IS YOUR AD APPALLING, CLICHE AND NOT COMPETITIVE FOR AWARD SHOWS?

by Roger Pe


Call him Mr. Burger. Tag him as Mr. Telecom, or simply address him as Mr. Nice Guy, that fits as well.

When McDonald’s shifted creative duties from McCann to Leo Burnett because of global alignment, the same marketing team had no qualms in welcoming him back.

More than a decade of tender, loving management care earned him today a place in the sun, a position many of his batchmates only achieved halfway.

Meet Raymund Arrastia, Leo Burnett Manila’s Group Managing Director, the guy on top of an agency conclave voted by the Philippine 4A’s as Best in Business Management this year.

The agency groups Leo Burnett Advertising, Black Pencil and Arc Digital Worldwide together.

Arrastia and former Executive Creative Director and Managing Directors Richard Irvine and March Ventosa) brought McDonald’s closer to Filipino homes.

The closer they got, the closer the agency also became an award-winning machine. Remember Karen, the granddaughter whom his ‘lolo’ (grandfather) kept referring to as Gina in that landmark 2001 tv commercial?

That was not only a mass audience success, it shoved the Philippines to the elite circle of Gold winners in Spike Asia, one of Asia’s two category 1 award shows.

Before that, the country had languished in the cellar, seeing the yearly results gave local industry observers anguish. The “Lolo” win was a major coup. It finally broke the long lingering spell where the country had never before won in a mainstream medium.

Arrastia was part of that dawning of new triumphant era, that also saw BenGay, Pacific Internet, Tide, Perla and other ‘quiet’ Burnett brands rose one after the other in blaze of glory.

The secret formula: Leo Burnett’s GPC (Group Product Committee) Rating System that the agency rigorously implements till today.

The GPC is an elite group of country creative directors tasked to evaluate ads prior to competing in award competitions. They are graded based on the following points:

1 - Appalling
2 - Destructive
3 - Not Competitive
4 - Cliche
5 - Innovative Strategy
6 - Fresh Idea
7 - Excellence in Craft
8 - New standard in the category
9 - New standard in advertising
10 - Best in the world, bar none

At the end of screening, ads that garner 8 points or better are good enough to compete.

Multi-Brand Master

Has anyone handled three major telecom accounts in his career? If you look at Arrastia’s track record as agency partner in helping build strong brands, those were just appetizers.

In one of his agency forays, Arrastia was like a sword, cast in iron, sharpened by fire and faced different market oddities.

Arrastia gamely faced one tough-brand-to-crack and which everyone feared to handle because of long hours, mind-altering deadlines and a client who didn’t mince words.

“I took the challenge because it was character building and being on it was a test of character,” he smiles recollecting his saga in that tumult-fraught episode of his career.

As Assistant Vice President for Philippine operations of Colgate Center of Excellence at Young & Rubicam, Arrastia was already showing the tough brand builder he was turning into.

He was a steadfast steward of strategies at BBDO-Guerrero. As a Business Unit Director for Pepsi, he moved to greater challenges in a more progressive environment, his hands full, helping balance creativity with strong strategic weight.

“Understanding your local market, making sure that advertising connects to your target and doing your homework pay big time,” Arrastia says.

Marketers who do not have much budget to support a brand campaign could learn a lot from Arrastia.

“You don’t need a big tranche of money to get awareness. “Choose the right medium, he says.”

He cites “Twister Fries” - a new addition to McDonald’s potato cuisine, a proudly Philippine-made product concept that is on the verge of making it to mainstream and, perhaps, on global McDonald’s menu.

Using “It’s time to get twisted again” campaign on social media, Burnett’s digital prowess is helping Twister Fries experience big clamor beyond its expectations.

Arrastia is proud of Burnett’s digital advantage. “We are strong, we are competitive, we have the support, applications and technology created by our developers in-house unlike any other shops,” he stresses.

“You may call Leo Burnett Manila’s Arc Worldwide Digital as kind of a technological hub which even offshore clients run after,” he points out.

For Arrastia, the key to success is hiring the right people in the right places. That is perhaps the reason why the agency is going further the distance on the growth charts.

Creative Powerhouse

Leo Burnett Worldwide won a record-breaking total of 55 Cannes Lions last June.

The network’s worldwide Chief Creative Officer Mark Tutssel, whom Business Friday interviewed prior to Ad Congress in Camsur last year, said in an announcement:

"Setting a new network record is a testament to our relentless focus on creativity and bringing to life ideas that resonate with a global audience."

Arrastia further tells us: “The network doesn’t believe in just creating ads. It has a creative mantra: "Acts Not Ads", a philosophy about a brand’s purpose, what it cares about and what it believes in. It is all about an act that can contribute to society at large or to a single life.”

Example work of the agency’s ideology was the humongously successful “Earth Hour” which the Burnett Sydney office developed supporting not-for-profit organizations.

A couple of years back, D&AD, the toughest awards show in the world, honored Leo Burnett Manila for its “Counting Sheep” tv ad for McDonald’s.

The ad was one of only few Filipino ads to be included in D&AD’s prestigious annual, heralding the agency’s creative team: Richard Irvine, Raoul Panes (now the agency’s Chief Creative Officer), Alvin Tecson, Mela Advincula).

Last May 4, Leo Burnett Manila lorded it over the rest of field at the Creative Guild of the Philippines’ “Kidlat Awards” with 19 metals, 5 of them golds. The agency also won a World Bronze Medal at New York Festivals.

Jarek Ziebinski, president of Leo Burnett Asia Pacific, whom Business Friday also interviewed last year said: “Leo Burnett is poised to be the fastest growing network in the region amid a climate of anemic advertising budgets.”

Ziebinski is famous for his “growth for freedom” proponent: "If a managing director gives me growth in the market, he gets the freedom to hire, to raise salaries and to expand.”

