Advertising: More Fun in the Philippines

By Tony Harris

At the heart of the recent increase in tourism numbers to the Philippines lies the advertising campaign that became a social media phenomenon—“It’s more fun in the Philippines.” The campaign by BBDO Guerrero, the Philippines’ most awarded advertising agency, has garnered awards and acclaim all over the world and is seen as a benchmark for international tourism communications.

After over two decades working at some of London’s most successful advertising agencies, Tony Harris packed up his collections of bass guitars, vinyl 45s and Dr. Martens and joined BBDO Guerrero as Chief Executive. This is the story of what happened next

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9789712730399

Book preview

ADVERTISING.

         MORE FUN IN THE

PHILIPPINES

TONY HARRIS

Advertising

More fun in the Philippines

By Tony Harris

Copyright to this digital edition © 2014 by

Tony Harris and Anvil Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in

any form or by any means without the written permission of the

copyright owners.

Published and exclusively distributed by

ANVIL PUBLISHING, INC.

7th Floor Quad Alpha Centrum Building

125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City

1550 Philippines

Trunk Lines: ([phone], 477-4755 to 57

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www.anvilpublishing.com

Paperbook edition book design by Designworks with Dale Lopez

and Joshene Bersales

ISBN 9789712730399 (e-book)

Version 1.0.1

To BBDO Guerrero, RKCR/Y&R and all who have sailed in them.

And to my father … because it can be done.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The idea to write this book really comes from David, of course, as so many good ideas do. He seemed to enjoy regaling anyone with the incredible odyssey of my first few months here, culminating in walking into the Presidential Palace on the day before I flew back to England for Christmas.

I have to thank my colleagues in the management team, together with the rest of the staff at BBDO Guerrero, and my colleagues in the wider BBDO network, for helping me settle in so quickly, and for letting me tell the story—over and over and over again.

I really need to thank all my clients on both sides of the world who have had to put up with my endless anecdotes, opinions and bizarre quotes with limitless patience and have allowed me to develop a career where, after more than two decades of practice, I think I finally have some idea that I know what I’m doing.

Special mention must go to the Department of Tourism for allowing us to develop such an incredible campaign—one that was nothing like anything I have ever experienced. And to the unstinting support of the advertising community in Manila, who really kick-started the campaign’s success.

Obviously, my old friends back in London at RKCR/Y&R, particularly Ben Kay, Alison Hoad, Russell Hopson, Dave Gladwell, Vicky Jacobs, Matt Steward and Rupert Williams—not forgetting the originals: MT Rainey, Jim Kelly, Robert Campbell and of course, Mark Roalfe.

In thinking of London, I also want to say how much it has meant to have visitors to this side of the world so thank you to Jorian Murray and Stuart Archibald, a noble pair of old soldiers. And also to Pauls Domenet, Burke and Howarth as well as Steve Wreyford, Ted Heath, Phil Cockrell and the lovely Kerry Glazer—all of whom have not let a little thing like living eight time-zones away get in the way of our regular banter.

My family and friends (including the now emigrated Jimmy The Ticket, Netty, Davey P, The Baron & Dekka) have been incredibly supportive of a decision which I think still confuses them a little. Also thanks for the unquestioning support (at least in my presence) of my mother, Ann, and sister, Tina, together with their husbands, Alex and Steve, who made the move a lot less exacting.

Rizza Garcia and her Designworks team at BBDO, together with Dale Lopez, have helped create such a fine-looking book. To the good people of Anvil Publishing, Karina Bolasco, Gwenn Galvez, Joyce Bersales and their team, thanks for letting me tell it the way I wanted.

And finally, I go back to the beginning—thank you, David, without whom none of this etc. etc.

INTRODUCTION

August 16, 2013.

It had been quite a while since I had had such a momentous day at work and, as luck would inevitably have it, I wasn’t actually in the office to be part of the celebrations.

We had just been appointed, after a fiercely contested pitch, to work with BDO, the biggest bank in the Philippines. It was probably the most high-profile piece of business being awarded in 2013 and would certainly make a big difference to the agency. It was also a significant indicator and endorsement of the creative vitality and strategic ability that BBDO Guerrero had demonstrated over the previous two years and would surely enhance our reputation further.

I took the call from Francine Kahn-Gonzalez, now our managing director, while I was in a taxi in Singapore heading for the airport. I, in return, had news that was going to turn this into a double celebration. I had been taking part in a well-known strategic competition called The Appies which necessitated presenting one’s case for effectiveness to a panel comprised of the great and good of marketing from around the Asia-Pacific region and then taking questions from the floor.

It was actually going to be quite a grueling process but, seeing as I had been presenting the story of the It’s More Fun In The Philippines campaign for the past 18 months, everyone felt that I would probably be the best candidate to take the floor and represent the agency.

I finished my presentation and took the questions which seemed to be less an in-depth investigation and more full of praise for the campaign and its subsequent success. Everybody seemed to want to talk to me about our campaign and, despite this, I still felt enormously proud that it was awarded gold—the first time we had won anything in this particular regional award show.

