The New Order

The world of marketing and advertising is traditionally likened to a kaleidoscope. Each time you turn this cylindrical optical toy made of mirrors and colored shapes, it creates shifting symmetrical patterns. Silhouettes, sizes, images and color combinations vary in every rotation. It represents creativity in advertising when twists and turns result in “Eureka, I found it!” moments.

In today’s practice, the changing relationships of the multiple players are even more pronounced. It can now be compared to a snow globe, where each shake of the crystal ball-like object rearranges everything. The elements are disturbed and put in an unstable state. The rattled pieces then slowly fall down, and the rattler waits with bated breath for how the perturbed parts will come together once they settle down again. For sure, the action will alter the preceding landscape and present a different look.

The snow globe is a visual metaphor for advertising, a business that thrives on quivers, disruptions and modifications to form a new order. Advertising is the art and science of shaking that reshuffles current states and fashions fresh formulas. And the new order in the practice of the craft is simply the recognition that the advertising terrain is quickly evolving and that advertising people can no longer refute that an upheaval is happening.

Due to this phenomenon, advertising practitioners are cautioned not to expect that this year’s 20th Philippine Ad Congress (PAC) will be the same as it was in the past 19 stagings of this much-awaited, well-attended biennial event of the industry. As Campaigns & Grey’s Yoly Ong, overall chair of the 20th PAC, says, “The revolution involves the entire spectrum of the colorful world of the advertising industry. That revolution doesn’t just involve marketers, media, advertisers, artists, producers, directors, models and writers. Everything and everyone advertising touches catches a whiff of this new order, and once it’s in you, it’s in you. Whoever you are, wherever you are, you are part of ‘The New Order,’ the theme of this year’s PAC.”

The New Order covers the shakes and stirs that constantly clatter advertising’s existence — sometimes violently, often gently. The jangling brings a level of resistance from all fronts, but the process gives birth to newfangled insights, ideas, executions and consumer responses. “Any idea that is ripe and subject to painful and uncomfortable transfiguration will necessarily be a hot, hopefully appealing, if not problematic, theme,” Ong enthuses. At the forthcoming ad meet, that uncomfortable transfiguration will come under scrutiny and is expected to open heated debates and spectacular fireworks. Old dogs that don’t catch the drift will sink in the surge of ideas and inundations.

And what are these shakes, rattles and rolls? Media departments in a conventional ad agency setup detach themselves and declare independence. Advertisers challenge the commission and fee systems, forcing ad agencies to look for other sources of revenue. Media companies offer ad creative services and direct media placements, thereby competing with the services of production houses and in-house ad agency creatives. Demands for other marketing communication tools as substitutes for more expensive advertising implementation like PR, events management and brand activation have rapidly increased.

It should be noted that ad cataclysm didn’t happen overnight, nor does it end abruptly, reminding advertising people that major changes in the industry have happened in the last 10 years. Ong stresses that the transformation occurred after a long period of slow change, making ad men and women realize that things have evolved into a newfangled creation — like a child’s face morphing into a teenager’s ever so subtly, making them call out to the kid, “Ang laki na pala ng pinagbago mo (How much you’ve changed).” And yet that kid is somebody seen almost every day, and during that time they haven’t noticed anything.

“With The New Order, expect nothing but the best in this year’s Ad Congress. It’s the gathering of the most creative minds in the country — those who think of big ideas, and ad professionals whose messages mold the minds and influence the behavior of a whole nation. Because as boundaries disappear and new systems and affiliations are put in place, he that rules “The Idea” rules a whole new advertising world.

The Advertising Board of the Philippines (Adboard), led by chairman Andre Kahn, invites advertising professionals, as well as teachers and students interested in learning the newest in the industry, to be part of the 20th PAC to be held on November 21 to 24 at the Subic Bay Convention Center. Recognizing that around 5,000 people are expected to be part of the event, Subic has begun its own transformation as early as now. The industrial and commercial areas are being spruced up to ensure comfort in the business sessions and other activities, and fun in the social and athletic events.

As in past congresses, the three-day event, hosted by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies in the Philippines (4As), will cover mind-blowing lectures from the most knowledgeable, most experienced people in various fields of media and advertising, friendly creative and sports competitions, nonstop parties and merry-making, and the much-awaited PAC ARAW Awards to recognize and celebrate the finest works in the advertising industry for the past two years.

Joining Ong in the organizing committee of this year’s congress are Boy Pangilinan of Mediacom, chief of staff; and committee chairpersons Pat Go of URC and Susan Dimacali of DDB, Program; McCann Erickson’s Raul Castro and PC&V’s Socky Pitargue, Creative; Matec Villanueva of Publicis Manila and Tessie Celestino-Howard of Airtime Marketing, Administrative; Meckoy Quiogue of GMA 7 and Jun Nicdao of Manila Broadcasting Company, PR & Publicity; Inez Reyes of Jollibee Foods Corporation, Ways and Means; Carlo Llave of OAAP and Lorna Tabuena of Production Village, Special Events; Emily Abrera, Oversight, and Vanne Tomada, 4AsP executive director. 

The New Order is all about change, the only constant in this world. There are fears to be conquered and risks to overcome, but one thing is for sure: the Pinoy advertising professional will face up to the challenge, fight its fiercest battle and come out a winner.

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For inquiries, log on to http://www.20thadcongress-theneworder.com or call the Adboard Secretariat at 894-3076, 894-0838 and 812-5622.

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E-mail bongo@vasia.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.