Tourism. It's more fun for Ramon Jimenez

A married couple left the agencies where they were employed to start their own agency. From zero, they built a local advertising agency that grew to become the largest multinational advertising agency in the Philippines, even larger than the companies they used to work for. Two weeks ago, the man whose name that ad agency bears presented the new tagline for Philippine tourism: “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” And boy, have people been having fun thinking of ways to promote that line. Here are 10 things you should know about our Department of Tourism Secretary, Ramon Jimenez.

1. On accusations that “It’s more fun in the Philippines” is not an original tagline: “The line was not chosen for its originality, it was chosen because it really rings true.”

On the day of the new DOT campaign launch, an alleged 1951 Swiss tourism ad surfaced, and it read “It’s more fun in Switzerland.” Jimenez goes on to say that no one can really own words, but what we can own is the truth about it. “We don’t know whether it even really ran in Switzerland, or if it was a successful campaign,” Jimenes says. BBDO was the agency that presented “It’s more fun in the Philippines” to DOT, and the Secretary says, “If you know guys like David Guerrero (of BBDO), he has more Cleo awards than some people have teeth, I don’t think he’s going to risk his entire reputation with an ad he dug up.”

On the night itself of the campaign launch, hundreds upon hundreds of photos made by Pinoys — some of them tongue-in-cheek — flooded the Internet, showing different activities or events that are “more fun in the Philippines.” The ones not made by BBDO and DOT that he likes the most are: “Mountain Bikes. More fun in the Philippines,” with a photo of wooden bikes and Ifugaos; “Schools. More fun in the Philippines” with a deep-sea photo of a school of fish; and a line that model Sarah Meier pitched, “You. More fun in the Philippines.”

“We set out to do something that we wanted the people to own, and that’s exactly what happened,” the Secretary says.

2. Even with his post now as DOT Secretary, he prefers to wait on line at all counters in the airport.

When airport staff offer to help him and to make him the priority, he tells them, “I’m very happy you’ve come to welcome me, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to line up.” He says he’s one of those weird (his own words) people who enjoy the peace and quiet of waiting in line, and actually enjoys kicking his bag a few inches every time he takes a step closer to the counter. He’s been traveling on his own for years, and the lines may be good some days and bad on others, but “not so difficult physically that a public official can’t do it himself.”

Queuing up on his own also helps him see what needs to be improved in the system. In fact, he recently just met with NAIA GM Honrado and asked, “Why do I have to take off my shoes if I’m not traveling to the United States? They’re still busy trying to get me an answer to that.” He predicts they will stop doing that very soon. He excitedly talks about the plans for the NAIA airport and the international airport in Clark, but warns there will be a difficult two-year period where we all have to be patient. “Remember how it is now, because some day it’s going to get better.”

3. On the switch from working in advertising to being a public official: “It’s something I recommend to anyone who is completing a career.”

Stalwarts in the Philippine advertising industry, Sec. Mon and his wife Abby were asked by P-Noy to come onboard after the elections, around June 2010. They said no. Months later, they were asked again, and as Jimenez puts it, “When your president asks you again, you say yes.” Advertising is an extremely lucrative industry, and having moved to government in September 2011, I asked Jimenez to share what his salary is, or even the range. “I don’t want to make people sad, they might stop believing that it’s fun,” he jokes. But he says the pay is more than made up for by how rewarding the job is, saying it’s a “position to make an even bigger difference than you thought you were making when you were in the private sector.”

Ramon Jimenez and his wife Abby have been married for 31 years. When people ask them what the secret is, they joke: ‘We’ve been too busy to quarrel.’

4. He and his wife Abby founded and ran advertising agency Jimenez Basic, and worked together across a desk every day for 20 years.

They met in ad agency Ace Saatchi, and eventually got married. Though Abby moved on to work in another agency, they ended up working together again when she quit her job and founded ad agency Jimenez and Partners (now Publicis Jimenez Basic) in 1989. Six months after, he followed suit. Twenty years later in 2008, they both retired. Having been together at work and at home daily for two decades, people always ask they how they can still stand each other. “Be careful, you might be saying more about your marriage than ours,” was always their quick reply. Jimenez says that if you have your spouse as your business partner, you have absolutely no reason to question her motives when you argue. He adds, “We always settled our arguments very neatly, in other words, I gave in.” She always won anyway, he says, and that kept the peace.

When he and Abby started Jimenez Basic, they literally had zero clients. Their first project was to do merchandising for Dunkin’ Donuts and Shakeys, and they didn’t even have the advertising account, they simply had the branch operations account. He remembers drawing and writing the posters all by hand. Despite the many awards their agency has won since, he shares, “If you ask me, that was our most important campaign.”

5. Secretary Jimenez in numbers:

31: Years he and his wife Abby have been married. When people ask them what the secret is, they joke, “We’ve been too busy to quarrel.”

