Passion Patrol invades Manila

Last March 25 to 27, The JWT Passion Patrol came to Manila for the first time since its inception. The Passion Patrol is JWT Asia’s regional creative evaluation session and is held every quarter. Four times a year, the region’s Creative head honchos gather together from all corners of the continent to review the latest work the Asian offices.

The rating system, as devised in 2005, is a Global 1 to 10 rating system used to evaluate the agency product. The scoring method is based on how much time the audience is willing to spend with the material presented to them. It is the standard by which every single piece of work we come up with is judged against.

This year, Manila hosted The Q1 Patrol, with CEO Jos Ortega and ECD Dave Ferrer welcoming our colleagues from neighboring offices. The guests of honor included Tay Guan Hin out of Singapore–regional ECD for Southeast Asia and Global CD for Lux, Sheung Yan Lo of China, also known as Ma Yan–regional ECD of Northeast Asia including all of our offices in China, Pinit Chantaprateep–Deputy Chairman and CCO of JWT Bangkok, Jun Fukawa–ECD of JWT Tokyo, Andrew Fraser–ECD of JWT Sydney, Ramsey Naja–Regional ECD of The Middle East and Ivan Wibowo, ECD of JWT Jakarta.

Together with our own Dave Ferrer, the crew spent three days holed up in the freezing chamber known as the Juniper Board Room, reviewing the latest output from all our Asian offices. They were kept organized by Regional Creative Officer Betty Tsai of Shanghai. Discussions ranged from praising, critiquing to even dissing work, and touched on how to improve the quality of work.

At sundown, through the duration of their stay, our guests were given a taste of the Manila night life. Wednesday night had them dining at Chef Laudico’s where they sampled gourmet adobo, kare-kare and other local dishes while a storm raged outside. The following night, they were escorted to Mamou in Serendra. True to their non-conformist ways, the group was at one of the most delectable steak joints in town, yet hardly anyone ordered the steak.

Several members of the JWT Tribe joined them for the two dinners, to get to know our creative leaders better, pick their brains and partake of the complimentary fancy chow.

The Passion judging sessions wrapped up on Friday, at around noon, ending a half-week long series of grueling debates and meticulous scrutinizing.

Friday afternoon saw JWT Manila hold another First Press session, with four of the Creative gurus regaling the audience with words of wisdom from their rich collective experience. It was a rare opportunity to hear from so many of the top creative minds in the region together, without having to go to AdFest or something of the sort. In attendance were several members from creatives, account management, finance, design, and of course, some of our clients.

The most frequent Manila visitor of the bunch, Guan kicked things off by showing the top scoring work from Q1, which included a couple of pieces from our own office. Among the materials showcased were a funny, unabashedly cheesy TVC from JWT Malaysia for a local cheese snack (starring a recognizable brand-new American President), a revolutionary way of using the Post Office for KitKat from Tokyo and a short film done for Lux, which starred Catherine Zeta Jones.

Ma Yan followed suit, and discussed what JWT China was all about. His talk was quite enlightening and timely, especially with JWT Shanghai recently being named Agency of the Year at the Asian AdFest in Thailand. He described their unparalleled understanding of the Chinese market, their driven resolve for creative work, and their cultural roots being evident in their work. These key points were puncutated by several pieces of work, including guerilla efforts for Anta shoes in the face of huge adspend from competitors during the Beijing Olympics, the AdFest-sweeping Shan Shui ads and their world famous Bruce Lee viral Campaign for Nokia.

Imagine selling out all on-order stock in 5 days. That's what this did for Nokia China.

Soft-spoken Pinit Chantaprateep shared some of the delightful TV spots which Bangkok is known for. The work out of Thailand continues to exhibit their quirky brand of humor and still prevails as some of the most offbeat, entertaining films coming out of the Far East. He ended with an entertaining selection of JWT Bangkok’s recent commercials which kept the audience in stitches.

The energetic Ramsey Naja finished up with an hour and a half long but extremely engaging discourse about what he describes as the Blur–where imagined reality and actual reality intersect and the lines blur, hence the term. He spoke at length about simplifying the creative process, and how true brand belief in advertising was akin to religion in its power to inspire faith. His talk was peppered with both classic and recent legendary ads, all results of simplifying the creative process, and all sterling examples of work and thinking we should be aspiring to.

Soon, nightfall struck, and the JWT Manila Tribe showed the Passion Patrol cats how we end the week in our neck of the woods.

Championing Pinoy Hospitality, Dave and Jos took the Passion contingent out on a night they won’t soon forget. First up was a fancy dinner at Lolo Dad’s in Ayala which would prove to be the last "dignified" setting for the week. Shortly after, they found themselves at Attica Bar in A-Venue for a very unique experience.

The calm before the storm had the distinguished Ma Yan chomping on a cigar while the rest settled in their seats and ordered their choice of liquid courage. On stage, the live band started to set up. But as soon as the band was ready, and the set list drawn up, the action picked up something fierce. It wasn't long before everyone was chugging Red Horse and rocking their lungs out via Rockeoke!

Rockeoke, in case you're not hip to the Pinoy scene, is essentially performance karaoke with a live Rock Band. Dave got the ball rolling by belting out The Cure's Friday I'm In Love .

Words alone won’t do the revelry justice. (Incidentally, there are photos and videos floating about, so beware!) Suffice it to say, the night saw Ramsey, Ma Yan and Guan live out their rockstar fantasies to the musical stylings of the Johnnies. The trio even joined together to give us their rendition of Hard Day’s Night.

Not to be outdone, Jos and the rest of the Manila crowd took their turns at the microphone. Art Director and rocker Bob Cruz even showcased his badass guitar skills when he jammed with the band and dished out a wicked solo.

The Johnnies capped the spectacle off with one last set that had everyone present singing their hearts out in unison (well, sort of in unison) to the tune of "Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You" which can only be aptly described as very “GMA Supershow.”

Going great lengths to ensure that our visitors left with more than just additional Facebook contacts and tagged photos, Dave presented our colleagues with a uniquely Pinoy parting gift which featured a commemorative shirt designed by Katrina Encanto and a CD of Eraserheads hits compiled by Rachel Villanueva.

The night ended with a visibly pleased Ma Yan and Betty Tsai contemplating the possibilities of future Passion Patrol sessions in Manila. So start prepping your pipes everyone.

Huge Congratulations are due Dave Ferrer, Jos Ortega, Maggie Madayag, Rachel Villanueva, Ge Madriaga-Mapa, Ramon Alfonso, Cez Golez, Kara Bautista, Tricci Alonzo, Katrina Encanto, Robert Reños, Amay Ridera, Peter Espina, Jesse Caube, Tolits Torres, Niki Rojas, Diane Fernando, Tesscafé Jumawan, Bernard Dizon and everyone else who helped make it an unforgettable Passion Patrol Q1. As Dave noted in his email, thanks to everyone's efforts, our guests took home very good impressions of the Philippines and considered this "the best Passion ever!"