From Billboard to Boat to Bronze: Havas Media Ortega gets an accolade at the 2019 Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity

Havas Media Ortega bags a Bronze Award at the 2019 Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity in the Media Category (Ambient Media: Large Scale), for its innovative crisis response to typhoons and floods entitled “Project S.A.V.E”.
The agency pioneered this initiative with Valenzuela City, one of the most flood-prone cities in Manila the capital of the Philippines, with the vision of turning underutilized resources into life-saving devices. This project developed and designed the materials with advice from volunteer first responders, local government officials, and national disaster coordinators.
Project S.A.V.E, which stands for Signage & Adspace Versatile for Emergencies, aims to equip cities with emergency equipment come floods, earthquakes, and other calamities through innovative use of outdoor marketing materials. Billboards, banners, and waiting sheds are turned into detachable disaster-ready boats, life rafts, spineboards, and other disaster response tools using outdoor ad materials from past campaigns, which would otherwise have been thrown away. The idea takes advantage of the easy visibility of outdoor ads. Quick to spot and accessible to the public, residents can quickly remember that these tools are at their disposal should they be needed.
“This year, our battle cry with the Havas Group is to create a meaningful difference to brands, businesses and the lives of the people we work with. We’re honored to have been recognized by Spikes Asia as we continue to help the community in an inventive way that they’re open to,” says Hermie de Leon, Managing Partner of Havas Ortega and CEO of Havas Media Group.
Rommell Garcia, Business Director of Havas Creative who led this project, also shares, "We hope that Project S.A.V.E will inspire the industry and get the momentum going in coming up with ideas that can make a meaningful difference in Filipino lives."
“We are grateful that our long experience with floods has taught us that more access to stretchers, emergency tents, and life rafts preserves lives. We’re grateful that this need was able to be executed creatively and was able to gain recognition in the ASEAN region. We do hope that this can set a new benchmark for the community to respond to crisis swiftly – anytime and anywhere” asserts City Mayor Rex Gatchalian of Valenzuela City.

The long play to Project S.A.V.E is being able to deploy these structures in other towns and municipalities that share the same predicament as Valenzuela.