MANILA, AUGUST 30, 2013 – Broadcast network TV5 has handed its creative business to TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno following a pitch in which incumbent DM9 JaymeSyfu did not take part.
The shift comes four months after Noel Lorenzana, PLDT Group’s head of individual business, moved to head TV5’s parent company MediaQuest. Both companies are part of tycoon Manuel Pangilinan’s First Pacific empire.
“We asked a few very good agencies, just so happens TBWA came up with a presentation that was consistent and the best translation of strategy into the creative output,” said the former Unilever turned telco marketer. “I’ve worked with them, I know the guys, I have full respect for them. They’re great friends and colleagues.”
The committee tasked with the agency selection had a difficult time making its choice because “everyone (in the pitch) was good so it wasn’t unanimous”.
Lorenzana revealed that the incumbent declined to repitch. “They had a series of pitches and I think they had to recover from that. They’re also good friends of mine. They worked for me at (PLDT’s mobile arm) Smart and you know the work that came out of that,” Lorenzana said of DM9 nabbing the country’s first-ever Cannes’ 2013 Grand Prix with a campaign loading school textbooks on Smart’s surplus SIM cards.
TV5, the primetime ratings winners with its mid-August weekend coverage of FIBA Asia Championships, knows it has to be different in targeting the younger set if it is to unseat established rivals ABS-CBN and GMA.
“We want to challenge current thinking. We want to be a destination for the people they want to target cause basically the youthful people are no longer consuming just TV, but also lots of internet, mobile phones, tablets, computers, basically the whole content and viewer experience.”
“Working with a brand with a fast-paced nature makes for an exciting environment. With a new forged partnership TV 5 and TBWA-Santiago Mangada Puno have been given a chance to change the way television is experienced in the country. So if I were you, I’d turn ON 5," said Marci Reyes, executive creative director of TBWA\ Santiago Mangada Puno.
