Succulence here, there, and everywhere.

@immapPH #OpenMicNight is a wrap!

pauljohnpena — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 09:07:55 +0000

Last night was amazing! Seeing the community converge in a big way and hearing a lot of conversations going on is just thrilling. Last night (or well, this morning!), as I prepared to sleep, I looked back at how this event came about and the ride it went through behind the scenes both on cam and off-cam to how it went last night at The Peninsula Manila and realised that this industry is worth innovating and fighting for.

It all started with a call for volunteers which in less than a day since the call was posted on Facebook generated more than 25 volunteers, then it progressed to a series of big meetings then a lot of breakout meetings. Then I got a message from my partner, Ysobel, saying that The Peninsula Manila is willing to host the 2nd IMMAP Open Mic Night. Together with Andre A. Yap, we finalised the format which we instantly felt was going to be an engaging format of unconference… Then in one of our big meetings, TV5′s Carlo Ople volunteered to have a sponsorship deal approved.

Without having to market the event and in less than a month, we were ready to execute with teams formed: Creatives, Audience Engagement, Programme and Praxis, Production and Marketing.

If we look at how this event happened more closely, just like last year’s maiden Open Mic Night, we see the strong, willing spirit of the volunteer — from those who organised to the sponsors to the speakers who volunteered their time and talent to provide the community insights and stories that spark even more conversations to happen offline.

And with great intentions always come great support from the community. There are no hiccups that could get in the way of great intentions. And we proved this again last night.

Attendance was outstanding; we had a cap of 200 people as what was budgeted for the food and drinks — the venue, in fact, could only host 150 people at any given time. And yet, more than what was expected for the event came.

Our friends from other non-digital industries were also in attendance — even our friends from mainstream press covered, willingly providing the event extra legs through their own channels. Our friends from NGOs, LGUs, even the Chairman of the AdBoard of the Philippines were present to support and mingle. Because of last night, it is clearer to me now that everyone is indeed a digital marketer – one way or another, everyone is part of this community. It ain’t just a few, but it is everyone that wants this practice, this discipline, this space to grow.

People were also willingly tweeting the whole time providing their friends and followers who couldn’t go to the event a chance to know what was going on at the Salon. Everyone was a journalist last night!

We have one learning to bring with us as we shape the next Open Mic Night: provide breakout venues with ample space and great acoustics so people could listen in easily. We will keep in this mind as we continue working to improve our events.

It seems to me that we have cracked a good formula of engaging the community: great conversations, good food and drinks, a venue that allows an exchange of ideas, awesome friends and luminaries in attendance talking and building ties on the same level where everyone is a peer to another, and the wild spirit of a volunteer. This makes the community alive and kicking.

As the 2nd IMMAP Open Mic Night came to a wrap, we concluded that the Digital Marketing community in the Philippines is a powerful group of people with insights, stories, experiences that matter. Again, thank you to everyone who made this event happen. It wouldn’t be a success without the volunteers’ talent and efforts, the sponsors’ willingness to make a vision happen, and the audience’s profound interest to connect, exchange and contribute to the community.

Mad props to TV5, The Peninsula Manila, and Casa Noble. Additional thanks to Adobo Magazine, Rappler.com, and Inquirer. Cheers to Nokia Pilipinas, Lenovo, Chrysanthemum Flowers for helping us too!

See you all at the next IMMAP Open Mic Night!

IMMAP Open Mic Night Part Deux news! News! News!

pauljohnpena — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:47:46 +0000

Announcements, announcements!

1. Presenting…. Our final speakers for the 2nd IMMAP Open Mic Night on Friday 6pm at The Peninsula Manila Salon de Ning are:

#ITSMOREFUNINTHEPHILIPPINES
-Red Tani, President of Filipino Freethinkers, Winner of Globe Tatt Awards The One Category
-Pie Alvarez, Mayor of San Vicente Palawan at 24, World Economic Forum’s Young Global Shapers
-Roby Alampay, Writer at TV5
-Lynn Pinugu, founder of Mano Amiga, World Economic Forum’s Young Global Shapers
-David Guerrero, Chairman and CCO at BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines

#WHATROCKSMYSOCKS
-Noemi Dado, Founder and Editor of Blogwatch.ph
-Ivy Almario, Interior Designer
-Marthyn Cuan, CIO at Meralco
-Manny Osmena, Cebu’s top winemaker, Manny O
-Glenmarc Antonio, Famous cosplayer

#Bawal
-Joey Ong, Executive Creative Director of DDB Philippines
-Kenji Onglao, on classism
-Acee Vitangcol, Digital Strategist
- Malvin Lim, Toy Collector
-Miguel Quesada, President of Virus Inc. (TBC)

And Taken By Cars to share their South x Southwest experience!

