Entries Tagged 'Media' ↓

I’m trying out a new video service called Animoto. What it basically is: SLIDE.COM on steroids. With three clicks of the mouse you can create hardcore video slideshows similar to those you see on television. Here are some photos I took from the Samsung Metrowear press conference a few weeks ago at Ascend, Bonifacio High Street.

Animoto allows for a free 30 second sample slideshow but to avail of longer, full length videos, you will have to pay a small fee of $3.00 per reel. However, you can also avail of the all-access pass that allows you to create an unlimited number of full length videos a year with the ability to download them onto your computer. I say, this is definitely one of the best USD $30.00 purchases I can think of!

* Here’s another Animoto vid I made for the Samsung 2008 Mobile Roadshow.

I am lucky to have been a involved as a juror for the 43th Anvil Awards. As one of the judges of the Interactive Media category I was able to have a rare glimpse into the current state of Philippine public relations and marketing campaigns, specifically in the Online Tools of PR division.

This is the first of several afterthoughts on winning noteworthy marketing campaigns worth sharing with everyone.

Experience Philippines: Department of Tourism

What it is:
The Department of Tourism issues 250 free round trip tickets to the Philippines for 3rd and 4th generation Filipinos in the USA. The objective is to get them to explore, enjoy, fly home, and come back dragging more friends to see the many wonders this country has to offer.

Why it is notable:
It is quite a feat to have a government arm thinking of something quite of the box. Amidst the many government controversies we’re hearing, the DOT is doing amazing “non-dinosaur” things that directly promotes the country’s tourism. For bloggers, the most notable event was when the DOT shipped Christine “HappySlip” Gambito for a meet and greet and had her serve as an ambassador for the Experience Philippines campaign.

FInal thoughts:
Although the website obviously needs some work, I’d still say that it isn’t about how you do it, but more about the results. The Experience Philippines campaign is still a good example of how we can think of out of the box ways to promote our sexy country. Special thanks to Yehey! for doing a lot of the legwork to make this a reality.

The year 2007 began with fearful undertones as I had just left my “day job” and decided to go full time into the world of freelancing. As it turns out, I made the right choice. 2007 showered this blogger with a lot of blessings (and blessings in disguise) and looking back, this was a pivotal year in terms of career. Maybe 2008 will be pivotal in terms of my love life. Heh.

Attended and helped organize more than 30 events that had participation from new media editors (aka bloggers).

Turned my photography hobby into a relevant income stream. I don’t really advertise it as I mostly shoot by request for friends in the advertising and PR industry. They usually get me for food shoots.

I was on a plane ten times this year. Most were trips for the press. Two or three were for leisure. Two were at Boracay

Gave a significant number of talks and presentations that were mostly new media related. These talks were divided among blogging and new media conferences, advertising agencies and

Formed my first company in mid-November 2007 with Markku and another friend. Most of it has to do with local non traditional advertising. So yeah, I own an advertising company.

Co-organized the first Philippine Blog Awards. Honestly though, most of the work was done by Gail, Yuga as well as the blogger-volunteers who helped out with the program.

Appeared on television once or twice this year. Also finally got into doing podcasts and online video as an experiment to get comfortable with the medium.

Launched or repackaged 6 new blogs with b5media. I’ll be launching two more in the next few weeks for the technology channel.

The Blog and Soul Movement was founded and has grown into a volunteer group that helps educators and students understand blogging as a relevant communication tool.

Got to know a lot of great bloggers this year. Special mention goes to the guys and gals from the Man Blog who have become a staple in my monthly leisure exercises.

Nokia Philippines took me in as a brand ambassador for the Nokia N82. Though December’s activities are expectedly slow, there will be a lot of things I’m going to help them with come January to April of 2008.

For those of you bored in the office wondering why you’re still reporting to work at this odd time of the year, do grab a copy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer from Manong Guard and turn to the 2bu! section. I have a piece there that wraps up the highlights of technology in 2007. Consumer technology mostly, as it’s rather difficult to mention everything that happens in the entire industry. I focused more on how core competencies are shifting - Microsoft sucks at operating systems and does well in gaming for instance, as well as how the “elite” are now going mainstream with the aggressive move of Apple into consumer technology.

That’s all folks!

Hamilo Coast Clam Seeding with the WWF. The giant clams are building blocks to the ecosystem in the same way that you need trees for forests to prosper.

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Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark Pampanga
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This morning, I shot the new lechon pizza of Greenwich, a new offering for the holidays among many other things that I was tasked to shoot. Client has already launched the product to the public so I am allowed to talk about it. But that’s not what I came to express in this blog post.

The pizza is deliciously and sinfully good. The base of the dough is drowned in lechon sauce and topped with cheese. On top of the cheese are several pieces of lechon kawali - pig meat and skin combined to give you that chewy and crunchy texture. The crust itself is baked with garlic. Red bell pepper strips to garnish.

