Meet the CEOs: Dentsu Creative Philippines' Ronald Barreiro

Started as a marketing intern at Colgate-Palmolive, Ronald Barreiro (pictured) has built a career shaped as much by people as by campaigns. From his earliest days, he was surrounded by mentors who taught him rigour, empathy, and strategy - lessons reinforced by his older brother, whose guidance filled a crucial gap and continues to anchor his leadership today.

Now at the helm of dentsu Creative Philippines, Barreiro leads with a philosophy that blends kindness with ambition. He pushes teams to deliver excellence while ensuring they find joy in the daily grind, believing that happiness is the most complex but essential task of leadership. He emphasises transparency, sharing both achievements and challenges, and constantly embraces change to future-proof the business, instilling in his teams the importance of adaptability and purpose.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What was your first job?

In college, I was a marketing intern at Colgate-Palmolive. I thoroughly enjoyed the work I did as an intern for their body care business and planned to apply as a junior brand manager after graduation. 

But at the latter part of my internship, I got exposed to the company’s advertising agency - one of the top agencies in the 90s, run by brilliant minds that knew how to have fun while doing brilliant work. I was amazed by their energy and eventually decided to apply as a trainee after graduation. 

Back then, I thought I would be assigned to the creative department, but that quickly turned into an illusion as I realised how my creativity paled in comparison with the creative talent of the agency. Within months, I discovered account management and have been a suit ever since.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What was your first role in advertising?

I was assigned as an account executive for the Palmolive team. I was an eager beaver and would normally join the creatives when they would work overtime on my job orders. I would help them manually mount key frames on their storyboards and while doing this, I would ask for tips on how to become a better accounts person. My art director, Riza Bacay, would spend some time during these sessions teaching me how to brief creatives and what points to highlight in my brief. She would tell me what they normally do not read or ignore in the brief so that helped me a lot as a junior AE.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What was your first impression of advertising?

I thought advertising was all glitz and glamour. I realised soon enough that it required an immense amount of effort and thought.

During those days, I would do overtime work regularly, sometimes, just going home to take a bath, change clothes, and go back to work immediately. 

Don’t get me wrong. I did not resent this. As a young AE, I enjoyed overtime work because that was my personal thinking time, and I had teammates who were fun to work with. There was never a dull moment during those OT days.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Who was the mentor who influenced you the most, and how?

I had so many mentors in my early days of advertising. My first accounts supervisor, Sari Legaspi-Sian, taught me the right work ethic. My first division head, Chiqui Lara, taught me how to value people and to fight for them when needed. My first strategic planner, Pris Santos, guided me on honing my strategic planning skills. She would always be there for me when I needed advice on my presentation decks. Of course, I was constantly exposed to the brilliance of Philippine advertising legends, Minyong Ordoñez and Tony Mercado. 

I’m citing these people because they laid a strong foundation for me as a young adman. They led by example and I took to heart what they taught me. I hold on to these values dearly to this day.

But the one person that has mentored me constantly from my early 20s to this day, as an advertising CEO, is my older brother, Bobby. When I joined the workforce, my father was already terminally ill. Bobby took on that fatherly role, giving me sound advice during difficult times. The beautiful thing about his mentoring style is he passes down to me what he learned from my father. Coupled with his own experience and knowledge, he amply filled that huge void in my career journey.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What’s the harshest criticism you’ve received, and how did you cope with it?

In our industry, the harshest criticisms would normally come from teammates or clients commenting on the quality of our work. It’s really part of the job. 

The most painful comment I’ve heard would be “Is this the best you could do?” This hurts a lot, especially if you have spent countless hours working with your team on a campaign. As a leader, you have to quickly pick yourself up after that criticism and help your team be objective and look at possible ways to improve the work. There will be times when we throw away the work entirely and start from scratch. 

But the bottom line is, we would always try to do better the next time around. Having that kind of attitude not only solves the current dilemma but keeps everyone on their toes. It doesn’t hurt to always strive for constant improvement.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Describe your own management style now as a leader

The advertising industry today is facing a lot of uncertainty. Advances in technology are changing the landscape immensely. But one thing I am sure of is the value of our people will always be a priority.

I invest time, effort and money to make sure our people become better thinkers and creators. I try to develop a work environment that empowers them to perform at their best. And though it may sound over simplified, I strive to make our people happy. Achieving happiness at work is probably the most challenging aspect of my job as a leader.

To achieve this, you have to cultivate a culture of kindness while demanding excellence from everyone. You have to have a strong sense of purpose while creating a campaign to sell the most mundane product or service. And you have to strike a good work-life balance while asking your team to finish an overnight requirement from client. Yes, happiness may sound basic, but it is the most complex task of a leader like me.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What’s one thing you wished employees understood about being a leader?

I believe in transparency. I make it a point to share our achievements and our failures. I also share the challenges that I go through as well as the difficulties that I encounter in my position. So, I believe our people have a good understanding of what I go through in general. They know our challenges and the stress that comes with our job. I guess if there’s something I wish they would understand about being a leader is that there is always a need for us to embrace change.

There is always that challenge to future-proof our business; and that requires making changes, constantly, in the way we think and in the way we work.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What do you do during your free time?

Lately, I’ve been obsessed with pickleball. Twice a week, I play pickleball with family and industry friends until 10pm. During weekends, I stay at home and try to put in a few laps of swimming. But most of the time, I just lounge around watching Youtube and immerse myself in silly stuff on TikTok, while sipping a good cup of espresso.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Where do you find your inspiration?

I find inspiration everywhere - while driving around in Metro Manila traffic, talking to our young teammates to understand what motivates them, observing people in a random cafe, soaking in a totally different culture in another country, or just simply reading a magazine or book. The power of observation is sometimes overlooked by many. I make it a point to reflect on random conversations and everyday moments.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: If not in advertising, where would you be?

If I were asked this question in my early years, I would have said I’d probably be in brand management since I was also interested in this field as a young professional. But as I got older, I got interested in home interior design. In fact, this is something that I would like to pursue as a business when I retire from advertising - building homes and doing the interior design. I guess in my retirement, I would still like to pursue something that would express my creative energies.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What advice do you have for someone looking to start a career in the industry?

My most important advice: Find the joy in the daily grind. I’ve lasted almost 35 years in this industry because I always managed to find joy in my daily work - the satisfaction of unearthing a deep insight, the pride in turning around the misfortunes of a brand, the happiness in launching a breakthrough campaign, and the fun in working with crazy and passionate teammates. That’s what makes life in advertising priceless. Find these moments of joy, big or small.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What issue would you like to see the industry change in 2025?

With all the technological innovations happening around us, coupled with the financial and market challenges being faced by our clients, our industry is naturally being squeezed to deliver more for less. I just hope that we will continue to have supportive client partners who truly appreciate the value that we can bring to meet their needs and work alongside us to shape, elevate and ensure the sustainability of the industry that I love. 

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