19th Ad Congress a huge success

The three-day 19th Philippine Advertising Congress ended yesterday a tremendous success, according to Meryl Graham-Schlachterman, the overall chairwoman of the event held in Cebu City with around 3,000 delegates.

Schlachterman said the 19th Congress was the most successful in history as the number of delegates exceeded expectations, coupled with their impressive participation in the plenary sessions, especially last Friday at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino-Cebu City.

"The congress was so successful. We have the record number of delegates, who are not here just to bring the name of their companies but who are also participating in the sessions," Schlachterman said.

The biggest event in the advertising industry was also concluded with the "Araw Awards," the most prestigious awards in the local advertising scene, for which A. Tungchingco Trading, the maker of Ligo sardines and other canned goods, bagged this year's Advertiser of the Year award.

Only Ligo sardines' "Tagalog Campaign", a radio campaign created by Campaigns and Grey won the most coveted Grand Araw awards, and none from television, print, outdoor and interactive categories duplicated its feat.

There were few entries that made it to the awards finals but were already recognized internationally, like Childhope Asia's "Bunso," a TV commercial by BBDO/Guerrero Ortega that won the first silver award for the country in Cannes Lion in Cannes Advertising Festival in France in June this year.

Although the Bunso ad did not win in Cebu, other entries created by BBDO/Guerrero Ortega like "Chalk" ad of Childhope Asia won the gold trophy for Best Copy and the "Rain" ad for FedEx got the silver for Best Art Direction.

Other entries that won the gold for TV category are BPI's "Images" created by Hit Productions Inc. and Joy Ultra's "Joy MTV" created by Big Idea (Best in Musical Score), Pond's "Marrying Up" created by Unitel Productions (Best in Production Design), Chowking's "Downpour" created by Filmex (Best in Cinematography) and Chippy's "Rehearsal" created by Filmex (Best Direction).

"Downpour" also won the Kodak's Vision's Best in Cinematography Engineering award while Surf's "Hanapbuhay" created by Lowe, Inc. and Halls' "Wrapper" created by JimenezBasic both won the golds for Best Copy.

For print ads, Gatsby's "Brian and Rocio" created by TBWA/Santiago Mangada Puno and Childhope Asia's "Chalk Series" created by BBDO/Guerrero Ortega won the gold for Best Art Director.

For radio, Samsung's "Championship Belt" created by Sound Designs Production, the 19th PAC's "Per DTI" created by Adfarm, Perla's "Touching Moments" created by Soundesign Production and Globe's "Wish" created by Adfarm won the gold for Best Sound Design.

Perla's "Daughter" created by Leo Burnett Manila, Ligo's "Chugs," "Haller," "Tagalog" and "Manash" all created by Campaigns and Grey, KFC's "Demo" created by TBWA/Santiago Mangada Puno, the 19th PAC's "Per DTI" created by Adfarm, and AMA's "WRSS WRGS" created by Campaigns and Grey won the gold for Best Copy.

Leo's "Birth" created by Arc Worldwide also won the gold for Design and Interactive category.

According to Lilit Reyes, the 19th PAC's creative committee co-chairman, there were actually 2,740 entries screened but only 347, or 13 percent, made it to the finals.

Unlike in previous congresses where top government officials were included in the awards, this year's Araw were exclusively for people in the advertising industry. - Wenna A. Berondo