MANILA, PHILIPPINES – GrabAds, Southeast Asia’s growth marketing solutions, recently held the first-ever Trailblazer Awards Philippines 2025 on Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at The Ascott, in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
The night celebrated brands and marketers whose campaigns demonstrated bold creativity, data-led strategy, and ecosystem innovation while driving business results. Awards were presented across 17 categories, recognizing work that sets the new benchmark for marketing excellence in the region.
In an exclusive interview with adobo Magazine, GrabAds & Grab for Business Head of Country Partnerships and Business Development Eiji Macasaet described the Trailblazer Awards as recognition for innovative and trend-setting work in marketing. The awards highlight those who are at the forefront of change and excellence in the industry, reinforcing GrabAds’ leadership and pioneering role in digital and media marketing.
“For us, being trailblazers, it has a lot of factors. We have considered a lot of different talents, recognitions, and factors in order to arrive at this stage. You need to be at the forefront of all marketing aspects in order to see the beauty of how you can excel as a marketer. These awards aren’t just about creativity, they’re about getting real results. They highlight the ability to use ideas and innovation effectively,” Eiji told adobo Magazine.
He added, “I believe that [GrabAds] has been in the forefront when it comes to the digital and media play. Our ecosystem allows marketers to discover innovative ways to engage with consumers, whether through our app, driver-, or merchant partners. And for sure, you’re also going to see more in terms of case studies across the event that we have showcased a lot more for you as marketers.”
Moreover, Eiji emphasized Grab’s focus on innovation and excellence as a leading super app, integrating services from retail to e-commerce, both online and offline, aiming to set high standards for brands and advertisers while ensuring they benefit from Grab’s unique ecosystem.
On creativity, insights, and the outcome of GrabAds
Grab Philippines Managing Director Ronald Roda highlighted the unique advertising market in the Philippines during his opening remarks at the inaugural awards night, emphasizing how Grab nurtures Filipino creative excellence while ensuring accountability through measurable outcomes to foster a strong, collaborative advertising community.
For Ronald, Filipinos are “very creative,” and the Grab platform enables brands and agencies to execute bold and unique ideas.
“Filipinos are generally very creative. And if you look at the Grab platform, we’ve had brands and partner agencies come to us with really crazy ideas. And I think the good thing about it is that the Grab platform, at this point, allows that creativity. You can customize it a bit to execute really bold ideas. So, I think that’s what brings the Filipino creativity out through these brand ideas,” he explained.
Likewise, Ronald emphasized that users benefited from real-time data about their campaigns, where they can immediately see if their ads are working and make quick changes. This responsiveness makes the campaign process more dynamic and satisfying for users.
Ronald also mentioned the importance of being able to measure outcomes and the return on investment for ads. This shows that the impact of advertising spend is clear and trackable, benefiting businesses who want proof of results.
“I think these three things, creativity, insights, and outcomes, really differentiate us from other markets, and I think they’re unique to the Philippines,” he said. “Your work shows what’s possible when insight meets imagination and when creativity is anchored on outcomes.”
GrabAds Trailblazer Awards 2025 Winners
The inaugural Trailblazer Awards gave a spotlight to campaigns that harness the Grab ecosystem in inventive and outcome-focused ways. From gamified engagement to loyalty innovation and flavour storytelling, each winning campaign showcased how brands can create impact through ecosystem-native marketing.
Coca Cola Philippines emerged as the night’s biggest winner, taking home the highest honor, Trailblazer Grand Prix of the Year, for its “Coca-Cola Foodmarks” campaign. This honor is reserved for the single campaign that is bold, flawlessly executed, audience-first, and delivers undeniable impact, setting the benchmark for all others.
“The ‘Foodmarks’ campaign is actually inspired by our Filipino restaurant owners. What we want to do is actually to highlight them, their food, the menu that they have, and make sure that we elevate that with a good glass of Coke. And what it means to us and also to our Filipino consumers, is we want to tell the story of us uplifting, not just actually our products but the livelihood of our Filipino restaurant owners as well,” Coca Cola Philippines Senior Marketing Director for Marketing Frenissa Lagman said in an interview with adobo Magazine.
Furthermore, Coca-Cola also bagged the Brand of the Year Award as they consistently broke new ground — pioneering creative collaborations like the multi-partner Valentine’s offer, transforming branded fleets into live sampling and experience channels, and using radical personalization to turn a mass audience into millions of individual fans.
“The partnership that we have with GrabAds helped us in making sure that we reach our Filipino consumers and also evolve the experience that they have with the Coca Cola group and Coca Cola products that we have,” Frenissa noted.
