MANILA – DDB Group Philippines chairman and CEO Gil G. Chua has announced the appointment of key executives who will take the marketing communications conglomerate to new levels of transformative growth following its overall positive performance in its past 25 years.
Five group chiefs will work closely with the newly refreshed operations teams to augment the respective business leaders’ innovation and growth plans as well as their focused efforts to continually improve levels of client satisfaction and the Group’s value as total solutions partners to clients’ businesses.
“Celebrating our 25th year, we have much to be thankful for through the years, but what got us here, won’t get us there,” Chua said. “Change will continue to push the DDB Group Philippines in new ways and in ways we can’t predict. Now more than ever, we need strong leadership that can adapt and transform to our future needs no matter what changes occur.”
Craig Lonnee has been named DDB Group Philippines chief operating officer concurrent with his group chief development officer role. Through challenging months in 2017, Lonnee championed organizational behavior change, training, teaching and mentoring the Group’s people by sharing his many years of experience gathered from multiple markets in Asia.
Taking on a new role as group chief growth officer is John T. Lucas. He will be responsible for leading, driving and delivering new and organic client growth across the group, leveraging his strengths in people, brands and growing profits from his vast experience in various categories. John led the Group’s winning of the bid for the Philippine hosting of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.
In addition to being talent management and communications director, Anna Chua-Norbert has been promoted as group chief culture officer to increase long-term performance by championing culture and aligning the values of leaders, teams and clients and the business objectives to create lasting positive impact beyond profit. Norbert recently led the Group’s back-to-back win in 2016 and 2017 as Southeast Asia Agency of the Year (SEA AOY) of Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Talent Management competition and as SEA AOY for Communications Management Team in 2017.
As group chief financial officer, Judd B. Balayan will give added focus to client contract negotiations and operational efficiencies, two important financial protocols that drive sustainable growth.
Business operations teams
DDB MNL managing director Vina Henson said that 2017 was no less than exceptional for the full-service agency. A little over a year after its launch, Henson said the agency continues to deliver exemplary output and growth for its powerhouse roster of local and regional accounts which include PepsiCo, Philippine Airlines and PLDT. Under the “people first” leadership of Henson and executive creative director Patrick Miciano, 2018 is proving to be just as monumental with additional new business additions across the board, she said. In Q1 alone, DDB MNL has included Smart Communications and Okada Manila to its growing family of transformational brands.
Taking over leadership of DDB PHL is managing director Elaine S. de Padua, who has been leading the multi-awarded J&J agency team of market leader brands Modess, Carefree and Clean&Clear. Her other team has been consistently growing the businesses of big local clients Mang Inasal and Lamoiyan Corporation. They have just won a huge financial institution account in January 2018.
Effective February 1, DDB Group’s public relations agency Ripple8 has appointed Bobby Vito as managing director following the retirement of former Ripple8 MD Timmy Jayme. Ripple8 has won several awards such as top Agency of the Year in 2013 and runner-up AOY in 2017 by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Philippine Quill Awards, among others.
Focusing on future-proofing brands with innovations for good growth, DDB Group’s digital agency Tribal Worldwide is now led by managing director Diane Chua, winning new business and adding value for SM Supermalls, Casio, G-Shock, and condiments company Nutriasia, to add to Smart and PLDT Group, Cignal and J&J partners. Diane had a six-year stint in Australia, first in strategy and business management at DDB Sydney and later as a senior social media and digital marketing strategist/manager at Telstra, Australia’s leading telecommunications and technology company.
Liam Capati is group managing director for media planning and buying agency Touch XDA and for Optimax, a collaborative model which gives the agency a data-informed view of customers by gathering insights from experts across digital, social, retail and behavioral science. Capati said Touch XDA, formerly Touch BPN, will continue its aggressive growth into 2018, providing companies with experience design and delivery solutions across all forms of media. To date, Touch XDA’s client partners include Smart Communications, PLDT, Century Pacific Food Inc., Shakey’s Pizza Ventures Inc., and Splash Corporation, among others. On the other hand, co-led by Ela Federigan-Chua, Optimax will help clients build a range of platforms ranging from tweets, long-term marketing campaigns, TV spots to in-store kiosk designs.
Meantime, new start-up Agile Intelligence has contributed exciting offerings to the Group in data analytics, social intelligence and programmatic solutions with managing director Chewy Chua and managing partner Eric Pena at the helm.
New incubated set-up Bent & Buzz is headed by former advertising creative executive Lilit Reyes and Anna Chua-Norbert. Reyes co-wrote the award-winning film ‘Changing Partners.’ B&B is a content company providing branded entertainment solution through stories in the form of multimedia platforms for content, movies, TV series, online entertainment and brand videos.