We will be hosting Geekery in its finest on Friday; please come and join in this big conversation.

We open the gates at 6pm and will start the program promptly at 7pm.

2. Hosting the event is Jay Jaboneta, IMMAP Open Mic Night alumnus.

Hosting the fishbowl are fellow IMMAP Open Mic Night alumni Andre Yap, WEF Young Global Shaper Anna Oposa, and artist Nasser Lubay.

IMMAP Open Mic Night alumnus and designer Brian Tenorio will be awarding the 5 best dressed individuals, so come in your best!

Hosting our socials will be Borgy Manotoc with a chill out set from Taken By Cars as well.

3. Several exciting prizes will be given away! All-new Resolutionary iPads from TV5, Casa Noble bottles, a Nokia Lumia 800 on WP7.5, a treat from the Peninsula Manila.

4. Salon de Ning dress code will be enforced: classy chic for men and women, collared tops for men a must. Jackets for men are optional.

This event is organised by IMMAP together with TV5 and The Peninsula Manila.

This is it!!! See you all on Friday the 13th – the day we turn it #GOOD.

Event is co-organised by: Yehey!, Wunderman, 1DMG, Leo Burnett & Arc Worldwide, LoudWhistle, Ripple 100, GoMotion, TV5, Peachtree SEO.

Our media partners: Adobo Magazine, Inquirer, and Rapper.com.

Our official beverage partner for the night: Casa Noble

@immapPH to go on HD! ISO ad agency/mktg companies for a brand refresh

pauljohnpena — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:32:08 +0000

The Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) officially invites advertising agencies or marketing communications companies who are bona fide members of the organisation to its

CALL FOR CREDENTIALS AND INTENT TO PARTICIPATE

as we re-engineer IMMAP and chart its future through a brand refresh with the following areas part of the winning agency/company’s scope of work:

Overall brand strategy aligned with our new mission and vision
New corporate identity and official applications including merchandising ideas
Web UX design and social content strategy aligned with the new brand strategy
Brand relaunch activation ideas
Strengthened member value proposition

Interested parties may submit an official letter of intent to participate to the ff:

Danny Eguia, Executive Director
danny.eguia@immap.com.ph
secretariat@immap.com.ph

Pao Peña, Vice President
pao@pauljohnpena.com

Deadline of submission of letter of intent to participate is on 17 February, Fri.

Agencies/companies that are represented in the current Board of Directors and Executive Officers of IMMAP need not participate.

For more information, please contact Pao at 0917 888 1910 / pao@pauljohnpena.com / @pauljohnpena on Twitter.

Goodbye, Whitney.

pauljohnpena — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:25:15 +0000

I remember hearing her songs on the radio and watched her on MTV when I was still a kid. Of course, like other children, I didn’t know much about her and just knew she was a popular celebrity in the US. Growing up, I heard her pepper the airwaves with songs whose titles I don’t even know by heart. But I knew they were great songs performed with so much passion, fervor, and elegance. Her voice flowed through the airwaves just as how every great performer would (and should) do.

While most people grew up with Michael Jackson and maybe the Beatles in the background, I grew up with Whitney’s music. The occasional top charters, the strong association with the Bodyguard, and her jarring and very well talked about battle with relationships and drugs make her one of my top of mind names of artists to even leave an impression so lasting that even though her songs are left without titles in my mind I feel sadness for what the world lost but I keep dearly in my childhood memories.

It’s like losing an aspect of your past that while they linger there, you realise they’re no longer somewhere out there and that you will no longer see nor hear them. Not now, not anymore, not ever again.

So long, Whitney. Thank you for leaving me one of my most favourite songs of all time.

R.I.P. Whitney Houston 1963-2012.

Leo Burnett Manila ISO of Regional Community Manager

pauljohnpena — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:16:05 +0000

We’re looking for a REGIONAL COMMUNITY MANAGER for a technology brand

Job Purpose:
The Community Manager is responsible for ensuring active and engaged social communities (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, etc.) by creating and managing editorial content calendars, monitoring online conversations and participating in those conversations to build product visibility and support brand awareness and engagement at local market level.

