PHILIPPINES, JULY 8, 2011 – After 17 years in the advertising industry, independent agency AB Communications officially closed down on May 15, citing profitability and professional issues.
The agency has done work for clients such as Splash Extraderm and Maxipeel, Red Bull, Pfizer Sinutab and Benadryl, Hunt’s Pork & Beans and Sauces, Goldilocks Foodshops, HBC, Timex, BDO, Philippine Airlines and Zesto, among others. Its longest accounts included its first client Hunt’s-URC Corporation, Nissan since 1997 and HBC since the company started operations.
“The advertising landscape has changed so much since I founded the agency in 1994,” said AB Com Founding President Tom Banguis, Jr. “The ad agency business model and the nature of relationships among the various sectors have been altered significantly, much to the disadvantage of the ad agency as we knew it; consequently and importantly, the financial returns and professional satisfaction from its operations have diminished through the years. Furthermore, I have other related business interests which, on the other hand, have been far more successful in their respective fields.”
AB Com grew to a maximum of 60 staff in 2004, until departments were spun off to create new companies: media to Mediaforce Vizeum, the art studio to design and imaging studio Fixstop, and BTL & events to PCN Promopro, now among the Philippines’ biggest trade and consumer promotions companies with 90 full-time staff and over a thousand contractual personnel nationwide and boasting major clients such as Unilever and Philip Morris. Banguis remains chairman/CEO of these companies, which he co-founded with other industry partners. At closure, AB Com had a staff of 20.
The shutdown of the agency poses questions about the survival of local independent agencies, which must constantly adapt to the rapidly changing business environment of advertising.
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