PLDT Inc. (PLDT) and its wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) bagged 56 group-wide wins, including the Company of the Year and 1st runner up titles, at the 18th Philippine Quill Awards. The wins were for brand and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives that leverage on PLDT and Smart’s integrated technology, digital innovations, and the fastest network in the Philippines.
Organized by the Philippine chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), the Philippine Quill Awards honored programs and campaigns which exemplified the Quills’ global standards of excellent, effective, and purposeful business communication. Judges scored entries using IABC’s Global Seven-point Scale of Excellence for strategic planning and execution.
“We at PLDT accept this Philippine Quill Company of the Year Award for 2020 with a most profound sense of gratitude, after having survived and thrived for a year under the most extraordinary circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” First Vice President and Group Head of PLDT and Smart Corporate Communications Cathy Yap-Yang said during her acceptance speech.
“This is dedicated to every employee at PLDT group for their relentless commitment to deliver our service, as demand for connectivity soared to unprecedented levels,” she added.
PLDT and Smart won a total of 36 awards under Communication Management, including the Top Division Award for the Smart-backed CVIF-Dynamic Learning Program. A crisis-resilient learning strategy developed world-renowned Theoretical Physicists and Ramon Magsaysay laureates, Dr. Christopher Bernido, and Dr. Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Central Visayan Institute Foundation in Jagna, Bohol, Smart and PLDT-Smart Foundation have been helping roll out CVIF-DLP workshops for over a decade. Amid education’s new normal, Smart announced the availability of over 2,000 free-to-download CVIF-DLP Learning Activity Sheets via the Department of Education (DepEd) portal DepEd Commons, accessible by Smart, Sun, and TNT subscribers even without data load. One of only three supplemental learning materials endorsed by DepEd for school year 2020-2021, 16 DepEd divisions nationwide have implemented CVIF-DLP, many of whom learned about the independent learning methodology after Smart’s ‘No Learner Left Behind’ web forum, which generated almost half a million views.
Other winning entries under the Communication Management division were: “Are you a Data Privacy Hero or Sidekick?” PLDT Data Privacy e-Learning Program; CVIF-DLP’s Change Communication entry; Digital Catechism: Road to PH's 500 Years of Christianity; Digital Farmers Program; Free Stories for All with Giga Stories; Gabay Guro program; Gabay Kalikasan omnibus campaign; LearnSmart Literacy Apps program; PLDT Enterprise initiatives Beyond Fiber, Day Zero, Everyday Stories of Real IMPACT, Focus Campaign, Ignite, Philippine Digital Convention 2019, and Tech Talk ON-AIR; PLDT Home initiatives “Learning to Naks!” Empowering Filipino students to be the 'Bida' with PLDT Home Prepaid Wifi, Fibr-powered Esports in the Philippines, #StayHome Campaign, and PLDT Home Wifi Prepaid: Leveling Up Students' Education Through Connectivity; PLDT and Smart Cyber Security Awareness Campaign for Employees; Power Over Plastic Company-wide Ban on Single-Use Plastics; Safe PH for Smart Millenniors; School-in-a-Bag; Simple, Smart Ako; Smart at the 30th SEA Games; Smart Communities and the UNSDGs; Smart Giga Mania; Smart powers National e-Sports Team; SWEEP: Digital Shift for Future Ready Schools; TNT’s campaigns for Big Bente, Free YouTube For All, Giga Stories, and Giga Video; TNT Tropang Ready Batch 2; and PLDT Vox Now.
Smart was also shortlisted for the Top Division Award under Communication Training and Education for the Smart Creator Programs. The online learning series aimed to take the youth’s budding and fast-growing passion for content creation to the next level.
Shortlisted for the Top Division Award for Communication Skills was PLDT Home’s “Dear Pa” Father’s Day campaign. Other winning bids were the CVIF-DLP #NoLearnerLeftBehind Web Forum; CyberSmart Caravans; Digital Catechism: Heritage Tour Series; Free Bee Paskong Pinoy; Gabay Guro Grand Gathering; In Good Company: PLDT Group 2019 Sustainability Report; LearnSmart eLearning Sessions; LearnSmart Literacy Apps; PLDT Global’s MUSIKALAYAAN Para sa Global Pinoys; PLDT Enterprise’s Pasasalamat Night Manila 2019; PLDT Home initiatives #ComeHomeToLove for Valentine's Day, #StayHomeSeries, “Ako Naman, Ma” for Mother's Day, Mother Hood Series: Celebrating All Kinds of Moms, PLDT Home Powers the 2019 Kadayawan Festival, and The Round Up; PLDT-Smart Gabay Kalikasan AVPs for Paperless Billing and Clean The Cloud; and Sunrise Run.
IABC Philippines is the first IABC chapter in Asia. Celebrating its 38th year in 2020, it continues to uphold excellence in business communication through masterclasses and other learning activities that equip its member-professionals with trends and global-standard communication skills and strategies.