With Arrastia’s brand management style, the stars can be reached and agency’s goals shouldn’t be far-fetched.

THE COPYWRITER WHO WROTE HER TICKET TO SUCCESS

by Roger Pe

If David Ogilvy were alive today, he would be tweeting as much as he would be posting memes on Facebook.

Chances are, your followers will also be retweeting his nuggets of wisdom and your mutual friends, sharing his posts twice over.

Last year, the advertising industry celebrated the 100th birthday of a man regarded as the Father of Advertising, likewise, acclaimed author of two of the industry’s most influential books: “Ogilvy on Advertising” and “Confessions of an Advertising Man.”

At the end of the longest red carpet ever rolled in Cannes’ Palais des Festivals, a big billboard was mounted with this copy: “On this day, 100 years ago, David was born to inspire.”

On to the next 100 years. Would Ogilvy’s words be as relevant as it was inspiring when he mouthed them?

Universal truths and immortal teachings cannot be quantified by mathematical equations, especially if you have a believer as “codified” as Peachy Pacquing, newly appointed Country Head and CEO of Ogilvy Manila.

Pacquing was barely two days old in her new post during the interview. Interestingly, her appointment came on her third reincarnation in Ogilvy, an undeniable fact that she really was destined to head one of the country’s dynamic ad agencies.

Pacquing immediately strikes her audience with characteristics similar to strong Filipino women of the industry: Emily Abrera and Yoly Villanueva-Ong.

On her acceptance of the challenge, David Mayo, Ogilvy & Mather ASEAN President said:

“Pacquing has proven herself to be a collaborator, a business builder, a brand expert and in the new digital age, a leader beyond compare.”

“Why do creative people end up managing today’s business?” she begins, not with a tone of dismay, but with a tone of a serious businesswoman ready to roll the punches and face the battle.

“I never dreamt of being a CEO. I just watched how people, like Miniong Ordonez (former chairman of Basic), did it. I just fell in love with the industry and invested in something that was very gratifying,” she recollects on her journey.

To Pacquing, gratification is putting a lot of discipline in everything she does, whether doing a campaign, strategy planning, or now, managing an entire agency.

She lived out of a suitcase before, hopping from one airport to another, visiting thriving market hubs to manage a best-selling shampoo as a regional creative director, business building like no other.

The multi-disciplined creative who has literally and figurativelly gone places, intends to immediately pull together a formidable team in each of Ogilvy’s value-oriented department to deliver a long-term pool of robust talents.

“I want to come up with work that Filipinos and consumers can be proud of and relate to,” she says.

“I am looking forward to setting the course for Ogilvy with a series of moves that will put the agency ahead of the competition and connect us more closely with the emergent new Philippine consumer,” she said in an announcement.

Before she became Ogilvy’s CEO, Pacquing’s portfolio is volume-thick with awards garnered from the world’s most prestigious award-giving bodies, name them, she has them.

She dotes on the agency and admits that she is lucky to be in an organization that constantly asks you to do better.

Regionally and globally, the Ogilvy network is at the totem pole of creative rankings. It is redundant to mention that it is 2012’s Cannes Network of the Year, a dizzying achievement that rattled the usual suspects in the world’s biggest advertising festival.

In the Philippines, the agency is a vibrantly creative company with five companies under its roof, each doing a full-range of communications services.

OgilvyOne won Digital Agency of the Year and Red Works, was picked as the Print Production Agency of the Year in last year’s 4A’s Agency of the Year annual awards.

Saying it with true grit, Pacquing is proud of the fact that Ogilvy is aligned with her own values. “That’s the reason why I keep coming back to the agency.”

She tells people there is genuine respect in what people do in Ogilvy. She seems right on target and determined to steer Ogilvy to new heights based on her vision.

“You want to understand where it is headed. That’s what keeps me up at night. It’s sobering when you have something to look forward to when you wake up in the morning,” she intimates with circumspect.

David Ogilvy’s quotes are like precious gems in a jewelry box, which among them would she pick as her favorite?

Pacquing can’t be caught flat-footed. The staunch keeper and fierce advocate of Ogilvy’s doctrines answers with a mark of a true leader:

"If you always hire people who are smaller than you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If, on the other hand, you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants."

Pacquing runs that in her head every time she interviews people. She makes it a point to probe and ask: “Will the probable candidate make me insecure?”

Pacquing is Ogilvy-personified so intense we caught her garbed in some shades of red, the Ogilvy corporate color.

“In everything we do, the Ogilvy creative culture is always at the forefront of our business, our creativity as fluid and seamlessly integrated,” she says.

For Pacquing, growing the business should be done with a strategy likened to that of winning a war, do it intelligently.

“The world is pitch-crazy these days,” she hollers. “While we want our business to grow every year, we want to do it the better way – done smartly.”

How does she inspire people?

“I lead by example. If people are working on it, I am working on it. I don’t hesitate to ask people, if you need me, ask me.”

Nothing is beneath Pacquing. She still carries the values many Philippine advertising greats taught her.

She values honesty and people who do their work passionately.

She treats everyone in Ogilvy as an extension of her family – nurturing and trying to bring out the best in people, sharing what she had learned throughout her colorful, illustrious career.

Giving something back for Pacquing is an obligation, it’s no surprise you’ll find her teaching Visual Communications at UP College of Fine Arts every Saturday.

She has previously held Advertising, Direct and Interactive Creative Director positions and as Ogilvy's Regional Creative Director for Kimberly Clark Asia Pacific, Grey Worldwide's Regional Creative Director for Pantene and JWT's Regional CD for Knorr Asia. Multi-faceted.

She came back to Ogilvy Manila in March 2008 as 360 Planning Director and also was Talent Leader.

Today, the copywriter who wrote her own ticket to her newly found destination has arrived.

