Women to Watch 2023: Kat Limchoc, Publicis Groupe

Kat Limchoc

Executive creative director/lead culture officer
Publicis Groupe 
Philippines

Kat Limchoc straddles various genres of her life with ease. An author-cum-editor of two cookbooks, a social entrepreneur preserving traditional designs of Manodo tribe, and an activist using her creativity and expertise to raise awareness and funding for those living on the margins.

All this while she holds two jobs concurrently at the Publicis Groupe Philippines (PGP)—ECD of Blackpencil Manila of the Leo Burnett Group and since 2022, also the lead culture officer of Publicis Groupe Philippines.

Limchoc led her team to reach for the stars and their McDonald’s and Cebu Pacific Air projects have been recognised at Cannes, Spikes, Adfest, One Show Asia, New York AME, APAC Effies and local awards shows. Her team has garnered 48 awards this past year alone.

Matching creativity with business results, she was instrumental in helping Universal Robina Corporation (URC), the largest Filipino food and beverage manufacturer, ring in substantial growth last year. URC’s leading non-carbonated ready-to-drink, C2 Green Tea, enjoyed its highest sales ever. Top chocolate cookie brand, Cream-O’s sales grew by 24% and Maxx, the leading candy brand, achieved an 18% growth.

In her role as a culture leader, Limchoc brings together the multiple creative and media agencies of Publicis Groupe in the Philippines. She’s led initiatives around continuous learning and engagement, mental health, collaboration and performance excellence. Under her watch, Publicis Groupe Philippines has consistently held the highest employee scores in the region and received a gold in the PRWeek Best Places to Work awards.

Passionate about sustainability, Limchoc has been sharing her talk “Sustainability and the Agency”, inspired by her learnings from the Harvard course she took on sustainable business strategy, with teams across PGP and to clients. She has also energised sustainability projects within her clients like McDonald’s Green & Good and Tour de McDo campaigns that promote sustainable mobility.

As an ECD, she is recognised as an inspiring leader who strives for perfection while having her teams’ back. Limchoc nurtures young talent and under her mentorship, two young creatives, Ciara Baello and Ice Reyes won the Campaign Brief SEA’s Young Achiever award and LIA’s Young Creatives competition, respectively.

Limchoc also initiated creativity for social projects and led her team to create an animated campaign for ARK Feedback to help the hungry.

She is currently the ‘Best in Creative’ panel head for the 25th Agency of the Year awards for the Philippines, and has been a jury head and a member for award shows such as Spikes, One Show Asia, Gerety, Cresta Awards and local creative shows.