannes’ gala closing ceremonies.

Brillante Mendoza, whom the local advertising world knew as Dante Mendoza, was fielding a film for the second straight year. His movie “Serbis,” a local word ‘ingloriously’ bastardized to mean sexual favor, shot entirely in a rundown moviehouse, was the country’s first full-length film accepted in the festival’s main competition.

While his 2008 debut drew mixed reviews, he came back with a vengeance this time. He won the award world cinema heavyweights wanted most – Best Director. Quentin Tarantino (“Pulp Fiction”), Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain”) Jane Campion (“The Piano”), Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes The Barley), Pedro Almodovar (“Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown”) among others competed and basked in the usual Cannes red carpet.

Mendoza’s “Kinatay”, literally meaning butchered, is a story of a neophyte policeman who got entangled in a web of a grisly crime on his wedding day. Throughout the 24-hour personality-changing journey, Peping, the lead character and his gang, kidnap, rape, murder and dispose of chopped parts of a woman’s body.

The blood and graphic gore of the movie, according to Mendoza, was purposely made to disturb and bring home the harsh truths that these things happen in real life.

AWARDS - AN ALL-CONSUMING AFFAIR

By ROGER PE
Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 22, 2009


Who wouldn’t want an advertising Oscar, much more the dazzling fame that goes with it? A Cannes Lion is a Lion, a Pencil - D&AD or One Show, is a Pencil, as sharp as the creative geniuses of those on the credit box, a Clio is a Clio, as beautiful as the Greek muse it’s named after.

There are too many award shows but everyone venerates these four like one wouldn’t trade a Porsche for a Mustang.

Before scam became a sticky word, we all knew that winning pieces didn’t air in the dead of the night, printed on a souvenir program nor posted somewhere in Datukmol Island. They were seen and heard on legit media. They won consumers’ hearts and contributed to clients’ revenues.

Trophies of fame were much coveted, hailed in one advertising bible as ‘hard currencies’ - metals cast in gold, silver and bronze. Hardwares that can build one’s career, step up one’s promotion, earn big bucks as incentives, and allowed people to wear glowing corporate titles.

Good As Gold, Obsession For Awards

These statues are worth their weights in gold so much so that when a CD was asked what things inside a burning house would he rescue first, he answered pointblankly, “my Lions.”

In football-crazy Brazil, winners in the Big 4 (D&AD, Cannes, One Show and Clio) get superstar status. Idolized like rock stars and hold stellar billings with Ronaldo, Pele, Zico and some of its most luminous players, their individual market value shoots up each time they win.

In Asia, a trade magazine annually publishes rankings of creative people, agencies, networks and countries based on their yearly performances in award shows. Raising the bar and keeping them on their toes, the exercise puts the personas in marquee-like fashion, becoming instantly famous.

The same may have also created a different breed of advertising denizens: those who cheat by entering scam ads, and therefore, increase their points in the hallowed walls of creative rankings.

In the hush-hush world of scamosphere, where some agencies are forced to play the game, you could meet a Makak (a fictitious name that topped a high profile Asian ranking) and whistle blowers getting bullied by those who’ve been found out.

In the truest sense of the word, award-winning agencies attract the best industry talents (no one wants to join an agency that produces crap). Agencies with a track record of producing quality work even for the smallest of brands get into the shopping list of clients - advertisers who are continuously on the hunt for advertising creativity that builds sales and marketing successes.

But awards can also be intoxicating and ego altering. The lure of success can make one so obsessed. Elbow yourself to an awards show and you’ll get a hint. “Some people would walk a mile, some would even sell their souls for awards,” says a creative director in her personal blog.

A president of a multinational ad agency counters by saying, “Awards are like sex. You won’t readily admit that you like it but once you’ve tasted it, you’ll crave for more.”

But as coin metals flip, so do the priorities of ad agencies.
Last month, Fabio Fernandes, President and Creative Director of F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, one of Brazil’s most internationally-awarded agencies, issued a statement on a creative website saying, “the agency will not submit entries to any festival charging registration fees this year and wants to focus double attention on everything that is really the core of its business.”

While it has absolutely nothing against ad awards and doesn’t agree with those that find them irrelevant, Fernandes says, “it just wants the agency to channel its resources to make F/Nazca a much bigger agency.”

On Facebook, an interesting conversation among ad veterans, marketers, and creative people provides some nuggets of wisdom on the issue. We’re printing a few:

“The true test of a good creative shop is to be able to do creative ads that ring the cash register for their clients.
Scam ads are easy because there are no guidelines and the token media placement cost is taken out of the agency’s creative competition budget.” – former MD and ECD of a multinational agency

“Agencies should spend less on proactive initiatives done to keep an eye on award festivals and stop aping what’s there in award books. Their business is to stand out in the clutter, in an environment where there is a lot of sameness.” - Copywriter

“Market Share should be made as major criteria for award competitions.” – Veteran Marketing and Communications Director of high profile multinational company

“It used to be that award shows honored the art of selling. Now, we miss the point by thinking of advertising as art.” – ECD

A former President of an ad agency quoted Ogilvy: “If you my fellow copywriters or art directors want to win awards, devote your genius to making the register ring.”

