TAGUIG CITY – Dale Lopez is coming home. A year and a half after taking his talents to become Executive Creative Director at BBDO Indonesia, Lopez is now the Creative Strategist for Facebook Philippines. In an exclusive interview with adobo, Lopez and Facebook Philippines Country Director John Rubio spoke about the move from the new Facebook Philippines office in Taguig.
“Our hiring process is regional, so yes, we did hire him because he has great qualifications for the role we’re looking for,” Rubio states. “We’re looking for someone to inspire. Basically, we’re not getting in the creative game. What we want to do is inspire creativity for agencies, for clients, thinking very specifically for digital.”
Asked why he decided to join the social media giant instead of going to another agency, Lopez shares, “Well you know when I moved to Indonesia, I was looking for something new. And then David (Guerrero of BBDO Guerrero) offered me Indonesia, it was something new. But I was still looking for something different and I’ve been in an agency for almost 14 years.”
In his new role as Creative Strategist, former BBDO Guerrero ECD Lopez will be heavily involved with digital. “I love it!” Lopez says of the move. “Everything’s new. Our office is new. It’s totally different. An eye-opening experience. The amount of information, the amount of stuff I need to learn is just enormous. I feel grateful for it.”
“I think we’re not replacing anything,” Rubio explains regarding the role of Lopez and of Facebook in the country. “I think it’s to help inspire people to build new skills and muscles so that agencies perform really important roles and we have very specific viewpoints on what we know works on the platform and what we’d like to inspire agencies to build on these things.”
“We’re here to work with agencies, Rubio adds. “We’re here to inspire clients so that when they work with agencies, they know what to ask for and all these things, very specifically for digital. It’s building specifically on the digital.”
“My role is basically to bridge that gap between platform and agency and clients,” Lopez says of his Creative Strategist title. “Basically to help out agencies. Give them solutions in our platform.”
In addition, Rubio explains why it was important for Facebook to hire a Filipino for the post when he says, “I think what’s good with having someone local is that you get that local flavor, you get that very specificity of the Filipino environment, how we think, and all of that. I think there’s a creative lens that we can bring to that to say that ‘we know what works in digital.’ We work with that Filipino creative lens. Someone that knows the market here. And then putting that together to inspire agencies.”
Rubio also notes that Facebook is very focused on the region, with offices rising in Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
“We’re here to help businesses grow and help build safe, informed communities,” the former CEO of Mynt and Head of Globe BanKO emphasizes.
In photo are new Facebook Philippines Creative Strategist Dale Lopez and Facebook Philippines Country Manager John Rubio.