The passionate observant who has partnered with many brilliant Filipino creatives and worked under the scrutiny of legendary Neil French has gone full circle.

Now, that’s inspiration beyond words.

IS YOUR BRAND A CELEBRITY?

by Roger Pe

Sporting greats. Movie stars. Intellectual achievers. Beauty queens. Entertainment, and other famous personalities - when they’re hot, they’re hot and who else could be chasing them?

Brands who want to have a measure of their glow to help them get into people’s homes and consciousness, and hopefully, their wallets.

Celebrities are like honeycombs ("pinuputakte") swarmed by bees, in Pinoy street language, when they step into a mall.

Fans and curious onlookers gravitate towards them, creating a commotion, and in some cases, pandemonium.

Smart advertisers strike while the iron is hot, knocking on their doors, cashing in on their popularity.

As these demi-gods turn into big crowd magnets and everyone is going gaga over them, companies are scrambling to catch a proverbial star.

Based on AC Nielsen’s latest study covering from January to June 11 last year, the Top 5 Celebrity Endorsers in the Philippines are:

1. Kris Aquino (10 endorsements), 2. John Lloyd Cruz (8 endorsements) 3. Carmina Villaroel, Zoren Legaspi, Ryan Agoncillo, Sarah Geronimo and Vic Sotto (7 endorsements) 4. Anne Curtis, 5. Marie Lozano, Michael V and Sharon Cuneta (6 endorsements) 5. Judy Ann Santos and Kim Chiu (5 endorsements)

Last April, Rappler published BIR’s top celebrity taxpayers for the year 2010 as follows:

1.Kris Aquino: P32.3M Income Tax, P101.08M Income

2. Sarah Geronimo: P14.8M Income Tax, P46.5M Income

3. Piolo Pascual: P13.05M Income Tax, P40.9M Income

4. Marian Rivera: P11.89M Income Tax, P37.27M Income

5. John Lloyd Cruz: P10.93M Income Tax,
P34.25M Income

Filipino and global boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is in a league of his own.

For the first time last year, Pacman barged into Forbes’ yearly list of the 20 Highest-Paid Celebrities, ranking 16th with $67 million in earnings inspite of his controversial loss to Timothy Bradley.

Manny Pacquiao’s global endorsements include Nike, Technomarine, Hewlett-Packard, Hennessy, among others making him ahead of Dr. Phil McGraw ($64 million), business mogul Donald Trump ($63 million), Ryan Seacrest ($59 million), and Britney Spears and Tiger Woods (both with $58 million).

So you’ve signed big celebrity up as endorser because your brand isn’t moving up an inch the sales charts, and your bottom line is nearing rock bottom.

Is dear celebrity the last resort?

Before spending or see your precious money go down the drain, ask yourself if you did your homework.

Do you have a good strategy? Are you delivering the right message? How’s your advertising? Does it stand out from the media clutter? Or worst, are you selling a turkey?

There’s more to using glamour, prestige, and fame lent by celebrities to your advertising than meets the eye.

YOUR PRODUCT, THE CELEBRITY

“The product, the product, the product.” Many advertising greats have repeatedly said this line.

Everything boils down, as we all know, to a good product, one that delivers what it says, one that makes the competition scringe with envy and, in the long run, has no option but to improve his.

A good product is a star in its own right.

A great product is a celebrity. It will sell on its own merits. Its performance is its own testimonial. Extremely satisfied consumers are its free endorsers.

Advertising a bad product, even if endorsed by Superman or the sexiest girl or man in the world, will not do the trick. It will only hasten its demise. People will eventually know and word-of-mouth is often fatal.

A good product with a celebrity endorser won’t do just as much either.

Remember what your marketing mentors taught you before? Learn from consumers, the very people who buy and use your product. Know what goes on their minds.

Probe, ask, talk, be one of them. What precious insights have you picked from being one of them?

Many marketers oftentimes fall into this trap: Using celebrity endorsers mouthing manufactured words blindly.

Letting endorsers memorize lines like robots without the heart and soul of a consumer is a waste of time and money. Today’s consumers are intelligent, they’ll know.

Ad campaigns that portray celebrities as consumers of the brand they are advertising are more credible.

A commercial that uses a celebrity as part of the story to dramatize a brand’s unique selling proposition leaves a good impression. It elicits audience empathy.

An ad that makes a celebrity just pose and smile infront of camera is cold and invites sarcasm. People tend to say, “So?”

Advertising that makes celebrities as mere decorations or props make people turn to the next page of a newspaper or change channels as in television.

The worst thing that could happen is, people remember the celebrities, not the brand.

Commercials using celebrities with a sense of purpose are best remembered and talked about.

When celebrities are depicted like normal human beings, people can always relate.

So the next time you do an ad using a celebrity, review your idea.

Scrutinize if he/she is going to be relevant to the story. Want to connect meaningfully to your audience? Attach celebrities to the concept - not coldly detached from consumers’ hearts and minds. Consumerizing a celebrity attracts throngs of consumers.

CHOOSING A CELEBRITY

Now that you have a product that will be swarmed by “bees” and in a situation that you have to use a celebrity, some tips to consider:

Do research on the celebrity’s likability.

Just because someone is popular, pretty or good-looking doesn’t mean she or he will fit the role.

You may find that there are skeletons rattling in the celebrity’s closet, things that could hurt your brand image later on.

Marketing guru Willy Arcilla who has worked around the region and the greater China market handling a number of multinational brands, says:

“Choose someone who best personifies your brand’s imagery, character and values, someone who can dramatize your brand’s rational and emotional benefits, and most of all, someone who genuinely loves your brand, uses your product or patronizes your service. Credibility is key.”

“It is like choosing a suit for your wedding day, says Raymund Sison, BBDO-Guerrero copywriter.

