DDB Group Philippines Archives

Manila, Philippines – The Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) has launched a new campaign alongside DDB Group Philippines in order to combat online sexual exploitation of children (OSAEC) in the Philippines, as well as raising awareness and encouraging action across digital platforms.

At the centre of this campaign are multiple films designed to educate the public on the rampant exploitation of children online under the public noses, and the importance of reporting suspicious activity. These films serve as a rallying cry for individuals, companies, and organizations across all sectors to join the fight against OSAEC.

With social media serving as a pervasive influence in today’s society, the partnership between PCW and DDB Group Philippines aims to leverage platforms to create awareness of how citizens can protect children from online predators and create a safer digital environment for all.

Gil Chua, group chair and CEO at DDB Group Philippines, said, “At DDB, we believe in the power of creativity to move people and the importance of collective action in safeguarding the welfare of our children. As a longtime partner of PCW, we are committed to utilizing our expertise to amplify awareness, encourage reporting, and ultimately, protect the most vulnerable members of our society.”

Meanwhile, Atty. Khay Ann C. Magundayao-Borlado, OIC at PCW, commented, “Seven years partnership with DDB have seen strides in communications and advancement of policies into laws from safe spaces law to empowering the public to protect our children from online abuse. We are proud to partner with DDB in this crucial endeavor to harness the reach and influence of social media, we can amplify our message and mobilize communities to take action. Together, we can stop abuse.”

Philippines – Hybrid integrated marketing solutions agency Optimax, a part of the DDB Group Philippines, has been appointed as the new integrated marketing communications (IMC) agency for global brand BYD electric vehicles (EVs) in the Philippines.

Ayala-led Mobility Access Philippines Ventures, Inc. (MAPVI), the automotive arm of AC Motors and official distributor of BYD cars in the country, handed BYD EVs’ account to Optimax after a series of competitive pitches.

Antonio ‘Toti’ Zara III, president of MAPVI, expressed his anticipation of collaborating with Optimax to develop the BYD brand and the electric vehicle (EV) sector in the Philippines.

He said, “Our newly formed partnership is a step closer to making more and more Filipinos appreciate the No. 1 selling new-energy vehicles in the world right now. We are excited to work with Optimax’s energetic and young team to introduce BYD cars to Filipinos and make them understand the advantages of new energy, or what is more commonly known as electric vehicles.”

Also speaking on the partnership, Ela Federigan-Chua, general manager of Optimax, shared, “Handling a global automotive brand like BYD is very exciting for us. It opens up a lot of opportunities to harness our expertise and showcase our creativity with the end in view of achieving the goals MAPVI set out for BYD.”

Manila, Philippines – The Department of Tourism (DOT) has recently announced a new tourism slogan ‘Love the Philippines’, which was met with mixed reactions from the general Filipino community. The slogan, which replaces the old ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ tagline, was conceptualised by the creative agency DDB Group Philippines, replacing long-time creative agency partner BBDO Guerrero.

Many netizens have pointed out that the new slogan is less appealing, compared to the old tourism slogan, conceptualised by BBDO Guerrero back in 2012.

To learn more about how social media and the rest of the online community reacted to the announcement, MARKETECH APAC‘s deep-dive series Inner State has tapped social insights and analytics solutions provider Meltwater and social media monitoring company Digimind to learn more about the numbers and insights regarding the DOT tourism slogan revamp.

Positive Sentiment, Yet Driven by Influencer Reach

Meltwater noted in its data that social media mentions of the hashtag #lovethephilippines were mentioned over 26.2k times in total from June 26 to June 30. Twitter led the discussion with over 23.2k mentions, followed by Facebook (2.14k mentions), news (356 mentions), Reddit (273 mentions), and Instagram (111 mentions).

Despite the mixed reactions from the general public, Meltwater’s media monitoring data notes that there was an overwhelmingly positive sentiment online, comprising 74.8% of all overall sentiments. Meanwhile, neutral sentiment comprised of 17.1% of overall sentiment, followed by negative sentiment (4.8%) and not rated (3.4%) pertaining to content without definite context.

While sentiment on the DOT campaign was measured as being ‘positive’, Meltwater also pointed out that a large chunk of the positive sentiment across social media can be attributed to posts made by influencers and local personalities, including of current president Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos, Jr., actress Ruffa Gutierrez, as well as TV personalities Samantha Bernardo and Joj Agpangan.

For Weldon Fung, area director for client acquisition and expansion for SEA at Meltwater, with DOT pushing for the new slogan’s implementation through influencer messaging, it could be a case of brand recall by repetition and inundation, though lacking in any form of resonance initially.

