MANILA – Highlighting the critical role that strategic thinking plays in building creative and effective client campaigns at Ogilvy and Mather Philippines, the Company recently confirmed the appointment of Agency Strategists Toni P. Tiu and Shen Acosta to the co-leadership positions of Head of Brand Strategy and Head of Customer Engagement Strategy respectively.
This appointment is in line with O&M Philippines’ double digit growth as an integrated agency over the past few years, underscoring commitment and continued investment in strengthening its understanding of the market and consumer insights.
“The strength of Ogilvy is in the fragmentation of our specialization. We are no longer just an advertising agency. We are an agency that’s able to deliver on all channels where we can engage with consumers. By strengthening our Strategy team to support our specialist teams across the breadth of our offerings in advertising, digital, CRM, PR, social and shopper marketing, we are ensuring that our ideas are executable across all these channels that will in turn deliver on the objectives of our clients’ businesses,” says Elly Puyat.
“For example, Nestle Philippines and Ogilvy One received Platinum honors at the recent 2016 Asian Marketing Effectiveness and Strategy (AMES) Awards a few weeks ago for their MILO Champions Band and App in the category of Data and Analytics: Personalization. The level of thinking within our Strategy Team has been enabling excellent work like this for our clients across all our businesses, and the partnership and collaboration between brand and engagement should only get better,” she adds.
“Working together, Shen and I will be able to focus on our core competence while leveraging each other’s expertise to form business and communication opportunities for our brands and create powerful solutions to serve our customers better and make them more valuable,” says Toni Tiu, who together with Shen Acosta will lead 15 Engagement & Brand Strategists across the Ogilvy Group’s different disciplines.
Toni Tiu, Head of Brand Strategy
“Ogilvy’s objectives have always been the Twin Peaks of creativity and effectiveness, or simply, creating ‘work that works’. Effectiveness starts with the creative brief, the strategy. That means beginning with a clear understanding of the client’s business problem, grounding it in actionable insights, and translating these into effective strategies that move/change consumer behavior,” explains Toni Tiu who, over the last three years with the Agency, has led communication strategy development in food & beverage, cooking essentials, confectionery, beauty and personal care.
She joined the Ogilvy & Mather Philippines Strategy team in 2013 with over a decades’ experience in brand strategy. In 2014, she took on the concurrent role of Training Director for the Agency to lead the development, implementation and evaluation of training programs to build core technical and management skills and strengthen Company culture.
Prior to joining Ogilvy, Toni led consumer insighting as Communication Planning Director for Zenith Optimedia; led strategic work for alcohol, multi-vitamin, FMCG and food brands for JWT; led field and strategic work for laundry detergents, QSR, telecommunications and feeds for Ace Saatchi & Saatchi; and developed social media strategy as Social Media and Reputation Management Manager for Balsam Brands.
Shen Acosta, Head of Customer Engagement Strategy
After 4 years of experience in client servicing, leading some of OgilvyOne Manila’s biggest accounts, Shen shifted to a new role in 2014 as the Ogilvy & Mather Philippines Group’s Consumer Insights Director to focus on profiling consumers and driving deeper insights on their behavior, attitude, motivations, and consumption. She now also heads the Agency’s Engagement Strategy, working with a team of strategists to develop customer engagement solutions on Digital, CRM, Social CRM, eCommerce, Mobile, Shopper, etc. for the agency’s biggest clients –Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Mondelez, and Rockwell.
“Strategy ‘sculpts the fog’: it gives clarity to ambiguity through structured thinking, from defining the problem, to diagnosing behavior, to designing how communication can influence and change behavior, to delivery (how do we keep the team grounded in reality throughout the creative development),” she explains.
Shen began her advertising career in 2007 in accounts servicing, delivery communications and digital solutions for top telecommunications brands (Smart Communications and Globe Telecom) and financial services brands (Citibank Philippines and AIG).