I gobbled up three slices of this wonderful dish during the event. Twenty minutes later I wind up at a friend’s office across the street from Greenwich Ayala Avenue for a meeting. I tell him about the ever so sinful “lechon kawali” pizza and they order two boxes for the staff. The verdict? Winner. (yeah yeah I finished three more slices. I’m such a lechon.)

That night I drop by an event for Samsung at the Manila Peninsula. Over dinner with other members of media, I start a nonchalant conversation of “guess what I had for lunch a while ago?” The already famous lechon pizza conversation made its way through the 5 Star Buffet meal at the presidential suite. It was absurdly funny and incited curiosity.

Viral marketing works for products when the item in scrutiny has a tinge of peculiarity to it. Sometimes, peculiarity is bred by what is known as the invisible obvious, if I were to borrow the term from Andrian Lee. The lechon pizza is really nothing more than the FIlipino version of an all meat pizza. Pecuiar. But obvious.

Curious to try the lechon pizza? Dial 55555 for deliveries anywhere around the country.

For foreign readers, here is the definition of lechon:

Lechón (Tagalog: Litson and Cebuano: Inasal) is the Spanish word for suckling pig. In the Philippines, it connotes a whole roasted pig, lechón baboy. Chicken and beef, are also popular. The process of lechón involves the whole pig/piglet, chicken, or cattle/calf being slowly roasted over charcoal. [Wikipedia]

Every year, the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) gives out a set of Anvil Awards for remarkable public relations campaigns done in the Philippines.

The ANVIL is a symbol of excellence in public relations in the Philippines awarded by a distinguished multi-sectoral jury for outstanding public relations programs and tools designed and implemented in the past year. The Anvil Awards competition is conducted annually by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines.

The Anvil symbolizes excellence and quality. The standards for winning are high. No award is given unless the standards are met.

There are four award categories:

The Anvil Award of Merit
The Anvil Award of Excellence
The Bronze Anvil Award
THE GRAND ANVIL AWARD

What exactly am I pitching? Why can’t we pitch the ongoing Filipinas Campaign as an entry in the 44th Anvil Awards happening in February 2009. This February 2008 is the awarding for the Anvil for campaigns done between October 31 2006 to October 31 2007. Though it would be too late to include the Filipinas Campaign as an entry to the 43rd Anvil Awards, it can still very well make it into the 44th.
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You’ve probably heard about this from a few days back. But still.

A mural depicting the history of press freedom made by the Neo-Angono artists in the Philippines was censored by the National Press Club before it was presented to President GMA. How ironic that the NPC’s “press freedom” commission was censored by none other than themselves. Truth be told, the word is not “censorship.” It leans a little bit more closely to “defacement.”

The final mural, which was submitted to NPC on October 24, shows a man reading the latest news on journalists’ killings while press freedom icons from the past and present converge around him. In one scene, Marcelo H. del Pilar is seen with fellow editor Mariano Ponce while rooting for cigarette butts in a garbage can under the streetsign La Solidaridad. Near the two, Filipino revolutionary Emilio Jacinto sells copies of the newspaper “Ningning o Liwanag” whose headlines proclaim the declaration of martial law while an incensed Eggie Apostol walks past. Perhaps the most arresting image is that of the late Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. talking to National Hero Jose Rizal while the latter reads a newspaper article on the disappearance of Jonas Burgos, son of press freedom icon Joe Burgos.

…

“Isn’t it ironic that an institution such as the NPC would cause the censorship of a work that they themselves commissioned purportedly to promote press freedom? Isn’t the freedom of expression of the artist bound up with the very press freedom that they supposedly uphold? Aren’t these alterations a clear violation of the rights of authors/artists protected by the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines?” the group said in a statement.

[source]

I can’t believe it. More photos of the alterations here. Neal Cruz’s piece talks about it more here.

Mac OS X Leopard is officially in the Philippines.

If you bought a Macintosh anytime beginning October 1 2007 in the Philippines, you are entitled to an almost free upgrade to OS X Leopard for only PHP 527.00. All new Macs come pre-installed with Leopard.

On a side note, I’ve heard reports of retailers in the Philippines going out of stock for the MacBooks. This can only mean two things: (1) the new Macs are coming with Leopard, which is no surprise OR (2) the new version of the MacBooks may be due in the next few weeks.

One. Ultimate. Version.

Farhad Manjoo (Salon) makes a compelling case. “If we’re going just by what’s better—the ages-old Mac-vs.-PC debate is over. Long over. Yell it from the rooftops; The Mac has won.” Now’s the right time “to buy an Apple computer,” proclaims Manjoo. “Indeed, it’s been that time for the past five years.” After all, “its Macintosh business is now in league with that of the biggest PC companies in the world.” And “everyone who’s used it agrees that Leopard, the operating system that Apple released late last month, is to its chief rival, Microsoft’s Windows Vista, roughly as Richard Wagner is to Richard Marx.” Manjoo even takes the opportunity to “put to rest the myth that an Apple computer will set you back more than a Windows PC. In fact,” he says, “it’ll cost you less.” [Start]