“It should fit perfectly or a disaster totally. The celebrity’s image should be right for the brand’s personality in the same manner as the role of the brand should be appropriate to the endorser’s lifestyle,” he says.

Sison also tells us that that the brand ambassador should likewise appeal to the market and the market should be able to identify with the celebrity.

Veteran tv commercial director Sockie Fernandez who has done many celebrity endorser ads, says that aside from popularity, one should “choose a celebrity that reflects the character and values of the brand you are selling.”

“Credibility is the most important thing. Afterall, your brand’s credibility is at stake. Does the product match the celebrity’s lifestyle? There should be truth in advertising,” says TV commercial Producer Desiree Pe-Beasley.

Rolly Halagao, one of advertising’s most in-demand casting directors, says: “Choose your celebrity endorser not only on popularity but also on credibility, adaptability and willingness to endorse your brand.”

Halagao explains: “A celebrity must be a hot-item to ignite your target. The willingness to do the project is a big factor because you may have an endorser who’ll just do it for the money.”

USING CELEBRITIES, THE UPSIDE

A brand looks real when a celebrity endorses it. It shows that it exists.

People are generally impressionable and would readily identify with the brands celebrities endorse.

“Many people believe that if they buy what celebrities are endorsing, they, too, can be just like them and have a piece of that “better” life,” says Arcilla.

Make hay while the sun shines and strike while the iron is hot. 16-year-old Gabby Douglas was everyone’s darling after she became the first Afro-American to win an Olympic gymnastics gold.

Procter & Gamble took advantage and offered her with a multi-million dollar endorsement deals. So did Kellogg’s.

Olympic champions Usain Bolt, Jessica Ennis, Mo Farrah are now enjoying fat celebrity endorsement fees because of their vastly immense pulling power.

THE BIGGER RISK

What happens when endorsers figure in scandals and not-so palatable situations?

When the endorser is ‘tainted’ the chain-reaction follows.

After winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps earned numerous endorsement contracts. When photos of him surfaced on the net holding a marijuana pipe, AT&T cancelled his endorsement deals.

Tiger Woods had juicy contracts with Nike until he got into a smoldering domestic scandal. Relentless bad press rocked his otherwise wholesome persona affecting his image and Nike’s as well.

Woods lost major endorsement deals with Gillette, Gatorade and Tag Heuer.
Accenture also severed all ties with him, confirming he is "no longer the right representative."

A British actress told the world she rarely wears make-up while at the same time endorsing a cosmetics brand.

In 1988, actor Alan Alda was IBM spokesman but was caught buying a Toshiba.

Anheuser-Busch, Oakley, and Nike announced however said that it was sticking with Lance Armstrong despite the doping allegations hurled on the cyclist.

In a statement, Oakley said: "It supports athletes who respect and honor the ethics of sports until proven otherwise."

But even with these brands standing by Armstrong, Ad Age reported: “his popularity is going on a spiral downhill.”

So thinking of using an endorser? The payoffs are great, the risks even greater, but the greatest thing to do is invest on your product first and the rest, including celebrities, will follow.

PUTTING THE ZEN IN MANILA ADVERTISING: ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW WITH NONNA NANAGAS, PRESIDENT OF DENTSU PHILIPPINES

By Roger Pe

If you know an excellent sushi you must know this network.

If you know Toyota, Sony, Honda and other top Japanese brands, you must know Dentsu.

Not many people know, this Japanese ad conglomerate is one of the world’s largest. So big in fact, it can give the big guns, McCann, BBDO, Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy and the rest a run for their money.

Just a little bit of introduction:

Dentsu is the fifth biggest advertising agency network in the world, a 110-year old iconic brand in Japan counting Toyota, Nintendo, Panasonic, Ajinomoto, among others as one of its 6,000 global clients.

For two consecutive years, (2011 and 2012) Dentsu was named Agency of the Year in Cannes of Asia, Asia Adfest, where Philippine ad agencies consistently send entries.

After 50 years of trying, Dentsu is making waves in the US. Under Tim Andree, Dentsu McGarry Bowen recently was named Ad Age’s Agency of the Year twice in three years.

The agency is on globalization frenzy and has started creating an advertising empire, stretching across the world’s five continents: the Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania, all the way to North Africa with over 100 offices scattered all over.

As the industry focuses on the big boys, Dentsu is building a new organization – the “Dentsu Network” to hasten its spread across the globe.

Today, Dentsu has established an enviable reputation - one of the most innovative communications companies with a staff of 20,000 worldwide and is recognized as the world’s biggest sports marketing company.

THE DENTSU WAY

Need to breakdown constraints to find the best solutions for your clients’ marketing problems?

Tired of solutions that didn’t work? Following the “Dentsu Way” might give you the upperhand.

From product development to product launch, Dentsu practices “yuzu mage,” meaning flexibility and freedom.

The everyday practice is a corporate culture at Dentsu, the cornerstone of its uniqueness as an agency, all contained in a book called "The Dentsu Way,” published by the company.

“We have a guiding principle in managing our business that’s been good to us over the last 10 years in the Philippines,“ says Nonna Nanagas, the bubbly President and CEO of Dentsu Philippines in her posh address in The Enterprise Ayala.

An industry veteran, Nanagas earned her brilliant stars and stripes from many years of experience handling a number of local and multinational brands.

She is proud of her agency that’s been running against American and British-owned networks with aplomb.

“We are a low-key ad agency but at the end of the day, it’s about the agency and the brand,” she says.

Well-said. In these difficult times, Dentsu flies high with a solid report card handling 80% percent of Toyota’s advertising business in the Philippines, aside from consistently making double-digit growth and a good measure of non-Japanese accounts.