Flushed with success, I flew back to Manila and landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) where I was rather disappointingly met by a very long snaking line of visitors waiting to go through passport control. It had been some time since I had been forced to stand in one of these, as considerably more passport desks had been open on most of my recent returns.

Wanting to get back home after a rather tiring stint away, I let out a rather loud (perhaps even theatrical) sigh of exasperation. The gentleman ahead of me, also not a Filipino national, turned round to me and smilingly said, Don’t worry, my friend. Apparently, they say it’s more fun here in the Philippines.

Rather sheepishly, I replied, Apparently, they do.

It really dawned on me, at that moment, the extent of what this campaign had actually managed to do. The huge snaking line in the terminal came from the increased number of arrivals. My companion in the queue recited our line as if it were a mantra: one that anticipated that a good time was going to be had, regardless.

I really had been part of something very special for the nation and I thought then it might be interesting to tell its story. After all, it had such a profound effect on the country, the agency and, it has to be said, myself. I looked back on the period we had first produced the idea with enormous fondness as it coincided with the beginning of my love affair with life here in the Philippines.

So perhaps this is really a story about the charm of the Philippines.

However, my role, as narrator, is more to bring a different outside view, and a little more colorful reportage, of what went into producing such a famous campaign. The real heroes are my creative partner, David Guerrero, and our esteemed client, Secretary Mon Jimenez, as well as everyone who worked and indeed, continues to work, at BBDO Guerrero.

Perhaps that means it is then a story about advertising.

The campaign has brought us plaudits, awards, profile and, as our latest win would testify, new business opportunities. But really, as the Secretary has always said, this is the people’s campaign. Now everyone can answer the question, Why go to the Philippines? But they probably might like to know how it all started.

So really it’s more of a story about the campaign, itself, I suppose.

And as for me, I was a tourist at the time. What could I possibly know?

Perhaps you could consider me the test-bed of everything that was going on—although I think that would over-state my part in the subsequent success.

I have never lived abroad before I came here. I am hugely fortunate that this was my first choice and this should hopefully tell you how I came to be utterly charmed by life here.

So maybe this is actually a tale about expat life.

Maybe, it would be better if you decide what it is really all about.

Personally, I think the best description of this story would be one that the Oasis guitarist, Noel Gallagher, once used of his brother and bandmate, Liam—a fork in a world of soup.

So let the fun begin.

CHAPTER 1

THE FUN STARTS HERE

I still find it strange that, in a country with so much beauty, vibrancy and camaraderie, and people with such genuine warmth and charm, it causes such surprise when I say I live and work here.

It’s greeted almost every time with a bemused why?

One would imagine that I had said that I was starting a new life in Helmand Province in war-torn Afghanistan or the snow-swept suburbs of Siberian Irkutsk or even Sunderland. But to the average Filipino, it often seems incomprehensible that I would choose to live in the Philippines rather than in some of their seemingly more glamorous neighbors.

Sure, Singapore has an enviable traffic system and Bangkok has a truly unique cultural flavor but Manila, for all its Jollibees (every 5 meters) and EDSA snarl-ups (every 5 meters), is a great place to work and live.

Of course I would say that—because that’s what I chose to do.

The following comment is inevitably more surprising because, after I have explained my job and my love of living in the country and spending time with the people, the response is always, Thanks. I certainly have never felt that I am doing the Philippines a favor in coming here—quite the opposite in fact.

The smiling welcome and genuine interest I have experienced since the day I arrived should surely reverse the situation and put me in debt to the nation instead.

I was originally going to subtitle this book as A Stranger In a Strange Land but in truth, I have been made to feel anything but a stranger so it seemed hugely inaccurate. However, I am not going to argue with the fact that this is a strange land, a very strange land—one in which every day is a school day.

The adventure (for adventure it is) begins at the tail end of 2010 in London at my previous agency—Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Young and Rubicam (RKCR/Y&R). As you can imagine, we used to get through quite a few exhausted switchboard operators who had to deliver that mouthful all day everyday. I always think it’s quite funny that agencies who would always preach brand brevity and succinct single-mindedness to their clients are often the worse culprits.

The office was based in Camden Town, an area slightly removed from the more familiar West End. Indeed, it was the most northerly of the main London agencies, so we used to joke that it was the last chance to fill up with ads before one hits the M1—the main motorway out of the city. The building was something of a landmark for the area—Greater London House, also known to every cab driver as the Black Cat Building. There were two large black cat statues outside as a symbol of its former role housing the Black Cat Cigarette company. It was an incredible Art Deco, Egyptian-looking building built to mimic the stylings of the recently discovered Tutankhamun exhibits.

In fact, the building had something of a notorious history. It had been built after the First World War, when a property speculator bought the gardens of the beautiful Georgian Mornington Crescent. He proceeded to build the largest office building in Europe at the time (Greater London House), thus blocking out any natural light to the now less beautiful Georgian crescent behind. Such were the complaints from the occupiers that it was decided never again to allow a building to be built without planning permission for what the actual structure would eventually become. A riot of local government red tape and bureaucracy for every loft conversion or garden shed thus began because of this very building.

