MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Havas Media Ortega together with the City of Valenzuela has been recognized for another accolade with Project SAVE at the recently concluded Adfest 2020. Adfest, or the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival, is the most celebrated regional creative festival that highlights the region’s best creative works and inspiring content from experts in various disciplines.
PROJECT S A V E Case Study x Havas Creative
Project SAVE, which had its pilot run in the flood-prone city of Valenzuela in 2019, has already won a total of 18 awards in the industry such as being a finalist at the 2019 Cannes Festival for the Outdoor-Innovation Category and a Bronze Award at the 2019 Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity in the Media Category in the Ambient Media: Large Scale. This year, it has garnered an additional international recognition at the Adfest 2020, winning the INNOVA Lotus Award for Innovation for Local Culture Innovation and a Silver Media Lotus Award for Use of Ambient.
With the perennial flooding problem faced in different areas of the country, lives have been lost needlessly. One of the challenges that rescue volunteers face is the lack of equipment to move flood victims to safety.
In a bold, creative move, Havas Media Ortega harnessed something that has become ubiquitous in big cities and even on provincial highways: billboards. This innovative idea, titled Project SAVE, stands for Signage & Adspace Versatile for Emergencies. Its practical engineering turns billboards, banners, and waiting sheds into detachable disaster-ready boats, life rafts, spineboards, and other disaster response tools.
Anchored on the accessibility and easy visibility of outdoor ads, these lifesaving devices are ready and on hand for the public to use. What’s more is that with the knowledge that environmental waste is one of the key causes of flooding, the materials used in the Project SAVE emergency equipment are sourced from outdoor ad materials from past campaigns, which have been converted into first response equipment instead of being thrown away.
Griffey de Guzman, Havas Media Ortega Creative Director, says, that these awards further inspires the team to come up with ideas that will make an impact on Filipino lives. “The recognition from global leaders in the creative field further drives us to create more meaningful change in how we can harness the power of advertising.”
The project has made an impact on Valenzuela’s flood safety protocols, says the project’s client Mayor Rex Gatchalian. “We are grateful that our long experience with floods has taught us that more access to stretchers, emergency tents, and life rafts preserves lives. We’re thankfull that this need was able to be executed creatively and was able to gain recognition. We do hope that this can set a new benchmark for the community to respond to crisis swiftly –anytime and anywhere.”
To find out more about Project SAVE, you may watch the video here. To know more about Havas Ortega Group’s latest projects, follow http://www.facebook.com/HavasOrtegaGroup or @havasmediaortega on IG.