What makes “The Dentsu Way” a bright path to take? These teachings bring them great results:

1. Initiate projects on your own instead of waiting for work to be assigned.
2. Take an active role in all your endeavors, not a passive one.
3. Search for large and complex challenges.
4. Welcome difficult assignments. Progress lies in accomplishing difficult work.
5. Once you begin a task, complete it. Never give up.
6. Lead and set an example for your fellow workers.
7. Set goals for to ensure a constant sense of purpose.
8. Move with confidence, it gives your work force and substance.
9. At all times, challenge yourself to think creatively and find new solutions.
10. When confrontation is necessary, don’t shy away from it. Confrontation is often necessary to achieve progress.

Nanagas started as copywriter at the formerly dominant AMA (Advertising and Marketing Associates) after becoming a sterling PANA (Philippine Association of National Advertisers) scholar.

She was mentored by Philippine advertising greats: the late Antonio de Joya, Greg Macabenta, Louie Morales, Tony Gloria and Nita Claravall, becoming what she is now: creative and operations- savvy.

Hardwork is a class act for Nanagas who also speaks it. That perhaps explains her longevity in the industry.

“I learned the discipline of hardwork from my mentors,” she mentions with a low-key voice but bursts into a hearty laughter in between the interview seeing how the industry continuously evolves.

Nanagas is a mentoring President in and out of Dentsu, with an innate desire to give something back. You may find her in Ateneo teaching on a weekend if her Dentsu schedules allow her.

She never forgets to tell her students and staff that: “In this business, everything must be anchored on consumer insight. Creators of advertising must see how consumers behave, probe on their attitudes, and everything around them to be able to do effective advertising.”

She stresses that advertising isn’t one’s “kathang isip” (imagined things) and that agencies should make an impactful difference on their clients’ bottom lines to become real partners.

And how is Nanagas as a Dentsu leader?

“She is a people-oriented person and you can easily feel it the moment you’re introduced. Even in the 4A’s (Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of the Philippines) where she was president, Nanagas is always candid and pleasantly approachable to many,” confides an industry colleague.

Beyond the pleasantness, is a businesswoman with depth and whose focus is only on Dentsu and not on which agency is doing what.

She has eyes only for delivering income to the agency, empowering, giving opportunities and growth for others. “You cannot perpetuate yourself,” she says.

In the Philippines, Dentsu is a dynamic advertising agency with a 45-staff, providing value-added service to clients.

“We provide service the Dentsu way but we are not subservient,” she says.

Last June, the Dentsu network won Cannes’s most prestigious Lion, the Titanium and 4 Gold Lions. It also bagged Cannes’ Media Agency of the Year in 2009 and Asia Adfest Interactive Agency of the Year for two consecutive years (2009 and 2010).

For the first time also in the history of the Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings, a Japanese agency landed at the top in the 2009 - Dentsu Tokyo became the most awarded agency in Asia, and Campaign Brief Asia's Regional Agency of the Year.

With thousands of clients all over the world going “The Dentsu Way,” wouldn’t you also follow the line?

IF YOU DON'T MOVE, YOU DIE.

In today’s marketing war, where so many events have obliterated the advertising landscape, agencies must always be on the lookout. If you don’t move, you die and if you deliver late, you are in trouble.

That’s as far as Tony Harris, British Chief Executive of BBDO-Guerrero is concerned.

On his second year as David Guerrero’s partner in running the Philippines’ most internationally awarded ad agency, Harris acts not like a CEO but always as a consumer.

“I am a consumer, first and foremost,” he says. “When you are a consumer, you are able to make insightful creative solutions for clients, not just offer a report,” he says with a tone speaking from twelve and a half years of experience working in UK’s tough ad agencies.

“Knowing how the consumer behaves gives you the edge. You get to know other brands, too, and you can talk about every category and the whole industry,” he says.

Harris was RKCR/Y&R (Rainey, Kelly, Campbell and Roalfe/Young & Rubicam) London Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chairman prior to his Manila post.

He was part of the team that helped the agency become UK’s highest-ranking creative agency (Gunn Report) and won a number of Cannes Gold Lions during his tenure.

It is but no surpise the prestigious Campaign Magazine voted him as one of London’s Top 10 accounts men over the same period.

Harris joined Publicis as a trainee right after graduating from Lincoln College in Oxford.

Ripened by time, he became an Account Director at BMP DDB, one of London’s most creative agencies, handling Sony and FIFA, eventually being promoted to the board in 1995.

A lightning 72-hour visit to Manila last year made him decide to try something new: he joined BBDO-Guerrero as Chief Executive in July 2011.

“David Guerrero was interested because I was interested,” he beams with pride as he recalls his first trip to the Philippines.

Since then, the agency has never let up its winning ways, churning out award-winning campaigns one after the other and bagging important new business wins.

WORLD-CLASS AD AGENCY

Over the last decade, BBDO-Guerrero has never relinquished its position among the top three most awarded agencies in the country.

The fact that the Philippine 4A’s (Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies) has repeatedly voted BBDO-Guerrero as the Best Creative Agency in the Agency of the Year Awards over the last 10 years excites Harris no end.

BBDO-Guerrero was also IMMAP’s (Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines) most awarded ad agency in its annual Boomerang Awards last year.

In the 22nd Advertising Congress, the agency was Agency of the Year for winning the most number of “Araw” Awards.

Together with Chairman and Chief Creative Officer David Guerrero, whom he describes as generous, with an unflinching commitment and a joy to work with, he led a team that won the high profile Department of Tourism business in January.

TALENTED FILIPINOS

Harris is profuse with sincere and kind words for his Filipino staff at BBDO-Guerrero.

He dotes on the agency’s bundle of pride, whom he describes as “faultless in their energy, have sense of purpose, drive and no sense of ego.”

“Advertising is the same, whether you are in Manila, Manchester or Moscow,” he says and “Filipinos are just as creative as anyone else in the world or even better,” he adds.

