One of the plebe judges at the recent Araw judging, Melissa Crucillo, Southeast Asia Retail Brand Marketing Lead, returned to her native Philippines for a couple of days to rate the hopeful entries to the biennial event.
“This is my very first time [to judge], and I think I was fortunate to be with a good panel, open minded, open to discussions. [There were] a lot of opinions, very collaborative, and I am pleased with what we ended up with,” Crucillo shares.
After spending most of her career in advertising, first with Saatchi & Saatchi, then Ogilvy–a stint with Levi’s–returning to Ogilvy, then setting up BBDO Guerrero Ortega. Crucillo then went regional, transferring to BBDO Singapore before landing in Ogilvy Taiwan.
Having handled Nike when she returned to the Philippines for a Regional post in Ogilvy & Mather, she accepted the challenge to elevate the brand in the country, before taking on her current Regional post.
“At the time I joined, [Nike] was then losing its luster and was becoming a commodity brand instead of a premium sports brand. The task was how to elevate Nike and localize it, make it resonate in the Philippines,” narrates Crucillo. That’s why I signed up Manny Pacquiao, who is such a powerful Filipino icon. We close down as a country when he fights. [That] helped the brand,” she adds.
Asked to comment on the task of evaluating the merits of over two thousand entries, Crucillo sees the country’s creatives are still generally traditionalist in approach. With efforts to start moving towards digital campaigns gaining strength, such campaigns, as well, are still mainstream digital.
“No matter how creative the agency is, it’s the client’s courage to make a statement and tell a story. Clients are scared to experiment,” she says. “I understand where they’re coming from. Even in Nike we have budget constraints,” she adds.
“For digital there is so much to do. There is still a lot of opportunity in mobile. And, we are getting there. Filipinos are generally creative by nature, with a general willingness to try,” Crucillo states.
Of the Araw judging, Crucillo extends an enthusiastic approval. “I had a good experience with it. Yes, I will recommend judging for the Araw. Especially for clients.” Where clients may be in the dark to the planning, the thought process that goes into the project, judging the Araw might do them good. “Clients think agency people are just having fun. They should get an appreciation of the work that goes into [the creation],” she explains.