“This might be a great case study on when not to fix something that’s not broken. The previous ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ slogan was much loved by the public and really spoke to the hospitality and warmth of the nation, something that everyone could identify with domestically and internationally,” Fung told MARKETECH APAC.

He also added that the new DOT Philippines slogan fiasco could be also likened to the ‘Hello Hong Kong’ campaign.

“While it’s understandable for a new agency to give it a fresh new look, the current ‘Love The Philippines’ slogan has reminiscence of the ‘Hello Hong Kong’ campaign, which offers very little to go by as far as an emotional connection, to the point that some Filipinos online have said that it came off sounding desperate and needy. However, the long-term success of the new branding and slogan is still to be determined.”

Sentiment for Old Slogan Still Evident

Following the launch of the ‘Love The Philippines’ campaign, netizens were quick to draw comparisons with the older ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ tagline.

This was evident from Digimind’s data, which saw that the old slogan almost had a share of voice (SOV) in the ongoing social media discussion on the ‘Love The Philippines’ tagline. It also noted that the old slogan picked up at least 19% of the mentions.

Discussions between the ‘Love The Philippines’ and ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ are not far between, with only a ~700,000 reach difference between the two, in favour of the new tagline.

According to Digimind, netizens appeared to contrast the old slogan against the new one, particularly airing their preference for the former as being the wittier take to attract tourism, while branding ‘love’ into the slogan was seen as being too strong and incongruous from how locals viewed the state of the country.

Considering the huge clamour for the old slogan, Jared Silitonga, marketing lead for Digimind, noted that the tourism department should have dug first into social media insights to check if a tourism campaign revamp was necessary.

“In order to effectively handle critics, it is absolutely essential to make use of social media listening to gather both positive and negative feedback. By doing so, it becomes possible to refine future communications and strike the appropriate tone that accurately reflects people’s current sentiments. With the help of social intelligence, brands and agencies can easily analyze public opinions and create consumer profiles, thereby providing PR and communication professionals with invaluable data that can inform their strategies from a multitude of different perspectives,” Silitonga told MARKETECH APAC.

How The Stock Footage Fiasco Contributed to Discussion

In the days that followed the campaign launch, DOT also came under fire for its video using stock footage from other countries. DDB Group Philippines, the agency behind the new campaign revamp, has apologised for the video released, saying that it was only intended to promote the slogan and no public funds were being used.

Digimind noted that while discussion on the campaign waned after a discussion peak on June 29, a spike in the discussion started from July 1 following the stock footage fiasco. The agency, and the phrases ‘footage of locations’ and ‘non-original’ popped up as some of the mostly-used words across the social media sentiments.

Meanwhile, Meltwater’s keywords also noted several phrases voiced out during the fiasco, such as phrases related to how many times the tourism slogan has changed, and how the concept was ‘lazy’ and ‘without substance’.

“In the media, sensational news can often turn what is believed initially to be a well-meaning concept into a potential crisis, especially as negative news is known to circulate quicker and form groupthink in the masses. While there is no foolproof process, like many public sectors, before launching a statement, the Philippines’ DOT will need to “read the room” and ensure that their messaging has gone through multiple assessment rounds with various stakeholders, including focus groups with locals,” Silitonga added.

Manila, Philippines – DDB Group Philippines, the agency of record for the Department of Tourism (DOT) Philippines, has apologised for the misuse of several stock footage assets as part of its promotional video for the recently unveiled ‘Love The Philippines‘ tourism campaign rebranding. This comes after several netizens have pointed out that several of the scenes on the ad were not based in the Philippines but rather from other countries.

In the days following the campaign launch, netizens took notice of how the video used stock footage that misrepresented various tourist spots in the country. They include a fisherman throwing a net which was actually stock footage of a Thai fisherman; the country’s Rice Terraces which was actually stock footage of a similar structure in Bali, Indonesia; and a dune racing footage which was actually shot in Dubai.

In a statement, the agency said that they take full responsibility for this matter and that the video was only intended to excite their internal stakeholders regarding the new tourism campaign.

“While the use of stock footage in mood videos is standard practice in the industry, the use of foreign stock footage was an unfortunate oversight on our agency’s part. Proper screening and approval processes should have been strictly followed. The use of foreign stock footage in a campaign promoting the Philippines is highly inappropriate, and contradictory to the DOT’s objectives,” the agency said.

