12 women thriving in APAC: Tanke Tankeko

Tanke Tankeko, executive creative director, strategist at large | THE PHILIPPINES

Tell us about your career path and achievements.

My career path is purely intuitive. Back in college, I took AB Journalism simply because the course offered respite from trigonometry and calculus. I was also self-aware in that I know I’m better with words, had a natural fondness for writing, literature, and the humanities. Little did I know that it was the perfect bed for my career in advertising as it gave me a competitive advantage, allowing me to be a hybrid, being both a strategist as well as an ECD.

I started out as a copywriter at Ace Saatchi and Saatchi and stayed with the company for over eight years until I was ACD. I moved to TBWA as CD. Was spun off to be chief creative officer of Creative Juice/Manila. I retired at 36 to be a chef and restaurateur. But the call of advertising and strategic planning has been incessant despite my move to a new industry. Eventually, I’ve found myself servicing brands again like Magnum Ice Cream, Bonchon Chicken, and political aspirants – from mayors to governors, senators and even a former president and most recently, through my former ad agency, the current President of the Philippines.

In so far as my career goes, I am most proud to hold over five Ads of the Year awards, hundreds of local and international metals ranging from Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze from the local Ad Congress, New York Festivals, London International Awards, Ad Fest, shortlists at the Cannes and is the first Filipino to win a One Show Pencil in 2004 for “Christmas Wish”, a 30-second radio spot for the Philippine General Hospital, when I was CD at TBWA\Santiago\Mangada\Puno. Oh, and I also judged the interactive category at New York Festivals.

Who is your role model?

Mmm… there isn’t one, but there are many that I admire for their specific traits. From the local industry, Melvin Mangada, chief creative officer and one of the managing partners of TBWA\Santiago\Puno\Mangada, is one of the biggest influences on my career. He made me comfortable with parallel thinking, celebrated my crazy and found genius in whatever madness my mind could muster when I was a young and wild copywriter. He was passionate, focused and unrelenting when it comes to hunting for the best idea.

There was also Jimmy Santiago, former ECD of Ace Saatchi and Saatchi (now one of the managing partners at TBWA\Manila), where I started out, and my first creative director, Robert Labayen, for whom I had a great appreciation for digesting a creative brief and tapping into the power of insights to effectively strike a social nerve.

In terms of writing, my style is a confluence of all the great writers I have been introduced to through books, films, theatre, graphic novels, and all the music I listened to, from Andrew Lloyd Webber, Burt Bacharach and Van Morrison, to Freddie Mercury, Stevie Nicks and Lou Reed.

Do you think there’s a glass ceiling in advertising in the Philippines?

I don’t think there is such. There have been a lot of great female ECDs around – Merlee Jayme of Dentsu Jayme Syfu, Leigh Reyes of Lowe and Trisha Uy of MMI, a lot of CDs at large such as Peachy Bretana, Judith Albano, and even a whole lot more we lent to the world such as Sheila de la Cuesta, Joni Caparas and Tin Sanchez. 

What are the sort of challenges you have faced as a woman in making it to the top of your profession?

Apart from the occasional nasty bout of PMS, I really couldn’t think of any.

What is your view on the belief that women do not want management roles in advertising?

He must be suffering from verbal diarrhea coupled with temporary dementia, or perhaps even possession when he said that. Well, I hope at the very least.

What do you make of the claim that women aren’t as creative as men?

It’s just like tall men who have said they were clueless about how their wives or girlfriends have been cheating on them, or slowly poisoning their food, or how much these women in their lives are contributing more than they do, if not economically, socially or societally for their very own psychological well-being by giving them the illusion that they are smaller than their men to help these poor guys compensate for their shortcomings.

What advice would you give to a woman who aspires to be a creative director in the Philippines?

Women or men or anyone in between, first and foremost, be authentic. No one fakes his or her way to the top. You have to be true to yourself, to what you know or don’t know, understand or don’t understand. Armour yourself with experience. Broaden your horizons; take in everything you can, good, bad and everything in between. Be fearless in that way, but not stupid enough to get yourself stuck in the muck (though I should say from experience that that’s where the some of the best stuff lies).

Be tolerant of different points of view. Be true to your clients. Advertising is a service industry. Creatives and their account manager counterparts have the duty to provide real, effective, and well thought of solutions to their clients. To do so, you have to put in all the necessary hours and focus to understand their brands and products, their markets and most of all their desires and unmet needs.

Know the competitive landscape. Study patterns, benchmarks, and best practices. That’s the only way you will ever arm yourself with knowledge and understanding. Listen to your gut, but have the discipline to really dig deep for data. When logic and emotions meet, that’s where the best solutions lie.

Never let ego get in the way for the hunt for the best idea, but do use it like a hunter chasing for its prey. It’s a team hunt, not a solitary one, though there are times you have to take the initial quest alone.

Most of all, never compromise yourself. Unless you really love where you are, and what you do, and believe in what you invest your time, mind, heart and spirit in to, you’re wasting your precious life.