Briefs: Design Center’s pinyapel earns D&AD pencil

The Philippine-made Pinyapel, a specialty paper made from discarded pineapple leaves, bagged a Wood Pencil at the D&AD Future Impact Awards 2019 in recognition of its potential to create a huge impact on environment and sustainability as it is proposed to be a food packaging alternative to single-plastic. The award will be presented in New York City, on 6 November. Industry professionals consider the D&AD pencil as equivalent to “career knighthood.”

With this recognition of Pinyapel, it will receive a D&AD Wood Pencil, a place on the D&AD Future Impact Accelerator program, especially designed to accelerate Pinyapel’s development in order to deliver tangible impact in their category area within 12 months. The D&AD Future Impact Program supports great ideas that have the potential to change the world. Winning a Wood Pencil also provides an opportunity for the Philippine team behind Pinyapel to pitch at the D&AD Festival 2020 to gain support from venture capitalists (VC) and creatives, a pass to the D&AD Festival 2020, a dedicated space at the Impact exhibition in London, 12-month membership and a year of exposure to a global audience through D&AD and third-party press.

Consistent with its strong performance in the first six months, pioneer compact car distributor Suzuki Philippines (SPH) completed the third quarter with positive growth yet again, enabling the company to post 19 percent sales growth over nine months this year.

The continued sales increase was the result of strategic marketing efforts that emphasize numerous promotions and interactive events and are aimed at boosting product visibility. SPH hopes to ride on the strong market and brand momentum to further strengthen its position through the remaining months of 2019.

“Suzuki’s current standing in the Philippine automotive industry is a significant milestone for the brand. After securing the 4th spot in the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) ranking — the highest rank in the brand’s history — and climbing to the 5th spot in the local automotive industry roster last quarter, we at Suzuki Philippines can definitely say that 2019 has been a monumental year for the brand,” said SPH director and general manager for Automobile Division Keiichi Suzuki.

“These back-to-back achievements further fuel our drive to deliver on the brand’s promise of quality driving experience with every Suzuki vehicle,” he added.