40 Under 40 2023: Jose Anton (Pepe) Torres, Maya

Jose Anton (Pepe) Torres

Group chief marketing officer
Maya
Philippines

Jose Anton Torres discovered his passion for marketing as an undergraduate at the prestigious University of the Philippines. Torres co-founded UP Advertising Core, now a student-run non-profit ad agency within the university. Beyond graduating with honours, he developed strong foundations through regional roles at P&G Singapore and Philippines, growing notable brands and heading Cannes-winning, digital-led campaigns.

Seeking a faster pace, Torres joined Airbnb in 2015 as its regional brand marketing manager for APAC to lead innovative campaigns, then took on Airbnb’s head of marketing role for China and successfully localised the brand. 

The following year, Torres spearheaded the digital transformation marketing of the Philippines’ largest bank, BDO, which led to the bank’s first major awards. He then took on additional responsibility as head of digital products, ushering through the bank’s largest new product launches in years.

Today, Torres serves as Group chief marketing officer at Maya, one of the Philippines' leading fintech payment providers. Formerly known as PayMaya, he led the company’s transformative relaunch by adopting a creative “defiance” and “optimism” brand-building theme that presented the brand as the first secure, all-in-one digital bank system that offered Filipino customers the ease of a wallet with the safety of a bank. 

Torres used cross-functional collaborations to get the word out. In other words, a non-traditional, more exciting and sensational medium: rap music. The relaunch was a complete success, acquiring 1.5 million savings accounts in six months – surpassing its initial 1 million target – and demonstrating the importance of advertising innovation in the market. 

Torres champions bold work that moves and impacts the audience in a meaningful way, prioritising quality over quantity, and motivating teams to think outside the box and make bolder decisions. He continues to establish benchmarks for creative strategies and inspires the use of creativity in the Philippines.

Pepe's impact extends beyond the boundaries of his work at Maya. He was offered to head the marketing committee of QRPh, the Philippines’ national QR payment standard, with the challenge of transitioning the Filipino public from brand-proprietary QRs to one QRPh interoperability across brands. This had led to his most recent accomplishment: having proposals he led approved by the Central Bank of the Philippines, backed by a committee of marketers from 12 different financial brands, including his stiffest competition.