Campaign for Pinay YouTube sensation bags Anvil Award
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 02/20/2009 10:37 AM
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The Department of Tourism has won this year's prestigious Grand Bronze Anvil Award and the Anvil Award of Excellence for its online campaign and marketing program for the blog of YouTube sensation Christine "HappySlip" Gambito.
Tourism Secretary Joseph "Ace" Durano said the "HappySlip Blogs" campaign harnessed the power of Internet videos and Gambito's popularity to raise awareness of the Philippines' various tourist destinations. He said the tourism department's Experience Philippines website (www.experiencephilippines.ph) got more than 50,000 visits in just four months as a result of the campaign.
"I am very pleased that our venture into Internet marketing and PR to reach and invite thousands of North Americans to visit the Philippines is once again recognized by the country's PR industry," he said in a statement. The Grand Bronze Anvil Award is given to the most outstanding PR tool designed and implemented in 2008.
The DOT partnered with digital agency Euro RSCG/Agatep to conceptualize, develop, launch and implement the "HappySlip Blogs" campaign to showcase Web videos of the country's top tourist destinations among the target market and support the country's initiatives in pushing tourism as a key economic driver of the country.
"Our experience in this project dramatizes the potential of video blogs in engaging Internet users and shaping their opinions. YouTube videos are no longer for sheer entertainment. They can help sell a country," Euro RSCG/Agatep managing director and chief creative officer Norman Agatep said.
The latest feat represents the second straight time the DOT has won in the Anvil Awards for its innovative online PR/marketing programs.
In 2008, DOT-Euro RSCG/Agatep won an Anvil Award of Merit for "The Philippines: Explore. Experience. Return.", a campaign which used the power of the Internet to create a positive image of the Philippines as a safe tourist destination, build a database of more than 85,000 names and email addresses of 2nd and 3rd generation Americans and Canadians in North America, and invite them to visit the Philippines.
Both Anvil-award winning programs were entered by PR agency Agatep Associates, Inc., the most Anvil-awarded PR agency in the Philippines.
Considered the "Oscar" of the PR industry, the Anvil Awards is an annual competition by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines to recognize exceptional PR programs implemented in the previous year.
