MANILA – DDB Group Philippines is emerging as one of the most recognized marketing communications agencies in the country today not only in the creative realm but in harnessing human resources as well.
True to its mantra – People, Product, and Profit – the group is showing the way in managing the resource it values most: its army of creative specialists, digital experts, media savants and public relations professionals.
Recently, DDB Group Philippines was accorded by Campaign Southeast Asia the Agency of the Year Award for Talent Management Team – a first for the Philippines in this category.
“Winning the AOY award in talent management is a rare feat and the recognition adds to the Philippines’ growing number of accolades in the field of advertising and marketing communications, and now talent management,” said DDB Group Philippines chairman Gil G. Chua.
“The award has great significance to us since it affirms our company’s core belief of putting people ahead of product and profit at a time when our bottomlines are just starting to look good after years of struggling to stay out of the red,” he added.
Chua heads what is regarded as the Philippines’ most effective and creative business solutions agencies, providing opportunities for partnership with 247 talents and 1700 employees – a number that is still growing.
Last December 8, the DDB Group ran away with eight major awards in the J&J Ripple Awards – bagging the Creative Agency of the Year and Grand Ripple Award for its Carefree campaign.
In another first for the Philippines, the DDB Group won a Grand Prix at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2013 along with four other awards. During the same year, the group won a gold at the AME Awards in New York for the “Pacquiao Positive” ad it created for PepsiCo’s Sting Energy Power Drink.
To further ensure that DDB personnel are best equipped, Chua initiated this year the Bernbach School which is a four-day seminar that enables its managers to participate in a training workshop rolled out by notable facilitators and resource persons from all over the world.
Chua takes pride in the training named after one of DDB’s founders, saying: “We owe it not only to ourselves, our clients, and our dreams, but to our team that grows alongside with us. Because what greater honor is there than to help others live well and inspire them to realise and achieve their potential?”
Having been with the group the last three decades, Chua is a great believer in DDB founder Bill Bernbach who said the future belongs only to the brave. Under Chua’s leadership, DDB’s business in the Philippines grew exponentially with bold and strategic expansions from advertising to new services in related disciplines, ultimately creating the nation’s very first integrated business solutions provider.
Today, DDB Group Philippines is the largest integrated marketing communications and services network in the country. It is made up of three agency networks, two specialist agencies and five strategic business units which offer their expertise under five disciplines (Media, OOH, Activation, Manpower and Printing).
Carrying the banner for the group are DDB Philippines and DDB Manila in mainstream advertising, Tribal DDB in digital solutions, Ripple 8 in integrated public relations and Touch BPN in media services.
DDB Group operates out of its offices in five cities and is represented in seven other locations nationwide, giving it a comprehensive presence across the country. It has more than 1,700 part-time employees and 247 regular employees, with reach among 10 million students.
DDB Group Philippines achieved an average annual growth rate of 25 percent in total group consolidated revenues in close to a decade.
Chua said the one thing he loves about his organization is that it helps people experience the gift of work. “We help talented Filipinos live meaningful lives, part of which involves having a job – a place to go to each day where they get to contribute, feel a sense of purpose and provide value to the community around them and to the nation,” he added.
His constant wish for members of the growing DDB family is “to embrace the gift of work, to grow the business, and to provide more job opportunities to our fellow Filipinos.”
Asked about the success of the company’s talent management program, Chua – citing business guru Peter Drucker – only had this to say: “In the DDB Group Philippines’ scheme of things, culture eats strategy.”
