MANILA, PHILIPPINES — On January 13, Monday, 4As Philippines kicked off the week with the local competition for Young Spikes 2025, gathering young creatives from the country’s top agencies for a 24-hour brief for client Save the Children. Originally, the Gold winners would go on to represent the Philippines at Spikes Asia 2025. However, 4As Philippines surprised the winning team at the end with an exciting reveal: instead of winning a spot at the Singapore-based festival, they would actually be flying to France for the 2025 edition of the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
This year, the brief was to propose a digital campaign for Save the Children to reduce teenage pregnancies in the Philippines. The brief was given at the HIT Productions office in Makati on Monday afternoon, with entrants expected to send in their proposals by the same time on Tuesday. The jury convened on Wednesday to determine the shortlists, and on Thursday, finalists were invited to the Dentsu Creative office to pitch their ideas before the live awarding of winners that same afternoon.
The 2025 Young Spikes local competition jury included: Nikki Golez, Creative Director at Jayme HQ; Maan Bautista, Executive Creative Director at VML Manila; Tin Sanchez, Executive Creative Director at Publicis Manila; Maki Correa, Deputy Executive Creative Director at Seven A.D.; Martin Flordeliza, Associate Creative Director at Leo Burnett Manila; Jao Bautista, Executive Creative Director at Propel Manila; and Gabie Osorio, Creative Director at MullenLowe TREYNA.
The competition concluded with three winning teams: Bronze was awarded to NJYN’s Go Estargo and Very Loranzana for “The Pregnancy Frequency,” while Silver was granted to Leo Burnett Manila’s Gianina Azores and Chili Ramon for “Unwanted Uniforms.” The coveted Gold was won by Team Propel Manila’s “ManikAI: Dolls of Change” concept by Art Directors Michaela “Maxx” Macalinao and Jacob Banog (who, notably, was adobo Magazine’s first-ever Portfolio Night Manila winner back in 2023).
To celebrate their win, adobo Magazine caught up with Jacob and Maxx to talk about learnings, expectations, and their Young Spikes experience.
The Work
The two creatives were chosen to represent their agency Propel Manila through an internal competition among young members of the team — the Young Propeller Idealympics. “I was driven to join because, as a creative, I’m always excited by the challenge of cracking a brief and exploring different solutions. This was an opportunity to apply the Propel habits, practice, and discipline we use daily in our work — but for a purpose beyond usual advertising — to create real impact,” Jacob shared.
For Maxx, it was about taking on a challenge to push her limits in creative thinking: “It’s an exciting way to practice what we’re learning and training everyday at Propel while collaborating with others, representing the agency, and showcasing ideas on a larger stage. These experiences are not only fun but also valuable opportunities for growth as a creative professional.”
Reacting to the Save the Children brief, both Jacob and Maxx immediately noted the gravity of the challenge — one that calls for real social change. “My initial thought was that it’s such a heavy topic and a very REAL crisis. How can we actually provide a solution to it?” Maxx mused.
“My initial reaction was that this was a challenging but meaningful brief,” Jacob started. “Teenage pregnancy disproportionately affects those in the lower socio-economic classes. Since this was a digital category, it was especially challenging because many of the most affected communities have limited access to digital platforms. This made us think hard about how we could create a campaign that was still impactful despite these barriers.”
Taking these barriers to heart, the pair’s winning proposal went beyond the obvious target audience, which would be Filipino teenagers, and set out to persuade the decision-makers instead. “We realized that the real challenge wasn’t just about reaching teenagers — it was about compelling those in power and authority to take action. If we wanted real change, we needed to focus on the people who could make it happen: our lawmakers,” the team shared.
“That’s how we came up with ‘ManikAI: Dolls of Change’ — a digital campaign that uses AI-generated dolls to depict local politicians as struggling adolescent parents. The idea is to make lawmakers see teenage pregnancy in a way they never have before — by putting themselves in that position.”
“Our idea is captured in a powerful line: ‘Playtime is over.’ This message tells politicians to stop playing around and take real action — because for many teenage parents, playtime ends the moment parenthood begins,” they explained.
