Ogilvy BrandCamp held to support social entrepreneurs

THE pandemic was a wakeup call for businesses to rethink their growth strategies given evershifting realities. SMEs especially have been hard hit, navigating online through lockdown to position themselves better for recovery.

Ogilvy BrandCamp, on its third year, pivoted towards supporting emerging Filipino businesses that are designed at its core to “make the world better through shared value.” Switching to a virtual platform, the agency’s senior leaders led by Ogilvy Group CEO Elly Puyat recently ran a two-day workshop, guiding select social-enterprise leads in finetuning their own integrated marketing communications blueprints for these times.

Ogilvy Strategy Head and Training Director Toni Tiu, Group Executive Creative Director Mike Sicam, Executive Creative Director Dino Ocampo, Consulting Lead Manny Gonzales, and Corporate Branding Managing Director and Influence Lead Leah Huang took turns tackling how the participating businesses can further sharpen their relevance, distinctiveness, accessibility and credibility. They were joined by more of the agency’s marketing communication experts in follow-up mentoring sessions, from where the ‘faculty’ will choose the best action plan that Ogilvy will help bring to life.

Ogilvy Philippines CEO Elly Puyat said, “The agency was founded on David Ogilvy’s entrepreneurial spirit—exactly the kind of spirit we want to encourage in Filipino brands. Our first BrandCamp three years ago shared our brand of marketing communications to an exclusive set of Filipino SMEs, screened for their fresh takes on products, services, and industries. This round, invitations are based on how the business models integrate giving back to communities. Now there’s the power of brands—for inclusivity, for raising each other during crisis.”

Among Ogilvy BrandCamp 3 participants are AMAMI, which revives Philippine jewelry tradition by empowering local craftsmen and their trade; and FHMoms, which enables home-based economic opportunities for mothers. PeoplePods is a corporate solution for dignified affordable housing for “Bottomof-the-Pyramid” workers. Mano Amiga Academy, an accessible K-12 school with international standards, provides scholarships and sustainable livelihood to empower low-income families to break out of poverty.