Marketing royalties honored at the 37th Agora Awards
The Philippine STAR’s EVP Lucien Dy Tioco among nine feted this year
Each year, since 1979, the Philippine Marketing Association ( PMA) has been recognizing innovative, creative and intrepid Filipino companies, entrepreneurs, business professionals and social institutions that have contributed greatly in the advancement of marketing excellence in the country through the highly coveted Agora Awards.
Now on its 37th year, the PMA, led by its current president Pinky Yee, awarded the prestigious accolade to another set of distinguished marketing professionals who excelled in the past year in their respective marketing fields and sectors.
During the 37th Agora Awards Night held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, four companies, four marketing professionals and a charitable institution were awarded the Agora after months of exhaustive screening and judging spearheaded by awards director Alpha Gracias Allanigui and search chairperson Maeyeth Cadungog.
THE WINNERS
The Agora Awards Board of Judges, led by Gardenia Bakeries Philippines president and CEO Simplicio Umali, Jr., named the following companies as winners of this year’s Agora: Cache Apparel for Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship – Small Scale; Nutramedica, Inc. for Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship – Medium Scale; The Medical City for Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship – Large Scale; and Global Food Solutions, Inc. (GFSI) for Outstanding Achievement in Export Marketing.
Also feted with the Agora were the following marketing professionals: Dr. Roberto Arguelles of St. Louis University (SLU) Baguio for Outstanding Achievement in Marketing Education; Cristina Formosa- Dolendo of Four Seasons Hotel Shenzhen for Outstanding Achievement in Overseas Marketing; Asia Brewery VP for Non- Alcohol Marketing, Business Development and International Business Joseph Cruel for Outstanding Achievement in Marketing Management; and Philstar Media Group’s very own EVP Lucien Dy Tioco for Outstanding Achievement in Marketing Communications.
Likewise, the PMA awarded the Agora for Outstanding Achievement in Advocacy Marketing to the Angelo King Foundation, Inc. (AKFI).
Only one Agora Award wasn’t given this year — the Agora Award for Marketing Company of the Year. According to Umali, all the well-known companies nominated this year did not
meet the expected excellence level. These companies, nevertheless, can still vie for the same Agora category again next year.
Among the companies that won the Agora this year, it was the owner of Cache Apparel, fashion designer Fernandina “Ditta” Sandico who was most surprised by the selection.
Her small company employs only a handful of abaca weavers and sewers in the rural areas of Catanduanes and the Mangyan people of Oriental Mindoro. But her company’s stylishly designed and beautifully crafted bags and purses has won the hearts of fashion icons both here and abroad, and was even exhibited in the Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam.
“Who would have ever thought I would be winning this award?” Sandico said in her acceptance speech, wherein she talked about her unorthodox upbringing and being exposed to the life of the Mangyan people through her father, and which led her to becoming a fashion designer and helping give the Mangyan people a viable livelihood.
“I have heard that Agora stands for ingenuity, uniqueness, innovation and resilience. I would think the value of resilience has meant so much to me in the past years. Throughout all the calamities, destruction, even my own brokenness, not to mention, my broken heart, I still thank the Lord for all this because he has given me the strength to move on and overcome the pain. And now, I just thank the past for all these,” Sandico said.
Like Sandico’s Cache Apparel, the company that Sheila Mae Velilla founded in 2004, Nutramedica, Inc., started small, as a maker of homegrown natural products that had the potential to penetrate the global market and compete with imported products.
After a series of birth pains, the company had its biggest break yet in 2009 with the launch of Novuhair, an innovative, Filipino- made, hair- loss remedy made from natural ingredients. Since its introduction, Novuhair has made a name for itself as an effective, safe and natural solution to hair loss. It is widely sold not just in the Philippines but also in other countries. The success of Novuhair has led the company to developing other natural remedies and products.
“This is indeed a strong validation that our company is doing great in the fields of entrepreneurship and marketing. With all my endeavors, it is my best hope to uphold the essence of this award and to bring forth many more significant accomplishments in the field of entrepreneurship,” Velilla, who is also president and CEO of Nutramedica, Inc., said after receiving the award.
Another company that’s making waves both locally and globally is food manufacturer and exporter Global Food Solutions, Inc. ( GFSI). Like any other company, GFSI has had its humble beginnings, starting as a small operation with only 30 employees in 2009, and producing goods such as tropical fruit preserves, frozen fruits and vegetables, pasteurized shrimp paste and salted tiny shrimp fry, said GFSI Sales and Marketing head Nicole Young-Chu.
Now, the company employs over 500 employees, is a food manufacturer certified by the HACCP, USFDA and halal and is an accredited supplier of food packs to all US military bases worldwide.
For Chu, receiving the Agora this year is a dream come true, as her father, Philip Young, was also an Agora awardee in the same category in 2004. “Truly, this recognition is all about the teamwork, innovativeness and dedication of the GSFI family and we are one in our vision which
is passion with excellence,” Chu said in her acceptance speech.
