New Media Philippines

First let me just congratulate the Department of Tourism, led by Secretary Mon Jimenez, for deciding to focus on social media for the tourism campaign. As a digital marketing professional I’m truly thrilled about this! The “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign is groundbreaking, daring, innovative, and it will hopefully showcase what digital has [...]

Rappler.com just received a ridiculous amount of publicity due to UST’s reaction to one of the articles posted by Rappler.com‘s Editor at Large Marites Vitug being published on the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. This is actually perfect timing because we just had a quick e-mail interview with Rappler.com’s Executive Editor & CEO, [...]

One of the biggest announcements made during the Youtube Philippines launch was the World View interview of President Noynoy Aquino. This was definitely a welcome development since it showed that the Pnoy administration was open to doing out-of-the-box ideas like this one. The interview was also supported with TV and online plugs. However despite all [...]

Most of you have probably heard about the DPWH photoshop incident already. For those who haven’t let me quickly summarize. DPWH posted an edited photo on their Facebook page showing several DPWH officials imposed on Roxas avenue after Pedring. Unfortunately for DPWH it was spotted by a blogger and exposed. The post became viral and [...]

PALEA tried to gain public sympathy by staging a strike on the day typhoon Pedring battered the Philippines. This effectively stranded thousands of passengers who were riding flights from the Philippines Air Lines (PAL). They definitely got media mileage since all of the major TV newscasts aired the story but I’m not too sure about [...]

Congressman Winston Castelo filed House Bill 5316, also known as the Anti-Planking Act of 2011, that will ban planking in the Philippines. He goes on to say that “The Filipino psyche of our young children in school is under attack — right here and now. Planking now rears its ugly head as a form of [...]

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda is about to get mobbed big time on Twitter. He just posted a few minutes ago calling out the “leftists” who were protesting against the recent increase in oil prices via a transport strike. In a tweet on his account @dawende said: Noticed how leftists are so onion-skinned? Tinawag lang perjuicio [...]

The Blas F. Ople Policy Center, headed by my ninang Susan “Toots” Ople, sought out and connected with the Filipina bloggers who were harassed in Bali, Indonesia. I’m very happy to report that the complaint has been filed with the Department of Foreign Affairs and it looks like we’ll be seeing action on this case. [...]

Senator Panfilo Lacson finally came out of hiding (1 year) after the Court of Appeals cleared him of his murder charge of Bubby Dacer. His name was also taken out of the Interpol Watch List. During his press conference this morning he was asked a barrage of questions. One of the interesting things he revealed [...]

Earlier today NewsBreak had a “twitterview” with Senator Gringo Honasan. In a “twitterview”, the guest is asked questions via Twitter by several panelists who are also all on Twitter. The discussion was moderated by NewsBreak’s Glenda Gloria (formerly head of ABS-CBN’s News Channel, ANC) and Twitterati @I_amHolo. The relatively peaceful interview became tense though when [...]

Veteran journalist Malou Mangahas posted an article on the PCIJ website as well as the Philippine Online Chronicles of what would have been former Angelo Reyes’ final words. This note was apparently written by the late General himself. I’ll just post a couple of snippets in this entry. Just hop on over to the source [...]

Looking back 2010 was a big year for social media and the digital marketing industry in the Philippines. It’s the year where we saw the Philippines skyrocket to the 6th biggest country on Facebook at 19M registered accounts. We were also cited several times by different studies saying that we had the highest level of [...]

A lot of activists here in the Philippines as well as those abroad are calling people who support causes by joining Internet memes or online petitions “Slacktivists“. Basically the hardcore activists feel that unless people go out and actually join them in rallies, build houses, or give money, it’s all pointless. I strongly disagree with [...]

A certain advertising executive wrote that some people were behind the recent online outrage against the botched “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” campaign of the Department of Tourism. She goes on to say that everything was a coordinated plot to take down the Aquino administration. An airline carrier and the former President are even dragged into the [...]

It looks like our good senators see the value of technology and the internet! The Philippine Senate recently launched a live streaming service of their proceedings yesterday, November 23, 2010. This was brought about by Resolution 53 which was filed by Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan of the Liberal Party. In his press release, Senator Pangilinan [...]

The Department of Tourism is turning the tables on all of their critics that slammed their “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” campaign. In a new announcement posted in the microsite www.tourismpilipinas.com, they are calling on copy writers, designers, and QA officers to volunteer to “wikify” the new website. Volunteers will e-mail DOT and they’ll get the private [...]

By now you’ve probably heard of how the Presidential Communications Group created a new Facebook Page for President Aquino and how the 2.2M Facebook Page for him made by a volunteer was deleted by Facebook. To read the full story on this, click this link to go to my political commentary blog. What’s interesting though [...]

There’s been a lot of talk about how the current Philippine government will tap technology, internet, and social media for feedback and governance. As of today the most that has been done is to use social networks like Twitter and Facebook as information dissemination tools. While this is laudable, this effort only scratches the surface [...]

Blogger and famous tour guide Carlos Celdran is now detained at the Police Community Precinct in Ermita, Manila. During a mass this afternoon, Celdran, wearing a Jose Rizal costume, stood in front of the church with a “DAMASO” sign. He then shouted and called for priests and the church to stop getting involved with politics. [...]

The Aquino administration has been talking about “using social media” for the past few months. So far the best that they’ve done is create a hate-flooded Facebook page for President Aquino. However it looks like one government agency is getting the idea behind social media, specifically Twitter. The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has been [...]