Villarica dominates Marketing Excellence Awards 2023; breaks record for most campaign wins

This post is sponsored by Villarica.

Pawnshop pioneer Villarica made history at this year’s Marketing Excellence Awards (MEA) when its campaign – “Dapat SURE Ka. Dapat Villarica.” – won seven trophies – beating the record of six awards set for a single campaign by Doritos in 2021.

Villarica’s SURE campaign earned two gold awards for Excellence in Consumer Insights and Media Strategy; three silver for Excellence in Brand Strategy, Customer Engagement, and Brand Awareness; and two bronze for Excellence in Advertising and Experiential Marketing. The company also won silver for Marketing Leader of the Year for Hans Lerwyn Villarica.

MEA judge Rosebel Garcia, of Hertz, and Thrifty Philippines, admired the creative minds behind Villarica for setting the bar high for hard-to-advertise brands, saying, “Villarica Pawnshop has shown that the limit to creativity does not exist”.

The groundbreaking integrated marketing campaign pushed customers to ask: “Which pawnshop can I trust?” TV, radio and digital ads depicted dishonest vendors that preyed on working-class families and highlighted Villarica as the trustworthy choice. While an in-store innovation, the free appraisal service, reassured customers by introducing unprecedented transparency in the pawning experience.

Villarica placed second overall at the Philippines edition of the MEA alongside SM Supermalls and Honor Philippines. Colgate-Palmolive was hailed “Marketer of the Year” with its three gold, five silver and two bronze awards.

The SURE campaign was Villarica’s first foray into a prestigious MARKETING-INTERACTIVE event. Leading to the 13 October ceremony at Shangri-La The Fort in Taguig City, it was a finalist in the 11 categories it joined with Silver Machine Digital Communications, and dentsu X.