Primary Responsibilities:
Create and manage content for social media conversations and activities
• Post content for feeds and discussion-starter topics including writing Facebook Status Updates, Tweets, Blog posts, etc. in alignment with global/local SM strategy
• Manage page/channel daily operations, including themes/skin/layout changes when appropriate.
• Maintain editorial calendars and work with directors for proper approvals
• Adhere to the standard practices guide for social channel responsibilities and guidelines
Build community strategy within local market
• Identify, locate and engage advocates and influencers within the various social community sites to foster dialogue and allow discussions about brand’s products and promotions/campaigns
• Cultivate a social presence and activate community groups for the brand’s product divisions
• Review and respond to user generated comments in order to foster a positive community and add value to the users experience as outlined in the schedule
• Enforce Social Media Guidelines as defined by global/local social media strategy
• Monitor conversations and user generated comments and escalate to internal and client stakeholders as necessary

Analytical Reports

• May be required to pull and interpret data based on analytics reports. If required, the following tasks would be fulfilled by the role
o Provide regular reports during campaign/promotions to highlight key findings from social media forums, key areas reported include:
• Activity on Pages/channel management
• Community activity (fans, posts, comments, conversation topics, etc)
• Moderation actions (posts/comments/content removal/banning)
• Trends
• Issues and escalation performed
• Content opportunities

Qualifications:
• Proven experience managing social media platforms or communities for brands with an undergraduate degree, preferably with specialty in communications, marketing, public relations, or journalism

Important Considerations/Requirements:
• Digitally savvy and actively participates in wide variety of social media activities
• Understand popular social networks including design, functionality and users
• Affinity and passion for technology
• Excellent writing skills
• Superior communication skills
• Attention to detail
• Appreciative of creative product
• Self-starter
• Culturally sensitive
• Level of maturity required

Interested parties may send me their CV at pao.pena@ph.leoburnett.com Cheers!

Leo Burnett Manila ISO a Social Media Distribution Manager

pauljohnpena — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:14:41 +0000

Hooray for opportunities!

(Social Media) Distribution Manager

Job Purpose:
The Distribution Manager will be responsible for the design and creation of social media activation programs and strategies to maximize online engagement around the brand’s divisions, campaigns and promotions at the local level. This position will partner with the Community Manager but will interface with the local client, regional team and the Global Social Media Center headquartered in New York.

Primary Responsibilities:

Manage local social strategy and program design

• Understand the community and design programs, thought leadership for creating strategic marketing/communication plans across social media landscape
• Manage localization of global content into a strategic feed for production and integrations in local partner channels
• Collaborate with the project team to identify strategies, solutions and insight from content generated in social media on daily basis that drive traffic and grow number of fans/followers
• Identify what is working, what is not and create programs to adjust strategy to engage consumers in social media platforms
• Create and manage the local editorial calendar and ensure global/local content is pushed out, quality and timelines are met

Concepting & Executing Paid/Owned/Earned media programs
• Establish, maintain and leverage relationships with local bloggers & influencers,
• Understand online media landscape, identify target consumer lifestyles & create partnerships with relevant websites
• Understand the myriad of new web properties and distribution platforms
• Understand the ‘value exchange’ process by which earned partnerships are negotiated around
• Interface between Global Social Media Center, Social Media Director and other key stakeholders within the LB and brand organization

Qualifications:
• Manage page/channel daily operations, including themes/skin/layout changes when appropriate.
Important Considerations/Requirements:
• Ability to leverage existing media relationships to generate earned impressions & engagements
• Digitally savvy and actively participates in wide variety of social media activities
• Understand popular social networks including design, functionality and users
• Affinity and passion for technology
• Superior communication and presentation skills
• Attention to detail
• Appreciative of creative product
• Culturally sensitive
• LANGUAGE NOTE* Candidate must be fluent in English and local language(s)
• Level of maturity required
• Passionate leader who values and fosters collaborative, cohesive teams

Interested parties may contact me here or pao.pena@ph.leoburnett.com.

Sore left eye

pauljohnpena — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:31:27 +0000

Boo for raining on my last day of leave.

Page 2 of 366

pauljohnpena — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:04:47 +0000

Hello world.

Test post from devicedom.

Dear Lord

pauljohnpena — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:59:46 +0000

Dear Lord,

Thank you for this wonderful year.

