NEDA: AMBISYON NATIN/OUR AMBITION 2040

How do you get the youth to care about a country’s 25-year vision?

That was the challenge facing the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the government agency tasked with shaping and communicating the Philippines’ long-term roadmap toward 2040.

The vision was powerful, but it needed a voice that could cut through the noise of timelines, memes, and everyday feels. That’s where we found our hook — or should I say, our hugot.

Hugot is a Filipino word for pulling deep, raw emotions from experience and turning them into words or lines that strike a chord with people.

As Senior Art Director at Dentsu Jayme Syfu, I helped conceptualize the campaign by offering strategic insight into how Filipino youth use hugot as their emotional language—a blend of humor, honesty, and heartache that turns everyday struggles into something everyone can relate to. Hugot is how young people make sense of their feelings, share their stories, and find connection with others.

So, we decided to speak that same language.

The collaborative campaign reimagined NEDA’s vision through a series of 3 online videos (brought to life by 33 illustrators and 36 animators) each written with the rhythm and wit of the youth’s digital world. Instead of lofty goals, we told hugot-driven stories that were relatable, emotional, and deeply Filipino.

By translating the country’s vision into something the youth could feel and not just read, we turned a national roadmap into a shared journey: one that begins with today’s emotions and leads to tomorrow’s reality.

1 Vision. 3 Videos. 2M Views in 2 weeks.