DDB Group Philippines has also stated that the video has been taken down across all channels, and will be working closely together with the DOT in investigating said matter. It also noted that succeeding ad campaigns for the new tourism slogan have yet to be produced.

It has also clarified that no public funds have been used to produce the video and that it was only made by the agency to pitch the slogan to the public. It also hopes that following the fiasco, it would not diminish the public’s reception regarding the campaign.

This was not the first time an agency has been caught under fire for various campaign fiascos alongside the Department of Tourism.

In 2010, DOT released a slogan named ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda’ alongside agency Campaigns & Grey. However, many pointed out that the slogan’s artistic interpretation resembles Poland’s tourism slogan ‘Polska’. Then in 2017, DOT came under fire as well when it released a promotional campaign titled ‘Sights’ alongside creative agency McCann Worldgroup. Netizens then pointed out that the campaign’s storytelling resembles of South Africa’s tourism campaign back in 2014. As a result, DOT terminated its PHP650m contract with the agency.

UPDATE: As of this writing, the Department of Tourism has terminated its PHP50m contract with DDB Group Philippines following the stock footage misuse fiasco. DOT says that no payments have been made to the agency. This was made in a public statement by Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco.

“As DDB Philippines has publicly apologised, taken full responsibility, and admitted in no uncertain terms, that non-original materials were used in their AVP, reflecting an abject failure to comply with their obligation/s under the contract and a direct contravention with the DOT’s objectives for the enhanced tourism branding, the DOT hereby exercises its right to proceed with termination proceedings against its contract with DDB,” Frasco said.

Manila, Philippines – The Department of Tourism (DOT) has announced a new tourism slogan ‘Love the Philippines’, a departure from the country’s ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ tagline that was conceptualised back in 2012.

The ‘Love the Philippines’ tagline was conceptualised alongside DDB Group Philippines. According to Marie Adriano, the agency’s brand and strategic planner, the word ‘love’ is the positive theme evident amongst travellers in the country.

https://youtu.be/wKmCscTJFcc

“While fun remains a positive theme and certainly part of the Pinoy DNA, there’s less volume of mentions. Coming from a culture shift, naturally, changes in the consumers follow. Who are they? We call them the ‘changed traveler’ for the very reason that travelling has come to mean more than just leisure,” Adriano told the Philippine News Agency.

Meanwhile, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco commented, “The campaign Love the Philippines is not a mere branding campaign, but rather a call to action to every Filipino citizen to remember the beauty of our country, to honour our past, and to look forward to the future armed with the virtues, (and) values of being a Filipino.”

The previous tagline ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ was conceptualised by BBDO Guerrero in 2012. It also renewed its partnership with DOT in 2021 alongside the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) to promote the country’s tourism amidst a new normal.

Philippines – Integrated marketing communications DDB Group Philippines has appointed John Tenchavez Lucas as its new chief revenue officer (CRO), to oversee the group’s select business units’ growth strategies.

Lucas brings to the table almost three decades of experience in branding, marketing, digital, social, and public relations, as well as in media, product development and launch, events and activation. His experience also included working for brands in the FMCG, food, QSR, banking, technology, telecommunications, and healthcare industries.

In this new role, Lucas will identify new methods to generate growth for clients while merging specialist agency services to continuously create excellent work and creative business solutions. Having previously served as DDB Group Philippines’ Chief Growth Officer before his four-year stint in his prior agency, Lucas returns to DDB to oversee three of the agency group’s key business units, namely, DDB PHL, Ripple8, and Tribal Worldwide Philippines.

As CRO, Lukas will find new ways to create DDB’s company long-term growth and further develop DDB’s relationships with its clients, partners, and personnel with the support of the group’s top leaders.

On his appointment, Lucas said, “DDB is all about people, creativity and innovation. I’m excited to work again with the teams to continue building a culture of loving what we do to deliver outstanding results,”

Gil G. Chua, DDB group Philippines chairman and chief executive officer, expressed his excitement in being able to work with Lucas once again in further boosting DDB Group’s growth prospects given the new demands of clients and the business climate in general.

“In these times that call for a more diverse and experienced management, having John back in our fold further strengthens our capability to provide our clients with greater value and our people with even better leadership,” said Chua.

Judd Balayan, DDB Group Philippines chief operating officer and chief finance officer, commented, “The return of the well-loved member of DDB’s senior management is key to further maximizing the agency group’s value to its clients and its people.”

“John Lucas’s extensive marketing and agency experience, as well as his collaborative leadership style, will ensure that we bring the best creative and digital brand solutions to our clients and the best collective leadership to our people,” Balayan added.