BBDO Guerrero and Leo Burnett Manila top Kidlat Awards 2011

PHILIPPINES, May 4, 2011 – Finally, it all comes to a close one hot Boracay night as gold and silver lightning bolts are given out to the best Philippine ads of the past year at the Boracay Regency ballroom. Alodia Gosengfiao, in the requisite sexy black bustier, hosted the award presentation.

Raoul Panes officially turned over duties to the new Creative Guild Board, headed by its new president, Manny Del Rosario of Rocket Science as President. "Now the apocalypse has come," remarked Del Rosario says on his new appointment.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Creative Guild Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Mario Monteagudo. The retrospective of his work is proof of his invaluable contribution to the ad industry. Monteagudo is considered a ‘Super Mario’ known for his cursing, chain smoking, and brilliant work for brands such as Volvo and Rustans.

Kidlat Awards
Jury presidents Group Creative Director of Leo Burnett Singapore, Chris Chiu, and Creative Juice ECD Thirasak Tanapatanakul gave out the category golds. Tanapatanakul commented that the jury made the standards higher this year, as if they were giving out Cannes Lions. 

A total of 107 medals were given out, of which 9 were Gold, 26 Silver and 72 Bronze. 

Ace Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett Manila ruled in the technical categories. Leo Burnett also had the best showing in the Diwa category with the only two Golds for its work for WWF.

Overall, Leo Burnett Manila received the most Golds, with 5 Golds for Diwa, Craft and Design: “Fluorescent Candle” for WWF Earth Hour in Design and Diwa Direct, Samurai “Night Watchman” and WWF Sea Creatures “Shark” in Craft, and WWF “Dangerous Beneath” in Diwa Outdoor. The agency bagged 19 medals in total, including 3 Silver and 10 Bronze. Work for WWF and Samurai were its strongest performers.

BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines lorded over the main category with thrice as many metals as its closest competitors in the main tally. The agency also produced the biggest combined haul at 31 awards, with 3 Gold, 5 Silver and 23 Bronze awards. The agency has the only Kidlat Golds in the main categories, with Gold in Digital for FedEx “Our Changing World”, which also won Gold in Craft, and “Bottle School” for Pepsi in Integrated. BBDO Guerrero rode high on its work for Anlene, Apple Box, FedEx, Pepsi and Saridon. 

TBWASantiago Mangada has 1 Gold for its self-promotion “Xmas Cards” in Design, in addition to 5 Silver and 6 Bronze awards, 12 medals in total. TBWASMP’s work for Boysen and Shangri-La did well, taking multiple Silvers and Bronzes.

Ace Saatchi has 20 in total, 6 Silver and 14 Bronze, boosted by its work for Safeguard and Toyota. DM9 JaymeSyfu has 9 overall, of which 3 are Silver and 6 Bronze, for brands including MINI and Pharex. JWT Manila has 2 Silver and 5 Bronze, mainly for Kitkat and Kythe.

Ogilvy & Mather has 1 Silver and 2 Bronze; Publicis has 2 Bronze. AMP/amon + maneze, McCann Worldgroup, Publicis JimenezBasic and Revolver have 1 Bronze each.

Young Creatives

Creative Guild’s Lawin Bulatao, Publicis JimenezBasic creative director, announced the winners of the Young Kidlat Awards, including an unofficial ‘Damaso’ award issued by Carlos Celdran himself for his personal pick of the entries, which went to the team from Ace Saatchi and Saatchi.

The brief for this year’s competition was for the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, directed towards the clergy. The Catholic Church has opposed the bill because of its stand against contraception. The brief asked the Young Creatives to "do whatever it takes" to convince the priests to support the bill. Twenty-six teams, a record number, joined the challenge this year.

First placers Jeff Thomas and Ramon Alfonso of Publicis JimenezBasic, who drew up the "Cry Baby" campaign, will represent the Philippines in the Young Lions in Cannes this June. Lora Velinda Aniag and Rene Carlo Cruz of Euro RSCG landed second place and will be the country’s team in the Young Spikes at Spikes Asia this September. Publicis Manila’s Kyle William Gozo and Michael Emil Luchico clinched third place for their "Confessions" campaign.

With golds and silvers in their hands, delegates hurried over to Guilly’s to party it up Bora-style.

If this year was about "sexy again", can next year be sexier still?