MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Last May 05, creatives gathered at the Astbury for a night of celebration as adobo Magazine, in partnership with the London International Awards (LIA), awarded the winners of the adobo LIA Young Creative Competition 2023. This year’s theme was “A Spotlight on Philippine Creativity” as the jury sought out the best creative solutions that answer the question of how the Philippines can become Asia’s top creative economy.
In the week leading up to the awarding, the panel of jurors, led by Octopus & Whale Founder and CEO Joey David-Tiempo, saw 145 ideas by young creatives from across the industry. While many of the answers to the brief were innovative and informed with a genuine passion for improving the Philippine creative economy, only two young creatives win a trip to Vegas where they will be part of Creative LIAisons Program.
“[Looking at the entries,] I see the dedication and the genuine concern of young creatives specific to the creative sectors they are passionate about,” Joey expressed. “The ones who were selected to represent the country are those who understand these sectors very very well.”
This year, the deserving creatives that came on top are Gold winners Franc Kevin Mangahas of Elesi Studios and Ice Reyes of Blackpencil Advertising.
The idea that won Franc a trip to Vegas was Outsourced, a pitch to create an RPG game made entirely of Filipino talents with assets and source codes made available for licensing. This won’t only offer an immersive gameplay experience based on the Philippines’ rich mythology and history. Rather, it also changes the perception of Filipinos in gaming as just talents to outsource for world-class games by foreign developers.
Meanwhile, Ice’s Redo-signs pitch was her ticket to Vegas. Sari-sari stores can be found everywhere in the Philippines, and many of their signages, while classic, look dated. Redo-signs takes that as an opportunity to both beautify the stores and give artists a platform to show their work. This will be done by connecting local artists with store owners who want their signages redesigned, and in return, the creator’s art — along with a QR code leading to their info — will be visible to the community and anyone who passes by.
“For me, it was important to push an idea that not only resonates with me as a creative but also as a Filipino. I wanted everyday Filipinos to be at the forefront of that first step into the kind of Creative Philippines we want to see in the future. This is why I took into account mediums that they are normally exposed to, which in my case, [are] tindahan signs,” Ice shared. “I look forward to flying to Vegas! Most importantly, [I look forward to] the opportunity of meeting advertising giants from all over the world and learning from them.”
Also standing out among the entries are the two Silver Winners: Cheil Philippines’ Gelo Marasigan and MullenLowe TREYNA’s Vince Divinagracia. The two creatives were awarded coveted slots for the LIAisons Virtual Program. This global one-to-one virtual coaching and networking program is the ultimate platform that allows young creatives around the world to connect with industry leaders.
Gelo caught the jury’s eye with Balagcast, which transforms Filipino trash talk, which has gained notoriety in global gaming communities, into poetic balagtasan. This solution taps Filipino poets, spoken word artists, and battle rappers as esports shoutcasters in an effort to redirect the spotlight away from the negative rep of Filipino gamers and back toward Filipino talent and creativity.
“Tackling the brief, I wanted to really delve into what I’m passionate about, which are tula and gaming — an unlikely pair,” he said. “This win really is a testament na when you advocate for your passions and when you’re having fun with the brief, you get to create some of the best ideas you could have.”
For Vince, his VoiceMyNPC.ph entry addresses the problem of Filipino voice talents being overlooked. This idea proposes a digital marketplace that acts as a talent pool for Filipino VO actors. Through this platform, users can generate non-playable characters in this stage of voice talents and choose what they sound like among a variety of VO actors.
“In making video-form ads that include narration, we always outsource voice actors but not all of them get cast. So, I wanted to make another avenue for voice actors to showcase their talents combining it with my love for gaming,” Vince said. “[I look forward to] meeting ad industry giants during this program. I want to be able to have the chance to ask how they create ideas because I’ve always been interested in how they go about cracking briefs here and there and how they make it look so easy.”
The awarding of the winners and finalists marks the end of this year’s adobo LIA Young Creative Competition 2023, which is brought to you by an 11-year partnership between adobo Magazine and LIA that invites Philippine creatives to present their innovative solutions and prove their creative chops every year.
Check out the complete list of this year’s winners and finalists here:
Gold Winners
OUTSOURCED by Franc Kevin Mangahas of Elesi Studios
Redo-signs by Ice Reyes of Blackpencil Advertising
Silver Winners
VoiceMyNPC.ph by Vince Divinagracia of MullenLowe TREYNA
Balagcast by Gelo Marasigan of Cheil Philippines
Finalists
Animated Pilipinas by Arlou Mundray Yuzon of NuWorks Interactive Labs, Inc.
Drunken Word by Alaine Marie Serrano of Ogilvy Philippines
BUDOTS REMIX by Rome Orenciana of TBWA\SMP
ARKITEXTILE by Gio Gamban of Ogilvy Philippines