2: Number of children they have: Nina, 30, a creative director, and Sassa, 25, a fashion designer 

21: Age when he got his first job, straight from his thesis, to work in advertising. He graduated with a fine arts degree from UP.

8: Number of meetings a day.

4: Number of dogs they have in the family. One each! His is an Alaskan Malamute named Atkam (which, in Eskimo, means “guardian”) that weighs 123 pounds. They also co-own a canine behavior center called Better Dogs, which they call a dog hotel. “It’s not just a kennel, it’s a full-service hotel where we feed, bathe, and walk the dogs.”

6. One basic rule in advertising that can be applied to life: “You have to tell the truth. Nothing works like the truth.”

On the night of the DOT’s launch of its new ad campaign, hundreds of imitations mushroomed across the Internet.

“Your obligation is to make the truth compelling and exciting, but to tell it nonetheless,” he shares.

7. On the public officials revealing their SALN: “I believe it should be public, under any and all circumstances.”

The DOT Secretary believes that the SALN is gathered precisely because it must be open to the public, and if it will be kept a secret anyway, don’t bother getting it. He adds: “A SALN that is not open to the public is like arranging flowers in the dark. What’s it for?” He had to declare everything other than his shorts, he shares, and fair is fair.

When I asked him what he feels when people judge the government as sobrang corrupt, he responds, “It’s not true that it’s sobrang corrupt.” He believes that decency is back in the government, and though it may be far from perfect, we are back to no longer being ashamed of our leaders. “This country is no longer run by men and women who sit around the table dividing money,” he says. “We’ve become a normal nation again, we’re no longer the underachieving, corrupt, neighborhood failure.” And he says it’s no big deal: that we should expect a bunch of decent men and women to be running the government, and that’s the way it should be.

8. He’s been to many key cities and provinces even before his DOT post, but the places he hasn’t been to and wants to visit are Siargao and Tawi Tawi.

Siargao to check out the surfing, and Tawi Tawi (along with many other parts of Mindanao) are both on his list. He of course isn’t allowed to pick any favorite cities or destinations, but he does share some interesting trivia:

• The world’s thickest forest is in the Philippines, in Sibuyan Island, Romblon. It’s thicker than the Amazon forest. Not to mention the many species endemic to the Philippines.

• Baguio isn’t our only mountain city and there are others we need to develop, such as Mount Kitanglad in Bukidnon.

• One of the most incredible churches he’s seen in the world is the Sta. Ana Church. It’s centuries old, and “really incredible.”

• There is a fiesta every day of the year in the Philippines. Even two on some days. 

He asserts: “More than the places, it’s really the people. We’re not just a place to see, but a place to be.”

9. Jimenez’s top travel tip: “Make sure you put down your camera, or else you will miss the moment.”

He believes travel is learning how to see and feel at the same time. Otherwise, it will just be such a waste of energy. “Some of my best insights on a place have come just looking outside the window,” he says.

One interesting thing he said — which I hope to observe as well — is that “at 7a.m., everyone is himself. You are going to see how they really are.” Then, he says, you will pick up an insight.

10. He hopes by the end of his term to have finally built up enough energy around tourism to give the Philippines a positive image that is larger than its negative one.

More than the image of a place of crime, typhoons, and disasters, he says “If we are able to do this right by 2016, when you say ‘Philippines,’ the immediate image will be happy, fun, adventure, bright colors.” Even our own self-image is gradually changing: “At least in our minds we’re more fun than we were two weeks ago!” And we are going to build momentum. 

In 2011, we had 3.8 million foreign tourists. Thailand had 15 million, and Malaysia had 24 million. And those who have been to both Thailand and Malaysia know that the Philippines has just as many, if not better, sights and experiences to offer. Not to mention our being one the friendliest people in the world! Note that 3.4 million Pinoys are directly employed by tourism, meaning that for every foreign tourist that arrives, one Filipino gets to work. The real goal is to create more jobs and income for people. This year’s target is 4.2 million tourists. “The new Philippine campaign is like an advertising lesson for the whole country,” he says.

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Jimenez is far from the stereotype people expect government officials to be. He is approachable, laid-back, and does pretty much everything on his own, not dependent on assistants or bodyguards. I first met him the week the DOT campaign was launched, and during that week, I know that he personally met with different people (bloggers, journalists, young movers, icons) two or three at a time, taking over an hour to just explain the campaign and gather insights. I was only one of over 20 people he met with, and I can only imagine how draining it was to explain the same things over and over again. If we ourselves won’t believe in this campaign, why should tourists? Let’s live up to being the reason why people have more fun in the Philippines. Get with the program. “We are natural game changers because we cannot play the game the way the rest of the world plays it,” the Secretary said during his Ad Congress speech. It’s time to change the game.

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Special thanks to Ren Sapitan of Sec. Jimenez’s office.

E-mail the author at askiamsuperbianca@yahoo.comor follow her on twitter @iamsuperbianca.