by Sharon Desker Shaw
MANILA — Reflecting creativity’s boundless scope, adobo magazine marked its milestone 9th business year with a ‘Limitless party’ to award winners of the adobo Design Awards (aDA) and Ad of the Year, relaunch the creative and advertising industry bible and celebrate their anniversary.
Held at Chino Roces Avenue’s newest event hotspot – Green Sun’s spectacular ‘The Eye’ venue, featuring 360-degree floor-to-ceiling video projection screens – the location provided a fittingly grand stage for adobo magazine, The Word on Creativity, to shine the spotlight on award winners.
adobo Design Awards
Now in its 6th year, the aDA has championed the very best in Philippine design creativity and is judged according to global standards of excellence by a powerhouse panel of jurors, led by returning Jury President Lucille Tenazas, the multi-awarded, US-based Filipino designer, Henry Wolf professor in the School of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design and recipient of the American Institute of Graphic Arts medal.
BBDO Guerrero emerged as the night’s big winner, taking 2 Golds (Environmental Spatial and Outdoor/Ambient categories) and the Best in Show (Design for Good) for ‘Keep the Story Alive’. Tenazas personally selected ‘Keep the Story Alive’ for the coveted Lucille Tenazas Excellence Award, which was named in her honor in recognition of the vision and design values she has espoused in her long and glittering career.
The other Best in Show award (Design for a Purpose) was given to J. Walter Thompson Manila’s ‘Sunrise’ for client Shell, which had earlier won a Gold in the Short Film category.
The remaining Gold prizes were awarded to:
TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno in Environmental/Spatial for ‘Hana Water Billboard’ and Nexus London in Music Video/ Audio Video for Environmental / Spatial for ‘Function/Void’.
A full list of winners may be viewed here.
Ad of the Year
The night also saw the awarding of the Ad of the Year prize, which went to TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno for its Oishi Spicy Prawn ‘True Colors’ film after it amassed the most number of votes in an online poll. Featuring Cyndi Lauper’s hit of the same title, the spot gave the well-loved 40-year-old snack a new twist to appeal to younger audience.
Ad of the Month honors were also awarded twice to Leo Burnett, Ace Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT Manila, DM9JaymeSyfu, Y&R, Lowe Philippines, Ogilvy & Mather Philippines, TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno, Publicis JimenezBasic, IdeasXMachina and BBDO Guerrero.
adobo magazine’s New-look
With 9 years of adobo covers dramatically projected across the 360- degree video screens encircling the venue, the new-look Issue 56’s unveiling was another highlight of the night. The first makeover since the March/April 2013 relaunch, the refreshed issue dispensed with adobo’s familiar portrait-based cover design for theme-based covers and content tailored to different themes for the 6 issues published in a year.
Issue 56 launched with our inaugural Women of Influence list, featuring 20 outstanding female leaders in creativity, marketing, design, media, digital and business. TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno Associate Creative Director John Ed De Vera created the stunning paper craft design of the new look cover.
Combining inspiring content that matters to our readers and appealing design formats to make it a must-read, cover-to-cover, the new line-up includes a redesigned Upfront section, featuring the pulse of the industry presented in dynamic infographics, an expanded collection of industry Opinion thought pieces from local and global leaders, Deconstructing Creativity to review brand communications with a more meticulous eye across the entire process, Then and Now to chart a brand’s evolution, and an expanded Downtime, covering reviews from books to apps, movies, music, watering holes and more.
“Over the last nine years, the publication has enjoyed a front row seat to witness the highs, lows, and, perhaps most importantly, the robust growth of the Philippines’ advertising, marketing, design, digital and media industries and the industry’s growing profile on the international awards stage,” adobo magazine’s Founder, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Guerrero. “We have been a cheerleader, historian, drinking buddy and friend to the industry, which in turn has supported our exciting growth, allowing us to reach another milestone in the adobo story.
“In covering and engaging an industry that never sits still, we – as the industry’s go-to source of news and inspiring content – could do no less,” Guerrero added. “We have similarly reinvented our title to stay relevant to our readership, which continues to grow as adobo properties expand with events such as last year’s successful Festival of Ideas, the adobo Design Series and the soon to launch adobo University, a biennial publication launching mid-year to engage and help college students prepare for an career in this vibrant business.”
The awards and new look issue were launched to a large and influential gathering of friends, colleagues and partners from the advertising, marketing, media, design production and digital communities.
The event was made possible with the cooperation of Green Sun, AllFamous Digital, GetCrea8ve, Smart, PLDT Home DSL, Executive Decisions, PWC Isla Lipana & Co., Thirty Six-O, Albergus, MyPhone, Underground Logic, Fullhouse Asia, Santelmo Studio, Inc.
Special thanks to our media partners, Business Mirror, Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Creative Voices, Clickthecity.com and WheninManila.com.