Harris says that at BBDO-Guerrero, everybody understands why the agency should work hard and why it should do great work.

“Nobody wants to do a mediocre ad in the agency,” he says. “If you don’t understand that, the agency isn’t for you,” he points out.

His most nerve-wracking experience was when he, DG and the agency’s DOT team were called to Malacanang Palace to present the now famous: “It’s More Fun In The Philippines” campaign.

“The agency galvanized together and the excitement was bursting all over. We were the last agency to pitch for the account and we were very positive to win that business starting from day one,” Harris exults.

Indeed, it happened because Harris believed BBDO is a fantastic agency and network to begin with.

He is proud of the agency’s creative discipline. Harris speaks with sadness about agencies where people do not know where they’re going. “We must know our purpose and that is to be always the agency of choice by marketers,” he says.

Harris enjoys advertising and doesn’t like hierarchy in the creative process. He puts premium to communication, values openness and admires people who share their ideas.

“People think advertising is easy but doing advertising well is difficult,” he says.

He believes his agency’s advantage over competition is intelligent creativity, a fact most of their clients believe. “We think of better creative solutions and making things happen,” he proudly says.

CREATIVITY AND EFFECTIVITY

The British guy who loves to tell people that he’s lucky to be working in the Philippines is proud of the agency’s culture of creativity and effectiveness.

“We are effective because we act like consumers, not as advertising practitioners,” Harris says.

As a consumer, he frequently flew on an airline account, rode on a SUV brand, binge on dairy brands he had worked with to feel, imbibe and experience the real thing.

To dramatize the “It’s more fun in the Philippines” idea, the whole agency, around 90 people all, flew to Davao, instead of the usual trip abroad, to get a first hand experience on how it is to be in one of the Philippines’ most exciting and fun places to visit.

At the end of trip, the agency had one unanimous verdict: It really was, indeed.

“Being a consumer allows you to do advertising better. You become real and credible to the audience you are talking to,” he says. Well said.

Harris believes that advertising should be fun and simple. He makes a potshot at those who make things complicated and indulge in ‘over-analysis paralysis’ process.

What about strategic thinking? Is the agency spending too much time being creative and forgetting the art and discipline of marketing warfare?

“The agency has good strategists, they are our catalysts for good creative products that are relevant to the market. We are creative because our strategists are our catalysts for work that are unexpected,” he proudly mentions in the interview.

How does he compare London’s advertising scene to Manila’s?

Harris admits that London is openly competitive, can be “parochially inclusive and almost ‘predatory”.

He describes Manila’s ad industry folks as welcoming, nice, warm and friendly. “Filipinos have that genuine desire to connect and express their collective congratulatory feelings, as typified by our recent wins in Cannes,” he says.

A very private person, Harris loves going around the city and has interesting collection of jukeboxes, complete with 45’ vinyl records.

With his limited spare time, he plays bass, guitar and keeps strange hours in an effort to keep up with his beloved Newcastle United playing in the English Premier League.

SAD ENDING FOR SOME AD AGENCIES

by Roger Pe

Is it a case of companies, or in advertising parlance, clients getting smarter or is it a long overdue overhaul of how the advertising arena works?

Whatever the reasons are, over the past few years, major ad agencies that have been in existence for decades have been closing shops.

The reasons are a combination of corrupt practices of some people in the industry, economic numbers that do not merit large sums placed in advertising and the changing technological landscape.

Advertising is usually the first to go during bad times as marketers press the panic buttons, cut budgets or do the worst, stop advertising.

Remember 1997 and the collapse of the Lehman Brothers in 2008? The last one triggered a widespread tsunami-like disaster, sinking some of the world’s most seemingly invincible economies.

Millions of people around the world depend on advertising and its immediate affiliate industries: print and broadcast media, publishing, printing, film, out-of-home advertising suppliers, print and production houses among others. Imagine the catastrophic repercussions.

More than three years have passed since the world’s worst economic tragedy fell. Is there an end in sight?

Apparently, the global recession is bidding its time. In fact, it has already obliterated the advertising landscape.

THE BIGGEST SHOCKER

JWT Chicago was the largest office in the network’s global agency network, boasting with over 800 employees and had well over $100 million in billings.

The office was the primary agency for Kraft, Nabisco, Philadelphia and other brands, and also was one of Miller Beer’s busiest agencies.

After 118 years of existence, it closed down in 2009. Today, it's a 50-person, four-client operation functioning in New York that's gambling on the Illinois Lottery business for survival.

The other three remaining accounts of the agency are Kimberly-Clark's feminine-care, Nestle ice cream, a small HSBC digital assignment and a tourism business.

Just last month, Campaign Palace, an Australian agency, renowned for award-winning ads, closed its doors after 40 years. The shop was a training ground for some of Australia's most renowned advertising talents.

Over four decades, the agency that flourished in the backstreets of Melbourne created ads that were consistently voted as the best by its peers.

The agency where everyone in the Australian ad industry wanted to work also spawned a number of successful new agencies run by former staff: Whybin TBWA, BMF and M&C Saatchi.

Following its sale to George Patterson Y&R and a string of account losses, the agency finally closed its doors this year, with its remaining clients absorbed by other WPP-owned agencies.

REQUIEM FOR SOME LOCAL AD AGENCIES

Exactly a year ago this month, AB Comm, which used to hold office in one of Makati’s posh buildings, shut its operation after 17 years.

In a statement, founding president Tom Banguis said the “financial returns and professional satisfaction from running it have diminished.”

Prior to its closure, AB Comm had a staff of 20 reaching to a maximum of 60 during its heyday.

Previous to AB Comm’s exit, some ad agencies did massive retrenchment and ‘creative’ measures to stay afloat.

Four to seven local and multinational ad agencies moved out of their chic Ayala-Paseo-Legaspi Village addresses to tighten their belts and neutralize ad budget woes.

