MANILA — Havas Ortega in Manila continues to grow in 2016, appointing Rudy Villar as General Manager of Havas Sports & Entertainment. HS&E is one more point of entry in the Havas Ortega village of integrated services and is globally renowned and considered best in class in brand engagement. HS&E aims to create meaningful relationships with brands and people through their passions using creativity, media, and technology. Their trademark battlecry of “Fans. Passions. Brands.” epitomizes their mission. Whether it is sponsorships, content creation, partnerships, social media, live brand experiences, bespoke or off the shelf, they pioneer engagement solutions to ensure ongoing conversations with brands’ current and future fans.
Villar is the consummate marketing veteran, with experience on all sides of the marketing cube, making him the perfect fit for HS&E. He started his advertising career in Image Dimensions and later moved on to McCann-Erickson Philippines as Account Manager for the San Miguel Beer Group. He was then promoted to Business Director of Momentum, an affiliate of McCann and a brand he pioneered as one of the first true brand engagement companies in the Philippines. Retail came calling in 2005 and he moved to SM Department Store as their AVP for Marketing where he launched more than a dozen in-house brands and handled the marketing needs of its retail affiliates at the same time. Later, he became the Senior AVP and Chief Branding Officer of SM Investments Corporation where he led a major strategic re-brand of the SM Group. In 2011, he moved to SM Development Corporation as the Senior AVP for Marketing. While there, he helped grow the international business, establishing SMDC’s presence in Europe, the Americas, and Asia through a mix of ATL media and on-ground brand engagement campaigns and roadshows. He was most recently with KidZania Manila as their Head of Sales and Minister of Tourism. He is also an active member of the industry, having been on the boards of the Ad Standards Council (ASC) and the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA).
Villar will lead Havas Sports & Entertainment in offering complete brand engagement services. “Being part of the Havas Ortega village puts us in a unique position of being able to offer everything a brand might need to fully reach their targets in a meaningful and measurable way. We have the resources and the ability to expand within the agency depending on the need and requirement,” Villar says. He envisions HS&E to not just be another run-of-the-mill activation agency. He continues, “A lot of people actually have the misconception that activation is just an event but we are in the business of offering brand engagement solutions and that can mean a lot of things, not just events.” He explains that unlike the usual activation companies, HS&E will have the strategic and creative advantage having the full arsenal of Havas Ortega under their belt. Despite being global, HS&E is nimble and can easily adapt to clients’ needs. Services range from sports and entertainment consulting, sponsorship consulting, brand strategy, ideas and creativity, social media and digital, PR, branded content, live events and stunts, ambassadors and celebrities, research and measurement, internal communications, and hospitality. And in terms of operations, the agency will utilize its own network on-ground and not outsource to another activation group.
Villar sees unlimited possibilities in the realm of brand engagement. “There are a lot of things we look forward to doing. Creating a signature content platform is one of them. This can be a conference, a concert, a roadshow, or even a digital space. We’re very excited to see what we can offer our clients soon.”
Villar will also be the Business Development Director of Havas Ortega and will drive the integrated communications solutions agenda for the group. And as necessary, explore specialist solutions for focused client problems.
Havas Ortega’s Chairman and CEO, Jos Ortega, is excited to welcome Villar to the fold. “Rudy brings with him an incomparable wealth of experience, having come from both the agency and client sides, and across a multitude of marketing and communications disciplines. He will definitely raise the bar for what brand engagement should and can be in the Philippines.” The rest of the Managing Partners, Hermie de Leon and Tony Sarmiento, are just as enthused about Villar’s coming on board.
The HS&E leadership team in Manila is completed by Rommell Garcia as Account Director and Raf Flores as Operations Director.