Furthermore, as it was such a formidable size at the time, it was also allegedly where the Germans planned to put their General Staff, had they successfully invaded Britain in the Second World War. Strangely, this is not a fact that is often publicized to prospective tenants.

We were on the third and fourth floors.

RKCR/Y&R (as we shall now refer to it, in deference to the overwhelmed telephone staff) had an exceptionally good reputation in London, looking after many prestigious clients such as Virgin Atlantic, Marks & Spencer and Land Rover, as well as many high-profile government campaigns. It was also the leading UK creative agency in 2010 and had just been singled out in Ad Age for its performance on the international stage. When it was judged one of the five agencies in the world that had stood out that year, they wrote, The agency demonstrated a propensity to leave the confines of advertising as we know it.

In an industry where innovation has truly become a must-have and the larger network agencies are felt to be falling behind, this was high praise indeed. It was also the kind of reputation one wanted to be publicly attached to one’s output.

I was fortunate enough to be employed there as deputy chairman, having joined them 12 years previously as an associate director. The majority of my time was devoted to looking after key client relationships—ensuring that the output of the agency (strategic and creative work) and the input of the client (their fees) were all working out to everyone’s mutual liking.

I had previously held the role of chief operating officer, which seemed to involve a lot of time either ensuring that we had enough toilet paper or ballpoint pens or dealing with the everyday antics of an advertising agency. To be fair, these had included an anthrax scare in the post room which turned into a fully-blown police investigation, but was in fact an envelope of talcum powder sent through internal mail by one of the copywriters to his friend, an account manager, as part of a long-running practical joke. So, on reflection, it was not really that everyday.

I loved dealing with clients—I still do. It’s what makes the advertising world so varied. We are constantly dealing with vastly different businesses or issues so there’s very little overlap or feeling of sameness about what we do. Genuinely, no two days are the same. My special areas of expertise were our big international network clients—by which I mean those handled across many different offices and territories of the Young & Rubicam network. These included Accenture and Xerox, and some of the aforementioned government campaigns which covered issues as varied as fire safety (which had just won a gold at Cannes Lions), the Home Office’s crime reduction campaign (which had given me my first real experience of a co-creation campaign, working with disenfranchised teens to create a campaign against the carrying of knives by teenagers) and another award-winning campaign for Visit London (the tourism authority for the UK’s capital city). The last would come in very useful later on, as you can imagine.

Advertising networks talk a good game about exporting talent and spreading best practice around the globe but in truth, they are really better described as some fairly small businesses linked together by the transcontinental contractual arrangements of their significant clients. Therefore, the associated costs of moving and transporting people can sadly be very cost-prohibitive and hugely time-consuming unless there is a financial upside. You have families, schooling, accommodation, climate, language, and tax implications to consider. These are left to HR departments who normally spend their time sorting out complaints about desk placements and the tearful aftermath of the annual Christmas party (and believe me, that is a subject that could run all year).

I hate to say it but Young & Rubicam was probably one of the worst at non-transference at the time. I had asked regularly, from about six years into my career at RKCR/Y&R, whether there might be any opportunity to try working abroad in another Young & Rubicam office.

London is a city whose advertising appetite is a weekly feeding frenzy of pitches, career moves and most prominent of all, start-ups. The start-up is often held up as the pinnacle of achievement. The means by which a successful fledgling agency can take on the might of the big advertising networks, win significant business from them, then be bought by one of the aforementioned big agency networks, thereby turning themselves into multimillionaires. Rainey Kelly Campbell and Roalfe had done just that when they had been bought in 1998 by Young & Rubicam. Indeed, the succeeding management went off and did exactly the same, launching the incredibly successful Adam&Eve, who sold themselves to DDB. So within the DNA in which I was operating, there was a particularly strong entrepreneurial start-up culture. This is a spirit I have never wanted to lose. It keeps you hungry and keeps you permanently alert for the right opportunities. It is the key to all agencies’ success or failure—especially when you consider that they are not massive businesses.

On the other hand, I also firmly believed that this spirit could be accommodated within the network structure. I wanted to operate within that and gain experience as a multi-territory operator. I was single, had no dependents and no commitments that could prevent a move. But I didn’t move.

No offers were forthcoming and no opportunities were presented. I loved RKCR and its unique culture (I really did) but I wanted to take some of what existed there in probably their most successful office and inculcate it elsewhere where the local Y&R reputation was perhaps not so strong. Apparently, my love of the agency was believed to be so strong that no one wanted me to leave and that really, in everyone’s mind, I never would.

Advertising is an industry that I have never regretted joining. I have already spoken about its variety but the people you meet and the experiences you have are difficult to replicate. If, like me, you are something of a magpie, picking up bits of information or trivia or using your experiences to help craft new solutions further down the line, it’s an incredible way to spend your working day. Boredom is never on the cards. The flip side