BORACAY — Apart from serving as the Kidlat Awards 2015 jury president this year, Lowe Philippines’ President and Chief Creative Officer Leigh Reyes just entered the Creative Guild Hall of Fame.
Getting into advertising wasn’t really Leigh’s original plan. She recalled just having been invited to try it out while she was still waiting for a response from The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). Several years and awards after, Leigh has gone a long way since trying advertising out but NEDA still hasn’t called, “Thank you, NEDA for not responding to my application,” she joked.
Leigh won the country’s first gold Clio, and has been awarded and recognized at Cannes, D&AD, One Show, Spikes, AdFest, LIA, NYF, AME, Tambuli, DMA, and much more. She has also served as a member of the jury of Cannes Lions, LIA, AdFest and Spikes.
She is also a founding member of MobileMonday Manila, an open community platform that brings together mobile visionaries, developers and enthusiasts.
In a heartwarming speech, Leigh shared a cheat sheet on how to be a Hall of Famer and stay human at the same time:
Let others shine. Pasikatin n’yo ang iba. (Make others famous.) Be generous with your ideas, thoughts, and time, no matter what age you are or what title you have. When you make others shine, that light shines on all of us.
Flearn. Flearn is a term I picked up from my startup friends. It means to learn by failing. For every gold out there, there are a thousand that didn’t make it to the shortlist. That’s all flearning. Every gold stands on the ashes of non-shortlists.
Get angry. If people tell you your work isn’t good enough, prove them wrong.
Never let a good idea die. Good ideas will live regardless of your agency, your career path, or even your clients. If you know they’re good ideas, hold on to them. Keep them burning and keep them alive.
The last one doesn’t fit in a tweet.
Advertising can eat us alive. It takes up a lot of our waking — and sleeping — hours. And when we move on to our next life, none of us is going to regret not having worked overtime just one more hour. To paraphrase Mumford & Sons: Where you invest your time is where you invest your life.
I try to come up with great work everyday because every day I work hard is a day I spend away from the people I love. I want to make every minute I spend away from them worth it. When they ask me, why didn’t you make it to dinner, why did you cancel our lunch again, I can’t tell them, I’m sorry, I was doing crap.
For the sake of those we love, for those we want to spend our days with, for those who wait for us to come home, please be doing something awesome amazing award-winning fabulous and world-changing. Don’t be doing crap. Sayang. (What a waste.) Because we could be with the people we love instead, and the world would be a much better place.
To my mom, my sister, and my son Lucien, this one is for you. Pasalubong ko ito sa inyo. Maraming salamat po. (This is my coming-home gift. Thank you very much.)
Before moving to Lowe Philippines, Leigh was the Executive Creative Director of Y&R Philippines for 6 years and of Basic Advertising for 2 years. She was also FCB/CIS Jakarta’s Head of Creative.
