MANILA — Metrobank Foundation, Inc., Shell Companies in the Philippines, and the Communication Research Department of the UP College of Mass Communication headlined the winners at the Philippine Quill Awards 2014, the country’s most prestigious and most comprehensive awards in business communication, held last March 9 at the Grand Ballroom, Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
Metrobank received the Communication Management Top Award (Metrobank Group Helping Hands Relief and Rehabilitation Response for Yolanda Survivors), Shell got the Communication Skills Top Award (Shell Centennial Campaign), while the UP Communication Research Department won the Communication Training and Education Top Award (BEWARE: You are at risk “Be aware: You are at a risk communication conference”) in the annual honor program staged by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Philippines to recognize the finest communication programs and projects by organizations and companies in the nation.
Top Awards are conferred to entries that garnered the highest score among Excellence Awardees per division, after undergoing the Quill’s stringent judging procedure. The organization and agency that won the most Excellent Awards, meanwhile, get distinction as the Company and Agency of the For 2014, the trophy for Company of the Year was given to Shell Companies in the Philippines, which edged out Manila Electric Company (1st runner-up) and ABS-CBN Corporation (2nd runner-up). Stratworks, Inc., on the other hand, was hailed as Agency of the Year.
For the Philippine Student Quill Awards, the junior version of the Quill that honors outstanding communication work by college students, Colegio de San Juan de Letran notched the Top Award with the entry “Rainbow X.” University of Santo Tomas, meanwhile, garnered the most Excellence Awards to become School of the Year. Another victor in the Student Quill was the entry “Tahan Na” by Prism Productions also from Letran.
It is the first winner of the Holcim Special Award for Sustainability. The award is given to the student entry that best exemplifies a communication initiative to advocate and support sustainability.
This covers efforts that propagate a holistic and long-term view of balancing business or profit with environmental and social responsibility. It also rewards the exceptional work that helps push a culture of safety, high ethical standards, collaboration, aesthetics, innovation and opportunities for replication.
Apart from the awarding ceremony, another highlight in last night’s event was the launch of the “The Best Practices in Communication Planning and Implementation” electronic book, IABC Philippines’ first ever digital publication. It contains 59 case studies from diverse industries that won Excellence awards in the 2013 Philippine Quill Awards.
IABC Philippines President Kane Errol Choa said they hope the electronic book will inspire more companies and organizations to enhance their use of communication as a strategy to attain their business goals.
“The book serves as a guide on how to win in the Quill by showing how award-winning communication programs were written and prepared by past Quill winners. Hopefully, this will encourage others to take communication seriously, seeing how great campaigns can boost companies as well as make the world a better place for everyone,” he said.
As an act of unity to the cause of communication excellence, the Quill winners had a symbolic simultaneous pinning of the Quill badge led by IABC Philippines Chair Ritzi Ronquillo.
“The Quill pin signifies our unwavering hunger for excellence and our commitment to satisfy this desire to continuously improve on our craft. Furthermore, it is a reminder to us communicators, regardless of the industries we belong to, that what we do is important. It can change organizations. It can change lives,” she said.
Belle Tiongco and Richard Arboleda, committee heads for this year’s Quill and Student Quill awards, expressed glee on the great turnout of the Quill, which was staged through the support of Gold sponsors ABS-CBN Corporation, Holcim Philippines, Inc., PRU Life UK; Silver sponsors San Miguel Brewery, Inc., San Miguel Corporation, and Smart Communications, Inc.; and Bronze sponsors BA Securities, Inc., Enchanted Kingdom, Inc., Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Pag-IBIG Fund, Social Security System (SSS), and TeaM Energy Corporation.
The Quill was also made possible through the help of media intelligence partner iSentia, media partners adobo magazine, ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), BusinessMirror, BusinessWorld, Manila Bulletin, Rappler, and The Philippines Star, and official tabulator Reyes Tacandong & Co.
“We can see all our efforts in uniting and strengthening the communication profession already paying off. There wasn’t just an increase in the number of entries this Quill, the overall quality of entries also improved that’s why we have a record-breaking number of Merit and Excellence awardees this year,” Tiongco said.
“We’re very excited for our student-winners. We hope that through their Student Quill experience, we have inspired them to become achievers as practitioners, just like the top-notch communication professionals from the biggest companies in the Philippines that gathered here tonight,” Arboleda added.
Apart from the great awarding ceremony hosted by columnist and socialite Tessa Prieto-Valdes, ANC anchor Ron Cruz, and actor Mikoy Morales, guests were also treated with a performance by singer Marion Aunor, and a very inspiring talk from the international chair of the IABC, Russell Grossman, who delivered the keynote address.
The IABC Philippines is the first chapter outside North America of the global IABC, a network of over 15,500 communication professionals in 80 countries. The IABC holds the annual Gold Quill Awards, considered the highest honor in business communication in the world.