“Creativity is not arrogant, it is relevant. It is a means to an end – to connect to consumers, not to award judges. It’s business is to sell.” – ECD

But inspite of the unending debate, ad agencies still continue to submit entries to advertising festivals, particularly Cannes. The Inquirer, official representative of Cannes International Advertising Festival in the Philippines, for example, reveals that local ad agencies are fielding the highest number of ads this year, breaking last year’s total of 167.

According to Mundi Ocampo of the newspaper’s corporate affairs, Philippine entries have reached the 205 mark, as of this week.

Asia Adfest, however, registered a severe drop in entries and delegate number last March. A creative magazine, described it as “a dramatic fall.” From the usual 3,000 attendees, the number plummeted to 693 and last year’s record of more than 5,148 entries dropped to 3,309.

In Advertising Age, an unwitting email exposed what ad agencies shell out for awards and it wrote: “The economy doesn’t deter BBDO and some agencies from aggressively pursuing One Show Pencils.”

Campaign, UK’s trade magazine puts this one recently:
“Should ad agencies bin Cannes this year? As recession tightens, advertisers question the festival’s extravagance,”

A major network with a mighty performance in Cannes is scrapping its legendary party at the festival. It felt “it would be wrong to blow money as the recession kicks in,” says its global chief creative officer who was twice head of Cannes jury.

“We are certainly conscious of the fact that a lot of people have lost their jobs and it felt like the wrong signal to send out. What we need is a shift to business activity that is a vital part in motivating the industry forward,” he says.

So are creative ads relevant in times of recession? Yes, they are if they are meant to drive business and serve a purpose. Certainly, creativity should not recede even in doing a simple price tag ad. Recession is not an excuse.

FISCHER PORTUGAL "Salvador"

HITTING THE RIGHT TARGETS AT THE RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE AND TIME

By Roger Pe
Philippine Daily Inquirer, April, 2009


Want to be seen by more than 1.5 million people every day? Want to be exposed to 12 meto Manila cities in just 26 days? Do the OOH.

Countless articles have been written about billboards and how advertisers can maximize their selling potentials. On Google, the phrase “Billboard Advertising” alone gets you almost 5 million search results in one click.

Down the road, in a coffee shop at the corner street, for instance, the most repeated things people say when you ask them about billboards or any form of outdoor advertising can certainly be music to advertisers’ ears. Here are a few:

“They remind me to buy my favorite shampoo or soap before going home.”

“What I hear on car radio and see on tv at home, I also see on the road. That’s great!”

“Moving vehicles with advertising are cool.”

“It’s like a giant tv screen with my favorite movie star.”

“A newspaper round-the-clock.”

“Because of true-to-life images they show, I am convinced that’s the car I want to buy!”

“A city without billboards is dead and boring.”

Called Out-of-Home advertising, in general, and one of the most exciting media categories today, outdoor advertising continuously evolves as technology moves.

In the Philippines, out-of-home advertising is getting to be synonymous to “advantage,” allowing advertisers to sell more and spend less. And if some of the biggest (and happiest) advertisers will tell you, it might as well be called OOH.

OOH stands for Out-Of-Home, the outdoor advertising specialist that is first on the list of smart advertisers like Globe Telecom, Del Monte Pineapple, Philips, Greenwich, Ayala Land and some of members of PANA (Philippine Association of National Advertisers).

Why do some of the country’s most dynamic of marketers choose OOH?

“We have innovative products – all works of art that are converged by science and technology, packaged with utmost convenience for busy advertisers,” says a proud Astrid Cecille Lee, Marketing Manager of OOH.

Unlike other outdoor advertising companies, OOH is a One-Stop shop with a billboard site inventory numbering thousands in metro Manila, Luzon and key urban centers around the country.

On its website, (www.ooh.com.ph) advertisers looking for a preferred site would find the task very fruitful and rewarding. Because of an electronic billboard locator that automatically gives prospects a wide range of choices, including immediate calculations on costs, advertisers always find it easy to close a deal with OOH.

Not only that. OOH is conscientious. “Due to economies of scale, our mark-ups are very low. We want our clients to advertise more and spend less,” Lee says. “By giving advertisers an advantage through low-cost but highly effective media is also advantageous for us. With these schemes, clients prefer us and loyalty is always built,” Lee emphasizes.

THREE INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS

The Philippines’ first with the only B2B portal boasts of its star products: “Bus Ads”, “Outdoor Exchange” and “Roving Villboards” aside from mini billboards, lamp post banners, light boxes and other out-of-home media. All three always surpass the most discriminating advertiser’s expectations.

“Bus Ads” provide highly effective advertising for buses, jeepneys, taxis and other mobile vehicles. They go beyond merely plastering large format stickers but are equipped with a scientific and systematic approach - maximizing consumer eyeballs that hit the right target at the right place at the right time.