Among the companies feted in this year’s Agora, it’s The Medical City ( TMC) that has the biggest footprint. Composed of seven major hospitals and 32 clinics here and abroad, TMC has been providing Filipinos with affordable and quality health care for the almost 50 years now. As one of the few Filipino hospital groups that have expanded its reach abroad, TMC serves as a testament to the hospitality, service and familial quality of Filipino health care service.
“This award is a recognition of our continuous eff ort to advocate for the integral role patients play in their realization of their health goals. Dr. Bengzon has always believed that health is a fundamental human right —a right that substantially defines the quality of life of individuals and societies. Unfortunately, this basic right is not available in many communities in our country. As a response, the men and women of TMC have embraced the responsibility of turning this basic human right into a reality. But every right comes with the responsibility wherein patients are co-responsible for their own health. This is TMC’s value proposition of ‘where our patients are partners,’” said TMC marketing director Jay Bengzon, representing his father TMC president and CEO Dr. Alfredo Bengzon, in a prepared speech.
PERSONIFICATIONS OF MARKETING EXCELLENCE
This year’s roster of individual Agora awardees personifies the values of hard work, passion, determination, ingenuity, innovativeness and tenacity in their pursuit of marketing excellence. They are either business executives that have pushed the boundaries of marketing in order to make their companies stand out, or educators committed to training the next generation of value-laden marketing professionals. Leading the pack is The Philippine
STAR’s Dy Tioco, whose 29 years in the 30-year newspaper was spent in helping navigate the company toward market leadership and, more recently, toward embracing the digital age. Now in his 50s, Dy Tioco started in
The STAR at 22 years old as a mere branch coordinator for its Classified Ads section. His love and passion for the paper provided him with a personal mission to drive it into becoming the market leader in the newspaper industry, which it did in 2006 when it won the Agora for Marketing Company of the Year. And even with that success, he continues to push the envelope for what the company can still achieve by transforming The STAR from a print newspaper into a print-based multimedia enterprise.
“One of the things that I’m really driven by even until today is my love for The
STAR. I am truly honored and humbled to receive the Agora award, especially with the fact that you get to receive this award once and that it is in recognition of work that is performed in accordance with the highest standards of excellence,” Dy Tioco said in his acceptance speech.
Like Dy Tioco, Asia Brewery’s Cruel also transformed his company toward sustaining and further growing its business of Cobra Energy Drink, Absolute Distilled Water, Summit Drinking Water, Vitamilk Soy Drink and Sunkist Soda, among others.
Under his management of the brewery’s International Business and Strategic Partnerships division, he was able to pave the way for Asia Brewery to forge partnerships with equally established companies abroad such as Coors Light, Heineken and Tiger Beer.
“This recognition is a validation of how dreams can turn into a reality when passion, hard work, and most especially, teamwork are put together,” Cruel said.
Also bringing her brand of marketing excellence abroad is Four Seasons Hotel’s Dolendo. In her 37 years in the hotel marketing industry, she spent the latter 26 years honing her craft internationally. With her prowess in how to best package a hotel’s top- notch services in order to attract potential clients, her skill in working with different nationalities, as well as her ability to be in touch with the varying wants and needs of different nationalities in a hotel service, she was able to make every hotel she served in well known and well loved.
“In all my years abroad, I have seen no matter the race, color or religion the person’s ability to strive for excellence depends on one’s passion for the job. Does one elevate it to the level of craft or is it merely a nine to five job to get by? As they say, it’s not about the destination but the journey, so it has been for me in the last 37 years. As my mother once advised, ‘Pick the job you’ll be happiest with and everything will fall into place.’ Well, mother knows best,” Dolendo said.
The lone marketing educator in the quartet of individual Agora awardees is SLU-Baguio’s Dr. Arguelles. A professor for the last 23 years, he has realized two of the important values for changing the lives of students — passion for teaching and love for learning. As a published management researcher and as president of the Association of Marketing Educators Philippines, he has helped share his passion for teaching and love of learning to future generations of marketing professionals.
“We teach for the love of our subjects and students. We teach because we have passionate interest in our subjects to which we have dedicated our lives. We teach because we care deeply about the intellectual and personal growth of our students. We teach because we are intensely, profoundly and passionately in love. That is the heart of marketing education,” Arguelles said in his acceptance speech.
HELPING PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES
As always, the Agora has recognized not only companies who have achieved great feats in marketing and entrepreneurship but also social institutions that have advanced benevolent advocacies in an effective way and persuaded people to take up the advocacy.
That remarkable feat in advocacy marketing was achieved in the past year by the Angelo King Foundation, Inc. (AKFI), a multi-sectoral grant foundation that creates opportunities for self-reliance, development and excellence in local socioeconomics, education and culture, health and spiritual sectors.
Established in 1978 by self- made entrepreneur and philanthropist Angelo King, the foundation has remained committed to alleviating poverty and empowering people through its various socio-civic projects and grants.
AKFI president Terry Kingsu accepted the award on behalf of the foundation. “This award is a valuable gift in time for Angelo King’s 90th birthday on Nov. 11. This is a life-changing milestone for the foundation and encourages us to level up in making dreams come true and helping people help themselves,” Kingsu said.