MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Astbury in Poblacion, Makati, buzzed with creativity and confidence last March 6, 2025 as young creatives gathered at adobo Magazine‘s hub to award the winners of the adobo LIA Young Creative Competition 2025. In partnership with the London International Awards and the Creative Economy Council of the Philippines (CECP), this year’s competition attracted 57 entries from 22 agencies, bringing together a total of 114 individual creatives.
The young creatives who are taking their creative confidence to Las Vegas are Ace Saatchi & Saatchi‘s Giannina Randi Tiempo and Yanz Sven Paddie Madelo. With their Gold-winning entry, Píss de Résistance, Giannina and Yanz drew inspiration from Filipino’s innate defiant attitude. According to TeamHoWan, Giannina and Yanz, they thought of channeling this defiance into “something else.”
“What if our pagiging ‘pasaway’ informed our creativity?” Giannina challenged. “When we’re told that our ideas ‘don’t belong,'” their response is simple — “Piss them off.”
This year’s adobo LIA Young Creative Competition took a bold turn from previous editions. Young creatives were tasked with creating a mounted A3 poster as their final output. While most entries were printed on paper, Yanz and Giannina, true to their rebellious spirit, took a different approach. They ditched the conventional approach, using paint, putty, and coffee grounds to create their piece. Layer by layer, they plastered their work onto a blank canvas, shaping it to resemble raw cement. Then, they painted, marked, and, in true defiant fashion, “pissed” on it.
According to Yanz, it’s a “bold, stinking middle finger” to the limits that were set against them by others, and also by themselves. “This is our brand of creativity. Hindi nagpapaamo. Walang pasintabi.“
On the night of the ceremony, Yanz and Giannina were left speechless when adobo LIA Young Creative Competition 2025 Jury President Maan Bautista and jury member and host Raffy Raralio announced that they had won the Gold. TeamHoWan is flying to Las Vegas to take part in the London International Awards’ prestigious Creative LIAisons Program.
“It’s totally unexpected,” Giannina told adobo Magazine exclusively. “We weren’t really confident in ourselves. But at the same time, [we thought] ‘Let’s try. Let’s shoot our shot.'”
Meanwhile, the Silver prize went to Team RIP from Prodigious (Leo Burnett Manila) for their powerful piece, Rest In Piece. Their work serves as a poignant tribute to the creative and artistic dreams many Filipinos have sacrificed in favor of more practical, high-paying careers in science and technology — an ominous reminder that when Filipino creatives suppress their creative confidence, their passion for the arts withers and dies.
Prodigious’s art directors, Jury Salaya and Dene Fathil of Team RIP also earned an exclusive virtual mentorship through the Creative LIAisons program from the London International Awards.
In the 13th year of adobo Magazine and the London International Awards, two new prizes were introduced: the Bronze winners and the Client’s Choice Award. Ogilvy Manila’s Team Collaine Goes to Vegas (Denise Colleen Cabili & Allaine Marie Serrano) won the Bronze for It Starts With One, while DDB Philippines’ Team LIA Salonga (Marc Elwin Flores & Inna Kristabella Fortu) won the Client’s Choice Award for Barrel of Shame. The latter was selected by Creative Economy Council of the Philippines President Paolo Mercado, who also served as a jury member for this year’s competition.
The adobo LIA Young Creative Competition 2025 Shortlist (in no particular order)
- Team Mango Graham Supremacy: FIND YOUR RHYTHM. RESIST THE ALGORITHM from Dentsu Creative Manila
- Team LIA Salonga: Barrel of Shame from DDB Group Philippines
- Team CATDOG: FLIP-INO CREATIVITY from NJYN
- TeamHoWan: Píss de Résistance from Ace Saatchi & Saatchi
- Team GRABI: Hidden Talents from IdeasXMachina
- Team Dapitan-Noval: A MESSAGE TO THE CREATIVE INDUSTRY from Beginnings Communications, Inc.
- Team Bananaverse: GUTS from Publicis JimenezBasic
- Team HAHAHA: Hindi Itinatago ang Alab ng Puso from Ogilvy Philippines
- Team BEKIRY: All Rise from MullenLowe Treyna
- Team Collaine Goes to Vegas: It Starts With One from Ogilvy Philippines
- Team RIP: Rest In Piece from Prodigious (Leo Burnett Manila)
The awards night was the culmination of the adobo LIA Young Creative Competition 2025. It is made possible because of adobo Magazine’s long-standing partnership with the London International Awards under the Creative LIAisons program, which provides opportunities to Filipino advertising creatives to present their creativity and network with industry giants every year.
The adobo LIA Young Creative Competition 2025 is made possible because of our partners:
- Major Partner Indie.Go Media
- Special Partners: Yellow Brick Road Productions, Jollibee
- Venue Partner: The Astbury
- Food & Beverage Partners: PICKUP COFFEE, Jade’s Temple Brewery, Chowking PH, GSM Premium Gin
- Swag Partners: OldTown White Coffee Philippines, Prestige Paper Products