A couple of years back, an agency gave the pink slips to several key people sending shock waves to the industry used to enjoy huge production budgets for tv commercials.

Another ad agency, often the subject of coffee shop buzz, had deep management, and media payment issues.

Creative Response, Dentsu Indio (after 16 years) and MAD (acronym of its owners Maranan, Aquino, Abunda, Del Carmen) have joined the list of those who have stopped or will stop operating.

Hard hit agencies, either merged, downsized or scaled down their manpower to avert heavy overhead and operational costs.

What ails the ad industry? The shutdown and ongoing troubles of some local ad agencies raise questions about their survival just as what is happening, not only in the Asia-Pacific region but also on the global scale.

“We are partly to be blamed,” one retired head of an ad agency said. “Some ad agencies had it coming,” says.

“We had a management with outrageously big salaries, perks and representational allowances, producers padding cost estimates in-cahoots with insiders and shady people on the payroll of some production houses,” he says.

“We were not competitively creative, we were being ran by AEs,” he continues.

The proliferation of in-house creative departments by some businesses, media networks competing directly with creative ad agencies and freelancers selling their work at rock-bottom fees are also hastening the demise of legit ad agencies.

With the pie growing smaller and smaller every year, it is common for a new business pitch to have more than 5 ad agencies scrambling and bidding to win the account.

What’s more, the worst scenario is about to unfold or already beginning to cast its frightening shadow.

Some clients are now opening up their businesses to independent agencies on a per project basis and thinking of doing away with long-term contracts.

With a free-for-all and unwieldy set-up, unscrupulous marketers can also do damage: pitch their business then steal ‘losing’ bidder’s ideas behind their backs.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

What should advertising agencies do to be competitive? As technology gives people more viable options and created a “consumer democracy,” everybody now has more choices.

In Ad Age, an article said: “traditional marketing is not dying, it is dead.”

“In this changing times, ad agencies must give value to marketers other than the usual. If they want to survive, old-style, one-size-fits-all mass marketing and advertising can't do this anymore,” said a top Filipino marketing director formerly based in the greater China market.

With the rapid changes that are happening in advertising, how are local ad agencies adapting to the rapidly changing business environment?

Questions like, how good or bad are agencies today now that the landscape has changed?

“We tailor-fit solutions to a particularly brand. We are not a redundant, cut-and-paste brand solution ad agency,” says a multinational client services director of a multinational ad agency.

Noy de Liacco, former Corporate Communications Director of Nestle Philippines, says a good ad agency must be “a true partner interested in the client’s business, curious about its consumers and looking for answers how it can grow the business together.”

A bad agency is peopled with “sycophants, order-takers, second-guessers, lacks initiatives and does not really care about the client’s business,” he said.

PANA (Philippine Association of National Advertisers) president Margot Torres, a driving force in the marketing and advertising industries says an ideal agency is a brand steward and a business partner.

“The agency should be responsive to the needs of its client and changing consumer needs,” she said.

“Ad agencies must be committed to excellence in its craft and to the growth of its people and that partnership. Choosing an agency is based on the people behind it (particularly the local agency for a multinational network) since they are the team who will work with you,” she stressed.

VP and Head of McDonald’s Marketing, Torres places high value on the agency partner with disciplined processes, invests in strategic insights as well as adapts to the changing digital landscape. UP Mass Communications Professor Eleanor Agulto, former ECD of Bates-Alcatara and now with Catalytx says, “a good agency is a true partner of its clients, giving them sound strategies, great creatives and cost-efficient production and media plans.”

“It must be a well-managed business, keeping a healthy bottomline, a good corporate citizen, espousing truth and values in advertising even as it sells brands. It is bad if it doesn’t treat or pay its people right,” she says.

For marketing guru Willy Arcilla, a bad agency only sells ads.

“A good agency does not sell its ads, but sells its client's product or service. As David Ogilvy famously said, "If it doesn't sell, it's not creative." Or as Leo Burnett also said, "We want consumers to say: “that's a hell of a product' instead of, “That's a hell of an ad."

To be competitive these days, the best agency is one that can “develop campaigns that transcend boundaries in a global market, endure the vicissitudes of time and the vagaries of competition,” Arcilla said.

Good ad agencies know how to get the most “bang” for their clients’ buck, no matter how big or small. A bad agency don’t do enough research on the front end and little post-campaign measurement on the back end,” said Joel Villaflor, a Fil-Am creative director and entrepreneur.

PR person Bing Kimpo says, a good agency does not act as if it has a monopoly of good ideas and shut others out. To survive, ad agencies must encourage and embrace ideas that come even from the outside world: partners and suppliers, a bad one lives under a rock of self-absorption shooing away suggestions “not invented here.”

For Globe Corporate Brand Management Head Cris Lacuna, the ingredients to become a successful agency is do quick turnaround time, have 24/7 availability, understand clients’ needs, aside from making negotiations easy and clear.

HOW INTEGRATED IS YOUR AD CAMPAIGN?

by Roger Pe

Over the last three years, Ace Saatchi and Saatchi has gifted the Philippines with Silver and Bronze Clios, a One Show Pencil, Cannes Silver and Bronze Lions, a number of Asia Adfest Lotus Gold and Silver awards and Campaign Brief Asia’s prestigious Agency of the Year title.

Can’t get enough? That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

But as far as Andrew Petch, Executive Creative Director of the agency is concerned, these glowing trove of awards pale in comparison to its latest achievement.

Last June, the hot shop for world-changing ideas became the first Filipino ad agency to become finalist in Cannes’ toughest category: the Titanium Lion for integrated campaigns.

Titanium

What titanium is all about.

Titanium is a shiny, white metallic element found in rocks and soil. Lightweight, strong, and highly resistant to corrosion, it is used as parts for aircraft, ships, watches, and among other things, for its durability.

