A creative idea can capture attention. A more meaningful one can make someone feel seen, give a community a voice, or turn an overlooked problem into an opportunity. At Lennon Group, that distinction is the heart of its approach to creativity, and found a defining moment at the 2026 Boomerang Awards.
Barely a year into its journey, the agency debuted at the awards ceremony and won Agency of the Year, the competition’s highest overall recognition. A formidable showing of “Some Nights I Feel Like Doing a Grindr Movie Tour,” created in collaboration with Daluyong Studios, Ten17P, and Lunchbox, accompanied the victory.
The campaign claimed Best of Show and two Grand Prix awards, alongside four Gold, five Silver, and three Bronze recognitions across digital experience, media, entertainment, and craft categories. Yet beyond the tally was a body of work that reflected a conviction shared by the agency’s founders: creativity finds its greatest purpose when it creates value beyond the work itself.
For co-founder and Executive Creative Director (ECD) Rizza Garcia, the recognition took a while to sink in.
“I don’t think it has fully sunk in yet, to be honest. We’re still trying to wrap our heads around it. But we’re really, really grateful for the recognition, especially being our first time joining the Boomerang Awards,” Rizza told adobo Magazine.
The achievement also represented a shared commitment among the people who helped bring the work to life. While the awards affirmed the team’s creative ambitions, founder, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer (COO) Raymund Sison saw the milestone as a reflection of something more enduring, the kind of agency Lennon Group hopes to build, where creative excellence is measured not only by the attention it commands but also by the difference it makes.
Making an invisible story impossible to ignore
“Some Nights I Feel Like Doing a Grindr Movie Tour” began with a human truth that extended beyond the usual objectives of a film campaign.
According to Raymund, the campaign started with a simple truth. “Some nights, we don’t just want to be loved. We want to be seen,” he said.
Rooted in queer desire, visibility, and belonging, the campaign also sought to bring an independent film to audiences who could connect with its story. But the film faced a challenge that echoed the experiences of the very community it portrayed, which is the risk of going unseen, which the agency said became the key insight.
Rather than rely on conventional movie promotion, Lennon Group sought a more natural way to connect the film’s story with its intended audience. The campaign brought the film into spaces where queer communities already gather and connect, allowing their culture, voices, and lived experiences to shape how the story was told.
The strategy placed cultural understanding at the center of the creative execution. Instead of simply asking the audience to discover the film through familiar promotional channels, the campaign met them in environments where its themes of connection and belonging already resonated. The approach linked insight with execution, allowing one human truth to guide decisions across creative strategy, media, and storytelling. The film’s struggle for visibility became the starting point for an idea that recognized a broader desire for representation—one that did not dilute queer experiences to make them more palatable.
“If even one person felt seen and included because of the campaign, that’s success,” Raymund said.
He continued, “Awards are wonderful. We’re grateful for them. But creativity reaches its highest purpose when it creates understanding.”
For Raymund, the possibility of bringing people back to cinemas and helping them feel a sense of community were more significant than winning a trophy.
A collaborative effort built on shared belief
Behind “Some Nights I Feel Like Doing a Grindr Movie Tour” was a creative partnership that brought Lennon Group together with Daluyong Studios, Ten17P, and Lunchbox.
Raymund credited the collaborators with contributing distinct strengths and perspectives while remaining committed to the campaign’s central idea. Their involvement went beyond executing a brief, creating room to challenge the work, refining its narrative, and strengthening its connection with the community it sought to reach.
“Great work is never created alone,” he said. “They committed to the idea and challenged it at the same time, elevating the narrative and helping build a story the community could genuinely connect with.”
For Raymund, the partnership also reflected a more meaningful model of collaboration, one built on a shared belief in what the work could accomplish. That emphasis on collective ownership extends to the agency’s internal culture. Lennon Group’s Digital Innovators of the Year recognitions, Raymund noted, reflect an environment that values trust, generosity, and the conviction that strong ideas can come from anyone, regardless of title or seniority.
“We’ve tried to build the kind of culture we wished we had more of growing up in the industry. One where great ideas can come from anywhere and anybody. One where titles matter less than contribution.”
The approach places meaningful responsibility at the center of developing young creative talent. Rather than limiting their involvement to supporting roles, the agency seeks to give people the trust and room to shape ambitious work and make consequential contributions.
“When young talented people are trusted with meaningful responsibility, incredible things happen. It’s proof that the future of our industry is already here,” Raymund underscored.
HumanKind Creativity as a creative compass
Lennon Group believes in HumanKind Creativity, a philosophy grounded in respect for people, care for humanity, and the belief that creative work can help move the world forward. The principle is more than an aspirational statement. It informs how the agency evaluates ideas, chooses stories, and determines whether a campaign deserves to exist.
Rizza sees this approach as beginning with a deeper understanding of the people a brand hopes to reach. The task goes beyond identifying what a brand wants to communicate, asking instead what matters to its audience and how a creative idea might contribute something meaningful to their lives.
“That helps guide the ideas we pursue, the stories we tell, and how we bring them to life,” she said. “Not every campaign has to change the world. Sometimes it’s as simple as making someone feel seen, sharing a story worth telling, or celebrating something about our culture.”
Meanwhile, Raymund approaches the philosophy as both a belief system and a practical test for creative decisions.
“Before asking whether an idea is innovative, viral, or award-worthy, we ask: Is it good for people? Does it respect people? Does it create value rather than interruption? Does it leave the world slightly better than it found it?”
These questions shape the agency’s decisions, from the stories it chooses to tell to the technology it adopts and the ideas it pursues. They also inform how Lennon Group understands the relationship between commercial performance and social impact.
Rather than viewing business objectives and human responsibility as opposing forces, the agency believes each can strengthen the other.
“At Lennon Group, we’ve always believed that when the brand cares about the world, the world cares about the brand,” Raymund said.
The beginning of a bigger ambition
Winning Agency of the Year barely a year into its journey gives Lennon Group a significant milestone to build on. Yet the recognition is less a culmination than a starting point for a larger ambition.
“To us, it feels just like the beginning of the adventure of our life,” Raymund said. He also said that the agency wants to demonstrate how creative excellence, commercial success, and a commitment to humanity can co-exist. Its ambition is not simply to produce more award-winning work, but to build a business that can deliver meaningful results without losing sight of the people and communities it serves.
“I don’t want Lennon Group to be known simply as an award-winning agency. I want us to prove that creativity can be a force for human progress,” Raymund added.
That aspiration offers a different way of looking at creative success in an industry where rankings, trophies, and measurable outcomes often dominate the conversation. Recognition remains valuable, but it is not the final measure of what an idea can accomplish. What matters just as much is whether the work resonates with its audience, contributes to a community, or leaves something meaningful behind.
Lennon Group’s first appearance at the Boomerang Awards put that ambition in focus. Its winning campaigns showed how creativity can take different forms while staying rooted in the same conviction, believing that ideas become more powerful when they create value beyond themselves.
“We’re grateful for the awards. But even more grateful for what they represent: a timely affirmation that the kind of company we dreamed of building is possible. And worth building,” Raymund said.
The challenge now is to carry that conviction beyond a successful awards debut. Agency of the Year, Best of Show, and two Grand Prix awards signify a remarkable beginning, but Lennon Group’s larger ambition will be shaped by what comes next: the stories it chooses to tell, the people it empowers, and the value its ideas leave behind.
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of Boomerang Awards 2026.
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