Independent Creative Consultant
Brand Hammer (Self-Employed)
Total years of experience :18 years, 4 Months
I left the walls of the ad agency to venture out on my own. I would service my own set of clients, wearing the hats of researcher, strategic planner, writer, designer, and account liason, among others. My client roster from different time zones as well as my extremely fluid pool of support talent would teach me the importance of time-management and cost-efficiency. I also learned to tap the vast power of the internet: a typical project would involve a client from Australia or the U.S., a writer in Brazil, a Graphic Designer in Romania, a Web Developer in Mumbai and a local photographer here and there -- all coordinated remotely and in real-time. In one fell swoop, I expanded my horizons and made the world awesomely small.
On my continued hunt for challenges, I found the Nestlé Breakfast Cereals account. None of the other teams wanted it because it had a very small advertising budget, because most of its advertising material were canned, and partly because Asia was not a cereal consumer market. My team and I looked past the obstacles and concentrated our creativity on surmounting them. We “stole” the account from its present group. And we found clever ways to use their canned ads, and cunning placements for them. We consistently surpassed our client’s growth forecasts which impressed the local and global clients so much that they asked us to handle Nestlé Breakfast Cereals/General Mills’ Asia-Pacific regional account. By that time, every team wanted the account.
given that Asia is not a cereal consumer market.
During my brief stay in GASSO, I was put in charge an account that was on the verge of leaving the agency. As a new face and representative of the company, I deemed it imperative to establish an impeccable rapport with the clients: I gave them creative yet practical solutions that earned their trust as a creative partner and their respect as one who valued their business as they did. This not only kept them in the running with their much bigger rivals, but also kept them from exhausting their limited resources. Moreover, it kept them from taking their business elsewhere and extend their contract with GASSO.
I would spend 10 years in the same agency; the agency was changing for me. I would train under the tutelage of the best minds in the country. I would win awards. It would be exhilirating. But it would not be what I consider my greatest accomplishment in Publicis. Rather, it was how I handled Compaq/Hewlett-Packard account: The agency was going through a tumultuous transition and I often found myself alone unsupported by a team -- I had no boss, I had no writer. So I wrote copy myself while training a fresh graduate how to be a cutting edge copywriter. Guided by phone calls and emails from Publicis-Saatchi, Singapore’s creative director for the HP account, we were able to creatively and effectively address the rampant issue of counterfeit products that was devastating our clients’ business. I found that I lived for challenges; and I would spend the next 10 years hunting for them.
DDB was my first break. I considered myself lucky to land a job sans a college degree. I often felt that I had no idea what was going on. So I spent my every waking hour --an inhuman number of hours-- pushing myself, until I found myself pushing the envelope instead. Apparently, my lack of formal training allowed me to craft unorthodox solutions. Soon I was winning the respect and recognition of my peers and superiors, as well as a few awards on the side. And not long after, I was asked to spearhead the agency’s thrust into digital art and media. This was like handing a junkie the keys to the pharmacy.
• Studied two years of Architecture • Switched major to Visual Communications
• Studied under The International Baccalaureate Programme • Won awards for Excellence in Sculpture • Incorporated art/graphic design in innovative ways to foster school spirit • Set up a T-Shirt printing business
