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Smaller players tout size advantage
restless talent. “Advertising agencies are not capital-intensive undertakings. A few people with enough talent can successfully start one because it is talent that clients want. And there are enough clients who do not require multinational accoutrements in their agency,” says Gie Gatchalian, managing director of JRomero. While having a cache of cash can spare start-ups some sleepless nights, agencies point to two crucial ingredients to ease birthing pains: Brain power to deliver creative bang and relationships. “This is one of my realizations in launching the agency – the Filipino client is very relationship-driven,” says Seven A.D.’s CEO Teeny Gonzalez. “If they remember you for the work you have done, they don’t care if you are in a big agency or not. They trust you. That’s why some big clients have had the courage to go with us very early on.”
In interviews with adobo, indie operators showed the kind of spunk pint-sized Davids need going up against the industry’s Goliaths. More so since scale cannot be ignored with brands demanding integration across multiple touchpoints that oftentimes extend to large activation efforts. “I personally do not see the difference between independents such as our agency and the big networks as far as the work is concerned,” says John Amon, co-founder of AMP/Amon Manze & Partners, which set the town talking a year after it launched by “defacing” the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Large sections were blacked out in a false cover to highlight censorship and oppression. “We love slugging it out and beating the big boys. We have never thought of ourselves as small, so we bring out the big guns each and every time and have had an excellent batting average as far as new business and organic brand growth are concerned,” Amon adds (see Indie DNA). IXM co-founder Third Domingo is equally spirited in footing the indie horn: “Clients need fresh, new ideas. They desire bold perspectives that make sense. They don’t get that anymore from the ‘big, networked, acronymed agencies’ – not my words. As long as there is demand for true creativity, there will always be a supply of independents.” Independents like Aspac – which is adding new disciplines like brand cosultancy design and digital and becoming more of a mid-sized player – see their size as an advantage. “Going
September-October 2013
adobomagazine