You make all greatest things possible, and I thank you for giving me a fraction of it. Thankful forever for all the blessings you have given me and my family, my friends, and colleagues.

Thank you for giving us challenges that make us better people.

Thank you for the life you have given me and to all those around me and those whom I do not know yet.

Thank you for a life that only you make so succulent through others, through the world, through my everyday living.

Thank you for giving the world brilliant, creative, very sharp people.

Thank you for giving me a chance to be good and live life succulently.

Thank you for loving parents, a loving life-partner, caring family, wonderful friends and teammates.

Thank you for giving us the ability to engineer, design, create.

Thank you for giving us life.

I dedicate my 2011 and 2012 to you.

I love you. Every new year is a year dedicated to you.

Humbly,

Pao

2011: Tough, victorious, inspiring

pauljohnpena — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 06:57:58 +0000

I will never be a prominent blogger like some friends I know. I am bad at creating my own content. The best I do is post mobile photos to my Facebook, rarely on Instagram… my Twitter is luckily linked to my Foursquare check-in so that’s a bit of solid content there. Other than that, this blog is virtually a seasonal thing.
Some excuses:
No time

Okay, that’s the only excuse I use. No time. Quite true especially this year which witnessed me swirling about fast. There’s the new job at Burnett which required me to be on top of my game internally and externally. There’s IMMAP which required me to attend meetings at frequent intervals. There’s the drive to make money both for myself and the company I work for.

I didn’t even get to travel this year – not at least the level that I’d want to. This year I had hope to go to Nepal, revisit Europe, see NYC and club in it, and a whole lot more places to seize but left not done.

For all that I learned this year, one that tops my list is opportunity cost.

Opportunity cost is simply the cost of having chosen something over another – what you lose in the course of having chosen one over the other. And this is what I learnt most this year – and which I am now cherishing a lot.

Had I not decided to leave Globe, I would have received a generous amount of discretionary and performance bonuses. I would have been able to file my vacation leaves ahead and traveled, bought a new gadget here and there. Maybe bought a bag to replace my one year toddler, my everyday (and already tired) YSL bag that I got over a year ago in Paris. More money, no problem.

But I did. I decided to leave Globe. And there a ripple of effects was born.

Everyday I second guessed myself: can I do this? Can I handle this? I doubted myself if I could really do it. You know, facing clients who think they’re better than you is a problem for someone who has superiority complex. I will not deny it, it takes a lot of patience to listen and swallow your pride granted that you’re not part of the decision, you are the one at the mercy of a decision.

Then I always think of my revenue targets. It isn’t my first time to deal with revenues. At least at Globe, I was mandated to manage cost, to manage my expenses not revenues. Over at Zing.vn, I was mandated to bring to market a new service and manage my cost for bringing it to market. At Level Up, I had to manage my revenues, but the revenues were manageable, not crazy.

At Burnett, I woke up with it, I slept with it. I thought: Is this the track to being a general manager? I’ve always wanted to head a company and put everything under my control. I knew it was my training to becoming one. I have a lot of ideas on how to run companies effectively, efficiently, and how to inspire employees around a vision and how to create an atmosphere of friendly competition in order to achieve goals. And I knew this was my training. Something bigger is out there and I have to train for it.

Maybe I am dreaming too much. But this is where it all started: a dream. So be it.

I never thought 2011 would end on such a high note. Two weeks ago, I was doing my revenue tracking and I was literally harassing my leadership team over their revenues. I sent templates and called each of my staff’s attention to how much *more* we needed to generate in a few weeks’ time. Then I got a call from our comptrollership saying that as of that moment we were already hitting 108% of our revenue commitments.

I was caught in my own disbelief.

There were tears swelling in my eyes. That was an affirmation of, more than anything, that I could do it…. that I could turn around a company that was swelling with a lot of baggage. That I could inspire, that I could help others become what they want to be from a seven-year hiatus from the industry. That we are alive, we are a real large-sized agency *in* business.

So that’s how that story ends. Victorious.

Sometimes the opportunity cost is to be feared. I might have earned more had I not left, but the opportunity cost is less valiant when placed in comparo with the higher wave one could ride and risk.

Everyday I face personal challenges that I always promise to rise above. Some caused tears of anger, of pain and of pure stress. But it *is* bliss to see people smiling, people inspired to do and be more.

That is the highest order of commitment for me: to make people win, achieve, and be more. That is my promise in 2012. Nothing less.

To the best team, cheers!