TBWA Santiago Mangada Puno is Agency of the Year for 2010

MANILA, SEPTEMBER 19, 2011: The long wait finally came to an end as TBWA\ Santiago Mangada Puno was named Agency of the Year at the recently concluded AOY 2010 Awards Night at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati. The win proved to be a pleasant surprise to the agency, which last bagged the local advertising industry’s “most important” award five years ago.

“It’s amazing! For a moment there we thought Mio Chiongson (presenter) was joking because we weren’t declared as winners in any of the four categories,” admitted Managing Partner Tong Puno. Agency heads credited the award to the team’s holistic approach to the business, as exhibited by its balanced success in both the creative and executive departments.

While definitely a break from tradition – where pundits usually predict either Best in Creative and/or Market Performance to win top prize – TBWA Santiago Mangada Puno’s victory isn’t really all that surprising. Closer inspection would reveal that the agency was a consistent finalist in the night’s top four categories. Moreover, TBWA Santiago Mangada Puno has had a long history with AOY, having won the prestigious award three consecutive times from 2003 to 2005. In the end, cumulative points bucked the trend and the agency beat other top contenders to the AOY.

Incidentally, TBWASantiago Mangada Puno’s return to the top spot broke BBDO Guerrero’s three-year winning streak. The latter had settle for Best in Creative this year.

Publicis JimenezBasic, on the other hand, yet again proved its ability to transform ideas into measurable results as it won the Best in Market Performance and Management of Business Awards. “The reason we won for marketing performance is probably because of our Greenwich Level Up campaign which worked very well, even for a brand that is already on a sustaining mode,” shared Bebot Ngo of Publicis JimenezBasic. She also reiterated that the win was a risk that paid off. Feeling strongly for the campaign, the agency decided to enter the unconventional advocacy project “Lucky Me Family Meals” which could’ve easily been shot down by other sales-driven rivals. Two metals into the night though, the agency’s gut feel was proven right.

This year’s introduction of two additional entries also paved way for more winners. In the end, Ogilvy& Mather won for Digital Excellence, while Aspac Advertising grabbed the inaugural Independent Agency of the Year award. The lndependent AOY was one of the night’s most important citations, with AOY Chairman Melvin Mangada describing the category as “long overdue”. He also noted that it is the organization’s personal ode to “breaking elitist perceptions” that have hounded the AOY in the past decade.

Meanwhile, DM9 Jayme Syfu walked away with Industry Leadership & Community Service, while Media Excellence went to MediaCom (Business Performance and overall) and ZenithOptimedia (Creativity). Other winners include RedWorks (Print Production House of the Year), Underground Logic (Post Production House of the Year), and Unitel Productions (TV Production House of the Year). Once again, HIT Productions stayed true to its reputation as the most awarded sound production house as it received its 11th Radio Production House of the Year.