How TREYNA resets its brand to match ownership reality and creative direction

As TREYNA Group unveils its latest rebrand, the shift signals less a break from the past than a continuation of a decades-long pattern of reinvention.

Founded in 1978, the agency has operated under multiple identities – from SSC&B Lintas to Lintas: Manila, Ammirati Puris Lintas, Lowe Lintas & Partners, Lowe Philippines, MullenLowe Philippines, and MullenLowe TREYNA – before arriving at its current name. The latest transition follows the acquisition of Interpublic Group by Omnicom.

Yet, executives frame the evolution less as a series of name changes and more as a reflection of a consistent internal philosophy. 

“The constant through all our transformations has been a challenger mindset – the willingness to question, adapt and evolve as the industry and culture shift around us,” said Mike Trillana, president and CEO of TREYNA Group. “It’s what has allowed us to weather change over nearly five decades and continue finding new ways to stay relevant.”

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Rebrand as reset, not refresh

The latest evolution – from MullenLowe TREYNA to simply TREYNA – comes at a moment of structural change in the global agency landscape.

For Abi Aquino, chief creative officer of TREYNA, the timing created an opening to clarify the agency’s identity.

“With the sunsetting of the MullenLowe brand, there was an opportunity to reintroduce ourselves to the world as simply TREYNA. This reflected our position as a agency with a local majority ownership, while still being an Omnicom group affiliate,” she told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

But unlike many rebrands that stop at logos and colour palettes, TREYNA’s repositioning extends deeper into culture.

“This rebranding exercise gave us the opportunity to incorporate our own personal mantra of staying curious, brave, and makulit (the Pinoy trait of being playfully persistent). Our way of introducing who TREYNA is to the people we care about the most – our newer staff, our newer clients, and the public in general,” Aquino added.

What stays, what goes

For an agency that has cycled through multiple global affiliations, deciding what to carry forward was less about heritage assets and more about values.

Aquino traces this back to 1980, when Francis B. Trillana Jr. took over a struggling 12-person Lintas operation.

“In 1980, Francis Trillana was asked to lead a struggling 12-man agency then called CA Lintas, to turn its fortunes around. He had nothing but sheer courage and vision. This challenger spirit stays with us today. That’s pretty much it. The ones who find success in TREYNA are the ones who share our values of curiosity, courage and kakulitan,” she explained.

The landscape will change. The technology will continue to outpace humans. Always does. But it’s the humanity and creativity of the business that we like to celebrate above all.

Making legacy work harder

In an industry often dominated by newer, more agile players, legacy can be both asset and burden. Aquino acknowledges the weight of the word itself.

“It’s such a big, heavy, old word, noh? Legacy. For many people, legacy is just a conference room name. But I think legacy should be a living thing too. We’ve been lucky and smart to know that legacy is exactly what you asked – knowing what to keep and knowing what to let go. For us it’s making sure everyone, everyday, continues to challenge the status quo. It keeps us on our toes and paws and shows us the way to better creativity.”

That balance is reflected in the agency’s body of work – from enduring local campaigns such as Selecta Cornetto’s “Hanggang saan aabot ang P20 mo?” and Purefoods’ “Goodbye, Carlo”, to more recent globally awarded efforts including “The right to care card” and “#StripesFitCheck”, which have collectively won more than 35 international awards.

At the same time, TREYNA has expanded beyond traditional advertising into adjacent capabilities, including public relations, brand activation, performance marketing, UX/UI design, and content production, supported by a series of acquisitions over the past eight years.

Still becoming

For Aquino, the rebrand is not intended to signal a dramatic pivot, but rather a clearer articulation of what has long existed within the agency.

“Most everyone in the Philippine advertising industry knows us as fond acquaintances and industry peers. A lot of really amazing creatives and suits have worked here as well over the decades. They know our ethos. Our work, and how we work. It’s not so much a new signal or a rethink as it is an alignment, of how our local culture and creativity is now more reflected our new identity,” she said.

That alignment is also expressed visually. Drawing from the year 1978, the design language takes cues from Filipino comics and hand-painted billboards – cultural forms that flourished in the same era – reinterpreted through a contemporary lens.

“We then reinterpreted it into a 21st century design, but taking the bold primary colours and halftone to reflect our values of courage, curiousity and kulit,” Aquino said.

As TREYNA approaches its 50th anniversary in 2028, the agency is positioning itself not as a legacy to protect, but as an organisation in motion.

If there is a throughline, it is not its name – which has changed repeatedly – but its posture: a willingness to question itself before the industry does.

Join us on 21 May 2026 at Content360 Philippines and be part of the honest, hard-hitting conversations redefining content effectiveness in an AI-shaped, zero-click world!

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