Ultimately, with the award Coca-Cola received, Frenissa underscored the value of strong collaborations — especially with technology companies like Grab. She views these partnerships as essential for expanding Coca-Cola’s reach to more Filipino consumers and enhancing their enjoyment of Coca-Cola’s products.
Meanwhile, mHive (part of WPP Media) clinched the Agency of the Year award for making “trailblazing a culture while racking up the most Trailblazer wins for their clients and proving that bold thinking and breakout work are integrated into everything they do.”
Per Grab, mHive treated gamification, cross-service rewards, and season-long orchestration as core strategies, not side tactics across Jollibee’s flagship programs.
“We really work closely with Grab being the experts in the platform. We’re learning as we go along, especially for Christmas. It’s a major holiday for us Filipinos and Jollibee is an important brand in this season. So, with the power of Grab’s ecosystem, the consumers that actually consume the content in the app, and also the products within – the experience is a natural fit. We relied on their data signals to map out the consumer user journey. So it has been really a good partnership,” mHive (by WPP Media) Principal Partner, Sherry Magno told adobo Magazine.
When asked what this recognition meant to them, Sherry expressed that winning the award was a major surprise and honor for their team, especially since it was their first year handling the account and their first Christmas campaign.
“It means a lot, because we got the account last year. Essentially, this is our first year of working with them, first Christmas, and again, the first Trailblazer award. So, it’s really a surprise for us as a young team to be recognized in this capacity by Grab,” she said
Check out the full list of GrabAds Trailblazer Awards 2025 here.
Platform-Play: LTO Trailblazer
- Gold: KFC Philippines and Wavemaker (Creamy Spinach Campaign)
- Black:
- Starbucks (Starbucks Creamy Caramel Latte: Grab Exclusive Campaign)
- Burger Beast (International Burger Day 2024 Campaign)
Driver Transformation Trailblazer
- Gold: Globe Telecom (Globe Fiber Prepaid Campaign)
- Black
- Burger Beast (Halloween Beast Riders Campaign)
- The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola Foodmarks Campaign)
Data-Driven Impact Trailblazer
- Gold: McDonald’s and OMD (McDonald’s Late Night Meal Campaign)
- Black:
- Shakey’s (Shakey’s Party & Celebrations, Large Orders )
- CloudEats (CloudEats Affordability Campaign)
Multi-Phase Mastery Trailblazer
- Gold: Samsung and Constellation-Starcom (Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 | Z Flip6 Campaign )
- Black:
- Jollibee and mHive (Jollibee Jolliest Paskong Panalo Campaign)
- Samsung and Constellation-Starcom (Samsung Galaxy S25 Series)
Merchant Curation Trailblazer
- Gold: The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola Foodmarks Campaign)
Loyalty Innovation Trailblazer
- Gold: Chowking and Dentsu (Chowking Mid Autumn Campaign)
- Black:
- Starbucks (Starbucks Creamy Caramel Latte: Grab Exclusive Campaign)
- Jollibee and mHive (Jollibee Jolliest Paskong Panalo Campaign)
Partnership Power Trailblazer
- Gold: The Coca-Cola Company x McDonald’s (Coca-Cola Valentine’s Day Campaign)
- Black:
- CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice (Cinnamoroll x CoCo)
- The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola Foodmarks Campaign)
Platform Exclusivity Trailblazer
- Gold: Starbucks (Starbucks Creamy Caramel Latte: Grab Exclusive Campaign)
- Black:
- KFC Philippines (Creamy Spinach Campaign)
- The Coca-Cola Company x McDonald’s (Coca-Cola Valentine’s Day Campaign)
Flavor Storytelling Trailblazer
- Gold: Burger Beast (International Burger Day 2024 Campaign)
Gamification Trailblazer
- Gold: Jollibee and mHive (Jollibee Jolliest Paskong Panalo Campaign)
- Black:
- Burger Beast (International Burger Day 2024 Campaign)
- Chowking (Chowking Mid Autumn Campaign)
Personalization Architect Trailblazer
- Gold: The Coca-Cola Company (Year in Cravings Campaign)
Immersive Brand Experience Trailblazer
- Gold: Burger Beast (Halloween Beast Riders Campaign)
- Black:
- The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola Foodmarks Campaign)
- Garnier and WPP Media – Beauty Tech Labs (Garnier O2O Campaign)
First-To-Platform Trailblazer: Branded Vehicle Icon Edition
- Gold: NIDO and OPEN (NIDO Mother’s Day Campaign)
Small But Mighty Trailblazer
- Gold: Go Gourmand
Trailblazer Grand Prix of the Year
- Coca-Cola Foodmarks
Trailblazing Brand of the Year
- The Coca-Cola Company
Trailblazing Agency of the Year
- mHive (WPP Media)
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of the GrabAds Trailblazer Awards 2025.
