Ad Summit PH 2014: Speakers of the House

MANILA, Philippines—What will be Ad Summit Pilipinas’ biggest come-on when it unfolds this May?

Matec Villanueva, chair of the ad industry’s biggest event this year, quickly tells BusinessFriday: “We are bringing the movers and shakers of our industry to make the Summit a world-class gathering of the creative, the curious, and the wise.”

Villanueva says attendees will experience a no-nonsense program, precision-quick according to schedule, and most of all, the speakers will come only from the very best in the industry. “You may call them rock-star speakers and because of that, we expect 100 percent attendance,” she says.

The Philippines’ first Ad Summit, hopefully a much better reincarnation of the defunct Ad Congress, will be held in Subic Bay Convention Center from May 7 to 10. It hopes to showcase the very best creative work of the industry with market results and break existing attendance records. The format follows a bit of Asia Adfest and a little bit of Cannes with the awarding of the Best of “Kidlat” Awards on the last night.

First batch of speakers

Emily Abrera, the Philippine’s first jury member in Cannes (2005), heads a star-studded cast. Currently chair of CCI-Asia, the content-production company behind Living Asia Channel, Abrera is also the president of the Foundation for Communication Initiatives.

She is also chair of the board of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Children’s Hour Philippines, founding member of the Women’s Business Council and currently member of the Edsa People Power Commission.

Abrera was the country’s first woman president of a multinational ad agency in the Philippines. She last held the position of chair emeritus of McCann WorldGroup.

Another local speaker is Merlee Jayme, ‘Chairmom’ and Chief Creative Officer of DM9 Jayme-Syfu. Jayme was Executive Creative Director at BBDO Guerrero before she started her own agency more than six years ago.

She was previously vice president and executive creative director of Ace Saatchi & Saatchi. As head of DM9 Jayme-Syfu, Jayme catapulted her creative shop to the number one spot in the Philippines (2010 Campaign Brief Asia Ranking) and was awarded Campaign Asia-Pacific Creative Agency of the Year for the Philippines in 2012.

Last year, Jayme’s work (“TXTBKS”) for a telecom brand won the Philippines’ first ever Cannes Grand Prix Lion. Advertising bible Ad Age headlined the news that was also picked up by most trade magazines worldwide.

Jayme’s team idea was simple: Solve the issue of decreasing use of textbooks in a country where many people cannot afford tablets or e-readers and where most families own analog phones. Jayme and her team collaborated with textbook publishers to condense books into text messages. Those messages were then put into old SIM cards, which were repackaged and created a new brand of textbooks.

Ad Summit also flies in Cheuk Chiang, CEO of Omnicom Media Group Asia-Pacific whose career spans across account management, strategy planning and agency management roles in creative, direct marketing, digital and media agencies.

Chiang has a 23-year year experience working on a number of high profile brands such as Coca-Cola, Heineken, Heinz, Hennessy, HP, Holden, HTC, Kraft, Mars, Myer, Motorola, Nestle, Nikon, Tiger Beer and Unilever. He was named Agency Innovator of the Year by Internationalist Magazine in 2010 and sat on the Cannes jury in 2013.

Also on the marquee of speakers is Tom Doctoroff, JWT Asia-Pacific CEO, a much sought keynote speaker who has graced speaking engagements at the International Advertising Association’s global symposium and University of Chicago’s Global Management Conference. He has authored two best-selling books on Chinese consumers: “Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer” and “What Chinese Want,” published in 2012. He was selected as an Official Torchbearer for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and lives in Shanghai.

Dick Van Motman, chair and CEO of Dentsu Network Asia, is also on the lineup. Motman spent over 20 years in senior account and regional management positions at DMB&B, Leo Burnett and DDB in various European and Asian markets.

He joined Dentsu Network Asia in 2012 as the first non-Japanese head of the region helping in the transformation journey toward building the first ever Global Communications Group born out of Asia.

Following the acquisition of Aegis Media by Dentsu Inc., Motman was asked to lead Southeast Asia operations for the newly formed Dentsu Aegis Network, built specifically for the digital age. He heads both the former Dentsu and Aegis assets, comprising 35 operations across Southeast Asia.

Prior to joining Dentsu Aegis Network, Motman spent nine years at DDB Worldwide, leading the business in the Greater China Group, which went on to become the Campaign Creative Agency of the Year in 2010, Campaign Digital Agency of the Year and the Adage A-list Agency of the Year.

Also on the list is Sandipan Roy, Isobar Asia-Pacific Regional Strategy Director, who is known to be “a multi-dimensional marketer with a passion for uncovering deep human insights and developing big business building ideas.”

Roy is deeply experienced in developing brand, advertising, digital, customer relations management, data, and shopper marketing strategies. He has also held senior leadership roles at global, regional as well as in-country levels working on clients like Citibank, McDonald’s, Standard Chartered, P&G, Kellogg’s, Land Rover, Jaguar, Samsung, Unilever, American Express, and Singapore Tourism Board.

“Our vow is to create programming that will definitely enlighten our attendees on the things that they have been wanting to discover about advertising and marketing,” says Villanueva.

Addition to this list includes Louie Morales, assistant vice president for HR and corporate services of Meralco subsidiary; Chot Reyes, head coach of PH National Team and head of TV5 Sports5; Marius Rebeschini, CEO of Y&R Asia Pacific; Simon Kemp, managing director of We Are Social; Ariel Fermin, executive vice president and head of PLDT’s Home Business; Charles Cadell, regional president of McCann Worldgroup, APAC; and TV host/entrepreneur Boy Abunda.

“It remains our vow to create a programming that will definitely enlighten our attendees on the things that they have been wanting to discover about the ad and marketing scene,” Ad Summit chair Matec Villanueva says.

Interested participants may contact the 4A’s secretariat at 813-4397 or 893-1205, or e-mail: 4asp@pldtdsl.net. Registration may also be done through the summit’s official websitewww.adsummit.phfacebook.com/ AdSummitPHtwitter.com/ @ADSummitPH.