Campaigns that fly or sail into the toughest winds of marketing environment are usually integrated and resistant to communication corrosion, thus, the category Titanium.

Cannes Titanium Lion is testament to the authenticity of a campaign, true-blue advertising created with a through-the-line master plan and a 360-degree vision for the brand.

The world's ultimate accolade in advertising, Titanium is the only category that judges work on the criteria of: “Does it pioneer brand communications for the future?” rather than just “Is it the best work of the past 12 months?”

“We don’t do one-off ads, we do integrated solutions for clients regardless of how small or big their brands are,” says Petch who admittedly, is a big fan of Filipino creative talents.

The agency’s “Tiger Energy Playground” was singled out in Cannes for stretching the campaign beyond the common idea of the word “energy.”

“We want to make people know that Tiger is not just an energy-giving snack biscuit but giving out energy in the real sense of the word,” Petch said.

The “Tiger Energy Playground” campaign is an inspiring example of innovation that uses technology to engage people emotionally in a way traditional advertising can never achieve.

In October last year, Saatchi & Saatchi Manila launched the power of the “Energy-giving biscuit” idea, literally providing electricity to Hospicio de San Jose, a Manila orphanage housing more than 300 children.

Tiger electricity and batteries ran the orphanage’s playground, providing energy to equipment, appliances, computers, toys and lighting bulbs.

“Seeing children having moments of joy and benefitting from Tiger Energy Playground Program is unexplainable,” said Petch who said that the Kraft project is now permanent for the orphanage.

Petch considers the Cannes Titanium achievement a landmark saying the country can lead the world in advertising, not just keeping abreast with what everybody is doing.

The creative maverick that kept stressing the phrase “engaging the consumers” has, without a doubt, officially turned around the agency from the doldrums.

Two years ago, Petch singlehandedly towed Ace Saatchi & Saatchi Manila to the zenith of Campaign Brief Asia’s ranking as Philippines’ Agency of the Year from virtually nowhere.

Today, he is as relentless as ever making the agency the most consistent award-winner among the Top 3 agencies over a three-year period.

While other agencies go on a rollercoaster ride from fame to oblivion and one-off wins, Saatchi’s star remains as iridescent largely to Petch’s driving philosophy.

Petch always instills in everyone the Saatchi mantra: “One Team, One Dream.”
“When you’re in Saatchi, you must continuously be passionate to do great work,” he says with a piercing tone.

On motivating people, Petch flatly declares: “Creativity is the best weapon to build the company’s business and one’s career.”

He believes nothing is impossible, the same belief that he took by heart when he assumed the Ace Saatchi creative lead role three years ago.

"And that's been the guiding focus here at our place, in the world-class team we have created and the integrated process in which we work. We're an “ideas company” not an “ad agency”, he said.

The gungho belief has definitely given Ace Saatchi’s clients an unfair advantage over their competitors. It is now a towering agency in terms of building business and winning awards.

THE INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN DIFFERENCE

In Cannes this year, Saatchi entered two integrated campaigns: “Anna Banana” for PLDT myDSL and “Tiger Energy Playground” for Kraft, BBDO-Guerrero submitted 2: “It’s More Fun in the Philippines for DOT and “Bottle Lights” for Pepsi, and TBWA-SMP fielded a campaign for Boysen.

For Petch, there is something special about doing integrated campaigns.

A fully integrated campaign approach to marketing briefs can bring exceptional results and can actually save money he said.

With the continuing changes that are happening in the way marketers advertise to consumers, “Brands have to engage their consumers rather than just advertise to them,” Petch said.

“Brands must focus on many different streams of media for their campaigns – traditional, online, social, even experiential. The multiple touch-points (above the line, below the line, across the line, any which way around the line) will get them results,” he emphasized.

“Tiger Energy Playground” also made it to Cannes Direct, Outdoor, and Media shortlists.

MORE SUCCESFUL INTEGRATED CAMPAIGNS

Ace Saatchi and Saatchi’s “Anna Banana” campaign was a groundbreaking idea from the agency and a business success for its client PLDT MyDSL.

Prior to the campaign, awareness for PLDT myDSL had declined in the past 2 years since they stopped advertising in two of the country’s leading television networks.

The agency needed to tell the gatekeepers at home that PLDT myDSL’s strong Internet connections can lead to strong emotional moments yet still appear cool to their teenage kids.

The agency created a fictitious character, an ultra-supportive mother and a YouTube video featuring a son only a mother could love.

The results were phenomenal. The campaign resulted in almost 2 million combined views on You Tube.

It became the Top 2 most watched videos in the country on its first week. It trended on Twitter for two weeks, and with 667,990 eyeballs for user and celebrity tweets, it registered a 200% increase in applications for the brand.

On top of that, there was 30% increase in visits to its website, same increase in revenue and almost P2.1 million in earned media on above the line channels alone, including an estimated P10 million in free coverage online.

Last April, Ace Saatchi dominated the 2012 Creative Guild (the Philippine 4A’s award-giving body) “Kidlat” Awards with a whopping haul of 27 medals, the most by any ad agency, relegating BBDO-Guerrero to second place, an incredible ascension.

“With a world class team of people, original media ideas executed brilliantly for our biggest clients, we showed why Ace Saatchi & Saatchi is the Number 1 creative agency in the Philippines, and on our way to being the top in Asia-Pacific,” Petch said.

Ace Saatchi also won the Philippines’ only One Show award last March, a bronze Pencil.

Proud of the relationship P&G and Ace Saatchi & Saatchi have built in the country, Petch said: “To win for our Fashion Laundry campaign for Ariel Washing Powder at the 2012 One Show Awards in New York, is great recognition for the agency and the talent of every one in our team that made it happen.”

Integrated campaign, integrated success. Indeed.