“Outdoor Exchange” is a revolutionary OOH product that uses highly sophisticated softwares. Like an online mall offering best buys in billboard advertising, it has an inventory of more than 2,000 sites across the Philippines. If you are an advertiser, all you need to do is type the area on its search engine and it will provide locations and corresponding budgets immediately.

“Roving Villboards”. In Out-Of-Home advertising, the name of the game is not only market penetration – but how deep you make the mark and how you do it consistently. Where public vehicles seldom ply, OOH’s scientific routing schedules and patented V-type “Roving Villboards” provide increased visibility with a delightful “wow.”

Using ”Metal-Hallide” lamps instead of fluorescents at night, OOH’s “Roving Villboards” give outdoor advertising a stunning 3-dimensional visual experience, magnetizing consumers in a trance-like fashion, giving advertised brands that “unique and big feel” image.

Thinking of reinforcing your traditional media? Arm yourself with a breadth of network, one that can pierce deeply into your target with desired results. OOH is your best bet -for value-added, state-of-the-art products that give you a solid, huge advantage.

SCENE & NOTED:

Emotional but effective - this new Camella Homes tv ad is getting unsolicited plaudits on Facebook, much more through word-of-mouth. In the spot, a little girl gestures the physical discomfort of living once in a cramped, almost shoe box world. Alas, she’s found a new home and as she stretches her little arms by the sofa, thrilled by her family’s dream now fulfilled: “Ganito na kami ngayon sa Camella,” says the father’s voice over. If only each Filipino family can have a home like the one being sold in the commercial. Refreshing, good casting, great acting. 4-Stars

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

One business paper wrote about highly visible politicians who have seemingly started campaigning on broadcast media. The article bannered a headline saying” if you don’t like their ads, don’t vote for them.” It’s almost exactly one year before the national election and we’re already feeling the heat. Brace yourselves when voting time is just around the corner.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Dennis Garcia of the legendary Hotdog Band ventures once again to another McCann agency after McCann Jakarta. Dennis assumes an ECD role in the U.S. territory of Guam - Glimpses McCann this time, the island’s biggest.

PHILIPPINES TO GIVE BIRTH TO ASIA'S NEWEST JEWEL

By Roger Pe
Philippine Daily Inquirer, March 2009


(Photo by Cheena Liao-Pe)

What global recession? Most recently chosen as the Most Preferred Destination in Asia by Shanghai’s World Trade Fair, the Philippines is experiencing an unprecedented tourism boom. Last week, it was also the best performer among Asean nations on the stock market index, surprising everyone.

When Asia’s newest and brightest tourist marina opens in 2012, 5-star deluxe Diwaran Marina Resort will be one of the Philippines’ biggest advertising surprises to the world, auguring well when the Tourism Bill is signed any time this month.

Imagine: Dugongs, dolphins, whales, giant clams, pearl bearing shells, a riot of fish cavorting with you just a few steps from the shore, hundreds of limestone islands - each charmingly smiling at you, revealing the whitest sandy beach you ever saw. Only the presence of a real mermaid is lacking to make this experience incredibly perfect.

When God scattered thousands of rocks, big and small, in this northern Palawan town, you’d probably think He’s an Art Director. Strewn around are island gems you’d want to put in your jewel memory box, each within striking distance with the other, geographically designed perhaps to make it as the province’s crowning glory.

Where on earth would you find a hair-raisingly unmoving bluish-green water lake you can almost walk through it?
From an airbus flying more than 30,000 feet above the ground, Calamianes not only ignites the imagination but dazzles like no other. In one of these islands is enchanting Cayangan Lake, a Hall of Famer in the country’s annual cleanest lake search.

Among these islands, too, is Coron, where Diwaran is located- site of the next big thing for Asia. In two years time, a US240 million dollar tourism development project (around 11.5 billion pesos) would have been completed – intended to overshadow Phuket as Asia’s tourist hideaway playground.

According to Ho Kwon Ping, Singaporean executive chair of Banyan Tree Holdings, big developer of resorts, hotels, spas and residential homes in Asia Pacific, this 55-hectare uninhabited island on Coron Reefs, famous for its diverse marine life, sunken Japanese warships during World War 2 and eco-parks, will be transformed into the “single largest integrated island resort in all Asia.”

Earlier this month, Philippine President GMA, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano,Trade Secretary Peter Favila and local officials attended the groundbreaking ceremony on the island.

On mid-western side of the mainland is one for the books. The newly discovered San Vicente Beach – stunning with its perpendicularly straight, kilometric long white sandy coastline is another world wonder if developed to its full grandeur.

The province already boasts of two World Unesco Heritage sites – the Underground River and Tubbattaha Reefs.

At its full occupancy, all three hotels with villas, marina and recreation facilities including a modern town center in Diwaran can accommodate more than 1,500 tourists on a single island, providing jobs to at least 12,000 people in one of the most mystical island groups in Palawan.

Banyan Tree Holdings has hotels in some of the world’s most exclusive and popular holiday spots like Seychelles and Maldives.