THE PHILIPPINES, DECEMBER 19, 2011: BBDO Guerrero / Proximity Philippines has scooped the agency of record assignment for the Philippines Department of Tourism in a hard fought, eight-way battle for the prestigious account.
The brief covers all major media, both in the Philippines and overseas with a special emphasis on digital communications, BBDO will develop its concept further with the first iterations of the new campaign expected to emerge in the first half of 2012.
The Omnicom shop beat Aspac, DDB, Dentsu, J. Romero, JWT, Lowe and Y&R for the PHP 5.6-M account, the first review conducted under new Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, a former adman who personally headed the review soon after his appointment in September.
The initial bidding process started during the term of former secretary Alberto Lim was scrapped as only BBDO Guerrero qualified. The terms of reference were later revised under Jimenez.
“Because of the requirements of the bid process, I had to brief my agencies through a series of public speeches and interviews,” said Jimenez, who spoke of the country’s secret tourism weapon at the recently-concluded AdCon. “In these I talked about the warmth and vitality of our people as being what makes our country special. In their campaign, BBDO Guerrero was able to encapsulate the complex problem into a motivating campaign.
“They were the last of the eight agencies presenting. And they were the exclamation point at the end of a long sentence.”
David Guerrero, chairman and chief creative officer of the agency, added: “Our competition is global. And our responsibility is very local. There could be no better cause or more exciting prospect than communicating one of the world’s most enjoyable travel experiences.”
