BPI Vertical Race to Fund Eco-Friendly Village

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Employees of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) tackled 20 flights of stairs plus a host of grueling physical and mental challenges in the annual BPI Vertical Race, which will fund an eco-friendly village in Guinhadap, Masbate.

Over 200 participants climbed to the top of the BPI headquarters in Makati last December 10, 2016, where top male athlete Jose Augurio de Vera Jr. finished in 4:42. Top female athlete Jules Villamor completed all challenges in 5:18, while fastest group ‘Team N’ breezed through the race in 4:24.

The Vertical Race is part of BPI’s employee donation campaign. Launched in October 2016, the move generated P250,000 to support the World Wide Fund for Nature or WWF’s Earth Hour Village in one of the poorest Philippine provinces, Masbate.

“WWF’s Earth Hour Village combines various WWF-tested technologies to provide food, water and energy for local communities,” explains WWF-Philippines President and CEO Joel Palma. Masbate’s Barangay Guindahap for instance, remains underdeveloped due to its remote location. Its people subsist mainly on fishing for food and on kerosene lamps for lighting, prompting WWF to deploy a host of measures to improve local people’s lives.

Lamudi Philippines Names First Ever Academic Scholars

Wazzup Pilipinas!

In a bid to contribute to the community and drive socioeconomic development, Lamudi Philippines launched a scholarship competition aiming to reward exemplary students. For its first foray, a student from Cavite and Pampanga bagged the scholarship grant for school year 2016–2017.

Walter David Villegas, a third-year Development Studies major at the University of the Philippines Manila, and Jaynie Pajarillaga, a third year communication student from Holy Angel University Pampanga bested more than a hundred applicants from different schools and universities across the Philippines.

Both scholars will receive Php20,000 educational assistance that will be given directly to the school to cover some of their tuition fees. The two will also be awarded with a paid internship in any department at the Lamudi Philippines office.

“We saw in both Walter and Jaynie what we see in the Philippines: exceptional, talented, and determined, and by thoroughly reviewing their application documents and credentials we are very sure that we made the right choice,” shared Bhavna Shuresh, Lamudi Philippines and MyProperty.ph’s new Managing Director and CEO, who took the rein of leading the top local property portal brands in early 2017.

“Working in a tech company like Lamudi will be a great opportunity for the two students. The non-stop innovation and learning in the Lamudi office will surely be a good training ground for these budding and promising talents,” Ms. Shuresh added.

ONE Championship's Exponential Growth Reflected in Increasing Social Media Reach

Wazzup Pilipinas!

In the 21st century, social media has become the game-changing marvel within communication. Today, people and organizations remain connected and updated through various forms of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs to mention only a few.

Aside from accessible communication, social media has also made an integral impact on many industries like entertainment, business and sports. It has turned into a catalyst for success by empowering people and fueling ideas.

Social media is transforming sports and sports businesses. Although businesses traditionally seek to benefit from hospitality, sponsorship and networking, social media offers greater reach and direct engagement.

By engaging fans via social media, sports rights holders can open new communication channels with their audience that can be measured and valued as a new commercial opportunity with sponsors.

The aforementioned platform has been likewise used by the constantly-growing world of mixed martial arts (MMA). Given how little exposure the sport received in its early stages, its rise in popularity over the last 25 years is nothing short of a phenomenon.

A large part of MMA’s success worldwide comes down to its aggressive social media strategy, with platforms such as Facebook and Twitter aiding its mainstream development.

Since its inception in 2011, ONE Championship has been utilizing the flexibility of social media to promote its unique brand and to tap a wider audience.

Along with the rise of MMA as a whole, ONE Championship has taken the sport in Asia to new heights. The biggest local and global brands in the world have been attracted to ONE and a number of key partnerships have formed over the years.

The list includes Disney, Marvel, LG, Kawasaki, Panasonic, Haier, Universal Music Group and Tune Talk, to name a few. The company’s ability to form deals that are mutually beneficial to all parties has been essential in its growth.

With innovative content and marketing initiatives, ONE Championship has been able to bring world-class MMA action much closer to diehard and loyal fans.

Asia’s largest sports media property has further extended its influence on Facebook, which has 1.79 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2016.

In 2014, ONE Championship’s total reach on Facebook was 75 million. It grew to 926 million in 2016, having an exponential growth rate of 1,134%.

On the other hand, its total impressions raised the bar up high in 2016 with a 268% progress. From 352 million impressions in 2014, 2016 had an astonishing figures of 1.3 billion.

ONE Championship also released an array of informative and in-depth videos in 2016, which gained 130 million views in total. It grew significantly from 312,000 in 2014.

Meanwhile, ONE Championship had 454,000 shares on Facebook in 2016, flourishing from modest numbers of 16,000 in 2014.

At the time of publication of this article, ONE Championship’s official Facebook page has 3,078,730. It is expected to broaden its leverage on Facebook with its blockbuster 2017 schedule.

Being the biggest MMA promotion in Asia, ONE Championship’s ability in producing relevant and top-of-the-line content is undeniable. From short profile infographics, interesting interviews, to thrilling teaser videos, ONE Championship fans have followed the brand and conveniently made the organization’s social media one of the leaders of online sports content.

ONE Championship followers found touchpoints that enabled them to connect with their favorite MMA stars and even interact with their heroes behind the scenes through their posted stories.

Its relevance and talkability among the target market – fans and athletes alike – have furthered ONE Championship’s growth and led its way to becoming the greatest sports media property in Asia.

ONE Championship’s strategy of creating unique content has also helped them build successful partnerships with both mainstream and modern media platforms, which in return resulted to the expansion of its social media audience through captured audiences from one partner to another.

For years now, ONE Championship has been developing fruitful collaborations with leading media companies around the globe, including FOX Sports, Setanta, MNC, Astro, Thairath TV, ABS-CBN and OSN.

2017 promises to be even better in terms of viewership and popularity as ONE Championship lays out plans for new markets.

For its second event in 2017, ONE Championship returns to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 10 February to hold ONE: THRONE OF TIGERS at the 12,000-capacity Stadium Negara.

The monumental event will feature the absolute best in local and international MMA talent, accentuating a tremendous headlining bout between hometown hero Ev “E.T.” Ting and lightweight veteran Kamal “Prince of Persia” Shalorus.