Fountain of ideas

Last year, the Manila-based agency formed a digital company called Di9it in a bid to harness the stronger mix of digital advertising through a full-service digital creative agency.

"Since the day we opened our doors, we've never lost that feeling of being the industry's 'underdog' and pushed ourselves aggressively against competition. This has made DM9 JaymeSyfu/Di9it what it is today - an award-winning and business-building agency," she says.

Hard work paid off as the agency reaped awards in the advertising industry, not just in the Philippines but also overseas.

In 2013, DM9 JaymeSyfu was the first agency from Philippines to have won a Cannes Grand Prix Lion and a D&AD pencil, both highly prestigious international awards for the design and advertising industry.

The agency was ranked the Philippines' No. 1 in the 2010 Campaign Brief Asia Ranking, and awarded the first Campaign Asia-Pacific Creative Agency of the Year for the Philippines in 2012, and garnered the same honor in 2013.

The Cannes Grand Prix Lion was given to the agency for its Smart's Txtbks campaign.

Smart's Txtbks is a corporate social responsibility endeavor that redefined textbook usage in the country where thousands of public primary school students carry heavy bags every day. While students in developed countries take advantage of laptops, tablets and e-readers to learn, Filipino students pass along textbooks one school year after another.

Using analog mobile phones, the campaign brought Smart Communications and book publishing houses together to condense lessons and exercises in 160-character text messages which were then programmed into the inboxes of inactive surplus SIM cards and repackaged into new smart textbooks. Launched in 2013, the innovation that transformed old phones into e-readers continues to gain ground.

In May, the campaign also won for DM9 JaymeSyfu two grand prizes in the 2014 New York Festivals International Advertising Awards, namely, in the creative marketing effectiveness competition under the low-budget category, and in the digital competition under the mobile category. In September, the campaign won a Grand CLIO award in New York.

After the success of Smart's Txtbks, DM9 JaymeSyfu received offers to roll out the idea in other countries through international organizations, starting with South Africa.

Jayme says, her goal has always been to produce great work rather than aim for awards.

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