The campaign begins on a microsite where users enter their location to generate an AI-created doll of their local politician — reimagined as a teenage parent. Each doll comes with a personalized message and real statistics about how teenage pregnancy affects their community. People can then share these dolls on social media and tag politicians, creating public pressure for lawmakers to take action. Every doll generated also triggers an automated email to the politician’s office — reminding them that playtime is over and that it’s time to pass the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill.
The campaign was fueled by a simple yet powerful insight: Play is an essential part of childhood.
They furthered, “We wanted to use the doll — a universal symbol of childhood and innocence — to urge lawmakers to protect the country’s children. By connecting dolls to the harsh realities of teenage pregnancy, we aimed to create an emotional and urgent call for action.”
“For most Filipino kids, growing up means playing with toys and enjoying their youth. But for those who become parents too soon, playtime is abruptly replaced by the overwhelming responsibility of raising a child.”
The experience
On the 24-hour brief, Jacob and Maxx described the experience as intense, fun, and an exercise of trusting one’s gut. “We were definitely running on adrenaline and way too much coffee. I thought the 24 hours would feel long, but honestly, it went by so fast,” Jacob recalled.
Their game plan was to throw out as many ideas as possible, no filters and no second-guessing. “Even the craziest, most nonsense ideas went up on post-it notes,” he revealed. “By the end, we had covered an entire office wall with them.”
“The next morning was the hard part. We had to make tough calls, trust our gut, and fully commit to the idea that we believed had the most impact. There was no time to overthink — it was all about instinct.”
Maxx highlighted their team’s clear focus on an idea that was “simple but impactful,” and “easy to understand.” She noted, “Whenever we hit a roadblock, we moved on to another concept that felt clearer and easier to build on. We created a one-page goal to track our success and make sure we hit all the necessary points.”
The win
As the Gold winners of the Young Spikes 2025 local competition, Jacob and Maxx won the honor of representing the Philippines at Cannes Lions. On this, they gushed about the chance to connect with fellow young creatives from around the world, and waving the flag of Filipino creativity with pride at the global stage.
Jacob, who is no stranger to being a representative to global creative programs, remarked, “I’m really excited to learn from the best of the best, meet other inspiring young creatives, and just soak in all the creativity at Cannes Lions. It’s an incredible opportunity to see how the most brilliant minds from around the world think, create, and push boundaries, and I’m truly grateful to have this chance.”
“But more than anything, I’m looking forward to bringing Filipino creativity to a global stage — showcasing our unique ideas and perspectives.”
“Representing our agency, which I believe has significantly shaped and prepared us for this moment, is a privilege I deeply value,” Maxx opened up. “While representing the Philippines alone is already an incredible honor, I’m also genuinely excited to immerse myself in this experience and connect with creatives from around the world. I look forward to learning, exchanging ideas, and celebrating the power of creativity on a global stage.”
Finally, we talked about the priceless takeaways they got from the whole experience so far, considering that it’s only the beginning in their journey.
For Maxx, she noted the importance of looking for a long-term solution — a valuable reminder for both advertisers and social change-makers. “We didn’t want to focus on just one aspect, like comprehensive sex education. Instead, we believed that the bill covered a broader range of issues and would have a more significant impact in the long run. The sense of urgency combined with the long-term vision really shaped the direction of our idea,” she explained.
On the other end, Jacob underlined trusting one’s self and authenticity in the work: “Going into the competition, I had a lot of doubts. My partner and I are both art directors and still relatively new to the industry. We questioned whether we had enough experience or if our ideas would be good enough,” he revealed.
“But this experience really taught me to trust ourselves, our instincts, and our creativity. I also realized just how important authenticity is in these competitions. As we worked through the brief and dug deeper into the problem, our mindset shifted — from just trying to come up with a ‘winning’ idea to genuinely wanting to find a real solution to an urgent issue. And thankfully, that authenticity was something the jury felt and appreciated.”
“My overall learning from this experience is that as advertising professionals, we truly have the power to change the world for the better. Another takeaway I’ve gained is that during the ideation process, it’s important not to be too hard on yourself. Believe in your idea, and remember: research, research, research,” Maxx concluded.
Follow 4As Philippines for more updates on upcoming competitions: https://www.instagram.com/4asph/
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of 4As Philippines.
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