Is quantity over quality hitting Filipino work?

With Thailand and Singapore hogging the creative spotlight, Filipino advertising has remained relatively under-appreciated from a regional perspective in recent years. The country's bi-annual Araw awards, held at November's 19th Philippines Advertising Congress, has refocused attentions -- although the show's judges remain concerned over the prevailing health of the Philippines' creative product. One creative who certainly feels that the Philippines is gaining momentum is BBDO Guerrero Ortega chairman David Guerrero, whose own agency snared golds in the TV and press categories for its Childhope Asia work. According to Guerrero, overall creative standards are improving, a process that has been accelerated by the infusion of new blood at several contenders. "Philippine creative standards are felt by many to have made marked improvement in recent years," claims Guerrero. "Partly, this is due to globalisation -- with clients and agencies being far more aware of how the rest of the world communicates and competes. And, partly, this is due to a changing of the guard at some agencies, with a younger generation of managers coming on board." One member of this 'younger generation' is Ogilvy & Mather executive creative director Gavin Simpson, appointed in 2005, who served on the print and poster jury at the Araw awards. Simpson defers from pulling any punches when describing the work on display, stating that "nothing" stood out in his view. "I feel the Philippines was doing better work before," says Simpson. "Eight years ago, we saw really good work for Absolute mineral water, and four years ago for FHM and adidas. I think people have become complacent and perhaps need fresh blood and fresh thinking." Another first-time judge, McCann Erickson Southeast Asia regional CD Prasoon Joshi, felt that the overall consistency of work had improved, even if much of the better thinking was being applied to less mainstream brands. "The level of ideas in the public service category was fantastic," says Joshi. "But I hope to see more of a spillover of that in the mainstream brands. I still feel that standards on mainstream brands must go up." For Simpson, the key challenge is to ensure that agencies continually remind themselves that they are only as good as their last ad. Joshi, meanwhile, notes that local pride "must reflect more strongly in the work". Both views will strike a chord with legendary Thai creative Jureeporn Thaidumrong, who is in the unique position of having judged the last two Araw awards. From her perspective, while the print category has seen some improvement, there is still too much focus on quantity over quality when it comes to TV. "Some of the print could compete regionally, but not as much as from Singapore or Bangkok," explains Thaidumrong. "But the TV is less good -- they have a big industry which produces a lot of ads, but they need to focus more on ideas and production." This last observation is a familiar refrain in Filipino creative circles, although Guerrero -- whose well-regarded Visa and FedEx spots were shot by offshore directors -- points out that production should not shoulder a disproportionate amount of blame for TV standards that lag the best in the region. "Ideas are the key to progress, rather than technical reasons," notes Guerrero. "It's just that there are avoidable errors we can eliminate in production terms, and (with some notable exceptions) a lot to improve on in the areas of direction and acting. As in most markets, there is a discernable filter through which we see many of our films. What's needed is a greater range of expression and modes of communicating." Following the Ad Congress, accordingly, a number of the country's creative directors met in an attempt to improve the production process, looking at everything from establishing a better dialogue with directors, to re-examining production budgets. "The use of quality overseas directors has increased, as has the opportunity to compare notes on how to do things. Importantly, however, some productions -- especially in personal care -- are increasingly moving offshore," says Guerrero. "This is, therefore, something of a crunch time for both agencies and production houses and a lot will depend on our common response."