Women to Watch 2020: Shayne Madamba, Havas Media Ortega

Shayne Madamba

Chief digital officer
Havas Media Ortega
The Philippines

Shayne Madamba has had an illustrious 16-year career in digital marketing across nearly all of the major holding groups: Publicis, Dentsu, IPG, WPP and now Havas. First entering the industry as a research analyst, Madamba has climbed the ladder to take up digital leadership roles, responsible for driving much of the future growth of the business. During her tenure at Dentsu Aegis Network’s iProspect, where she was digital director and general manager for the Philippines office, Madamba was named to Campaign Asia-Pacific’s 40 Under 40 (2016), and she helped the agency scoop a Digital Agency of the Year Award (2017).

Madamba joined Havas Media Ortega as chief digital officer in 2018. Her work over the past few years has included establishing automated processes to implement digital media campaigns faster; real-time data insighting using Salesforce; and growing the business’ ecommerce offering by becoming a Lazada Preferred Agency Partner. The agency’s digital revenue grew 36% in 2019 due to her leadership. Specifically, she has grown the business of key clients such as Maxicare Healthcare Corporation and Sun Life Canada, with clients calling her an “indispensable partner”.

What makes Madamba stand out is her love for teaching and education—both for clients and outside of work. Her clients and colleagues call her #TeacherShayne because she is always keen to share best practices and trends built from her own successes and failures. With a background in traditional media, she is noted for making digital marketing approachable and jargon-free, using a strategy-based language that clients strongly connect with. Havas leaders say Madamba’s “hunger for knowledge” and “addictive passion” have helped to both deliver growth and profitability for the agency, and elevate the digital industry in the Philippines.

Outside her day job, Madamba has been teaching at the Certified Digital Marketer Program for more than four years. Prior to this, she spent three years teaching college students in the University of the Philippines. She is often found speaking at marketing events around the world, most recently as a keynote speaker for the Nicholas Hall Conference in Vienna and the New Directions conference in London. The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified Madamba’s passion for education. She has hosted free e-learning courses for communities who needed critical help, including a program to help SMEs embrace online selling, and social media lessons for patient groups looking to execute disease-prevention awareness programs. In the past 12 months, Madamba has racked up more than 400 hours of teaching offline and online, weekdays and weekends.