MANILA — Venus Navalta, who quietly returned to the IPG family last year, appears to be a key reason behind six-year-old Touch Philippines’ relaunch as Touch BPN.
“Venus Navalta is well respected by our clients and in the industry. The partnership felt right,” said DDB Group Philippines president and CEO Gil Chua of the former Universal McCann veteran who then came out of retirement to run ZenithOptimedia for three years until her departure in early 2014.
Navalta currently serves as technical advisor to IPG Mediabrands, a position that will be formalized shortly.
“BPN is a very young agency with fresh and modern tools, created specifically for this new connected and convergent world. We are also impressed by the number of global awards won by BPN, besting more established media agencies in Cannes and FOMA (Festival of Media Asia).”
The BPN partnership has set the former DDB affiliated shop up in alliance with IPG Media.
Chua discounted push back from DDB over the six-year-old agency’s rebranding and launch as the country’s newest media agency.
“We had open discussions with DDB and they understood and appreciate our local business initiatives,” he said, adding that the current situation with client conflicts also “did not allow for this to happen”.
“As a creative agency group, we have been doing extremely well. DM9JaymeSyfu was named the best agency in the Philippines, and we are making great strides with new people leading our creative talent at both DDB and Tribal Worldwide Philippines,” he added. “We decided, to attain the same success in media, we needed to separate the business completely and create a new entity.”
Roy Santiago, managing director of Touch Media will continue to lead Touch BPN. With more than 40 staff, the agency is currently reviewing new office premises.
