Advertising veteran Ramon Jimenez takes on Philippine Tourism chief role

Jiminez' career in advertising spans over two decades, highlighted by his stint as joint CEO and one of the founders of JimenezBasic Advertising (now Publicis JimenezBasic) from 1989 to 2008. There, he helped build the emergence of well-know Philippine brands such as San Miguel, fast food franchise Jollibee, Selecta Ice cream, soap manufacturer Safeguard, and airline Cebu Pacific.

Prior to this, he held the post of vice-president and executive creative director of Ace Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising for two years. He remains a marketing consultant for the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation, a charity named after current president Benigno Aquino's famous parents.

Jiminez is currently the senior consultant and joint chief executive officer of Winning Over Obstacles (WOO) Consultants, and was part of the president's election campaign in 2010. 

Lim resigned as DOT chief after just 13 months into the job. While all parties stress the departure was voluntary, Lim's performance in the role had been rumoured to have been becoming a 'headache' to Aquino. Lim indicated that he will now look to move back to the private sector.

During his tenure, Lim criticised some of the travel industry’s practices and the over-commercialisation of key holiday destinations such as Boracay, Palawan, and Cebu.

But perhaps a key highlight (or lowlight) of Lim's tenure was the scrapping of the Pilipinas Kay Ganda (Philippines What a Beauty) tourism campaign last November. The campaign was dumped amid criticism that the slogan in the local language did not resonate with foreign tourists, allegations that the logo was plagiarised from Poland's National Tourist office, and that the new website's URL, www.beautifulpilipinas.com, was too similar to that of a pornographic site.

As a result, the Philippine DOT finds itself at a crucial point, having called for a pitch in July this year to redeem the national brand. That process is currently ongoing, with seven agencies in the country being shortlisted, and the winner tipped to be announced over the next two months.

“The Tourism Congress, designated by law as the voice of the tourism private sector, hopes that the new tourism secretary, Ramon Jimenez, will put to good use his exposure in the marketing and
advertising business to bring serious reforms that will expand Philippine tourism and create jobs," the private sector consultative organisation for tourism said in a statement.