Events expert opens own advertising, promo firm

CEBU, Philippines - With the launch of his own advertising and promotions agency, renowned events manager Sol Eugenio is back in the advertising scene, bringing in his over 20 years of production house experience to the industry.

This time, Eugenio is working closely with Ivan Alcaraz, a graphic designer and multimedia director, to come up with a strategy that will officially incorporate social media to their advertising platforms for the first time.

“As it is the trend now, we are joining the transition to social media marketing seeing the huge mileage that we can tap through the Internet,” said Alcaraz, who heads his creative team.

Sol Eugenio Management and Promotions Agency (Sempa) sees itself as a leading integrated and social media marketing and creative digital advertising agency.

Its vision is to expand business across the country by partnering with young, passionate and creative individuals specializing in digital production such as music, design, graphics and motion.

In its collaboration with Alcaraz and his team, the agency hopes to get a boost with product visibility and consumer awareness.

Alcaraz said they welcome the partnership with Sol Eugenio, not only because of the “prestige that goes with his name,” but also as an opportunity to grow as young professionals.

He said one advantage of having a team composed of young people is the availability of fresh ideas.

Alcaraz took up  multimedia, fine arts and advertising at a private university in Cebu before making layouts for events from small-scale clients as a freelance print advertiser and web designer.

Initially, Sempa and Alcaraz’ team are looking at working with the top brands in Cebu and the rest of the country by making for them digital campaigns that they described as “cutting edge.”

Currently in the pipeline are Sempa’s extensive campaigns for Ersao Cebu, a Taiwanese food retail outlet that is said to pioneer milk-tea craze in the country, as well as Haojue Motorcycles Phils., Chinese leisure motorbikes exclusively retailed by Norkis Trading.

Both campaigns are currently running on a nationwide scope.

According to Sempa officials, they are concentrating their efforts on targeting the lifestyle market.

Sempa traces its beginnings in 1992 to what used to be Sol Eugenio Productions which specialized in producing mall shows and mini-concerts.

The productions company was formally launched as a full production house in 1994 in Davao City. It pioneered in bringing in Manila designers for gala fashions shows and producing beauty pageants.

In 1998, it ventured into organizing corporate events in Cebu, the same year it was renamed Sempa. (FREEMAN)