...the ad winner

Philippines wins silver, bronze medals in Cannes Lions 2012

By Angel Guerrero
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Thursday, June 21st, 2012

‘LITER BE LIGHT’ A housewife in a poor neighborhood in Metro Manila reacts with delight over the daylight illumination provided by a plastic bottle placed on her roof. The Liter of Light’s “Bottle Light” ad campaign won silver and bronze medals for Pepsi in Cannes Lions 2012. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CANNES—A Philippine advertising agency has won two awards during the first three days of competitions in the 59th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity here, raising recognition of Filipino creativity to the global level.

BBDO Guerrero|Proximity Philippines’ “Bottle Light” campaign for Pepsi won the bronze  medal in the promo and activation and media categories, and the silver medal in the direct category.

The Philippines is competing against 86 other countries in Cannes Lions 2012, to which the world’s leading advertising agencies have submitted 34,000 entries in 15 categories.

This year’s Lions have drawn 10,000 delegates from all over the world.

BBDO Guerrero|Proximity Philippines created the Bottle Light campaign for Pepsico Philippines and MyShelter Foundation.

The agency and Pepsico Philippines celebrated the honors. “On behalf of MyShelter’s Liter of Light and Pepsi, we are very proud to see Filipino ingenuity recognized at the highest level,” said David Guerrero, BBDO Guerrero|Proximity Philippines’ chief creative officer.

“We will continue to support the Liter of Light program as part of our aim to deliver performance with purpose,” said Steve Romasanta, Pepsico marketing director. “We are honored that our efforts in partnership with BBDO Guerrero to support MyShelter Foundation has been recognized on such a global level.”

“Most of the juries love it,” said DDB Group Singapore’s executive creative director Thomas Yang, a juror in the direct category. “It changed the behavior of the society, especially the whole country. This is the simplest implementation. Pepsi being commercialized in the whole campaign to publicize the innovation, I think that’s fantastic.”

Short-listed entries

The Philippines has 11 short-listed entries across press, media, outdoor, and radio categories from Ace Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO Guerrero, DM9 JaymeSyfu, Lowe Philippines, and Ogilvy & Mather Philippines.

Out of 281 entries, Ace Saatchi & Saatchi’s “Tiger Energy Playground” and BBDO Guerrero’s “Bottle Lights” received short-list status in the media category.

The same entries are also competing in the outdoor category, where the shortlist includes DM9 JaymeSyfu’s “Volcano” for the Department of Tourism and Smart Communications.

Ogilvy & Mather Philippines’ entries titled “Dave,” “Marc,” and “Joseph” for Vaseline Men took three short-listed spots for the Philippines in the Press Lions category while DM9 JaymeSyfu took two spots for its entries “Mouse Deer” and “Dugong,” both for Bantay Kalikasan (ABS-CBN Foundation).

The press category has a total of 501 shortlisted entries.

Lowe Philippines’ “Lorem Ipsum” is the sole Philippine entry in the Radio category, where there are 185 entries.

The Philippines failed to gather short-list spots in the PR, creative effectiveness, mobile, cyber, and design categories.

The competitions run until Saturday. Results have yet to be announced in the film, titanium and integrated, film craft, branded content and entertainment, and grand prix for good categories.

Philippine delegation

The Philippines submitted  315 entries, an increase of 50 percent from last year’s 210.

Twenty-seven delegates are representing the Philippines, and they come from the advertising, marketing, academic, telecommunications and manufacturing industries.

DM9 JaymeSyfu’s chair and chief creative officer Merlee Jayme is representing the Philippines on the outdoor jury. She chaired the Asia-Pacific Advertising Festival (AdFest) outdoor jury in March.

Training course

This year, the Philippines has a delegate to the high-profile advertising, marketing, and communications training ground Roger Hatchuel Academy.

University of Asia and the Pacific’s Jolo Valdez, a 5th year student doing masteral studies in integrated marketing communications, is the Philippines’ representative in the weeklong course, which has lectures and workshops conducted by global leaders in the industry.

The country also has three teams for the Cannes Young Lions competition: DDB Philippines’ Donna Dimayuga and Mark Ngo represent the Philippines in the film category; TBWA’s Abi  Capa and Nolan Fabular, in  design category; and Johnson & Johnson’s Justine Gaurino and Rodrigo Sotto, in young marketers category.

Seminars, workshops

During the festival week, delegates can view more than 34,000 pieces of work, attend an extensive and unique program of 53 topical seminars, 17 workshops and, new to 2012, 30 forums delivered by the most innovative thinkers in the global communications industry, honor the winning work at four awards ceremonies as well as network, celebrate and enjoy two beach galas.

Among the speakers are former US President Bill Clinton, Microsoft chief marketing officer Chris Capossela, PHD Worldwide CEO Mike Cooper, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Starcom MediaVest Group Global CEO Laura Desmond, MTV president Stephen Friedman, MPG Global CEO Maria Luisa Francoli Plaza and Y&R Global chief creative officer Tony Granger.