A Night at the Movies: MWG Christmas Party @ Skye Lounge

It's only fitting to end a very eventful year for McCann with a big bang. Night after our team's dinner, we had our annual Christmas party with the rest of Worldgroup at Skye Lounge at Fort Bonifacio. This year's theme was all about Hollywood. Being in an advertising agency, I wasn't surprised to see majority of the McCannites wear costumes. Awesome night!

MRM-ers

More pictures after the jump! :)

MRM Christmas Dinner @ Cabalen, Glorietta 3

Horrible traffic. Awesome food. Huge team.

I can still recall last year's Christmas dinner - which we had at Red Crab in Greenbelt 3. We only filled up just one table back then. We were a team of 12-15 people celebrating what was, as most of us would call it, a "transition" year as 80% of the team were hired in that same year (that included myself!).

Fast forward to 2011 and look! We grew enormously - now more than double of the past year. What's great is that we're a well-knit and very tight team. As I've previously stated, we're basically one big barkada hanging out at the McCann office. Cool right?

More than just the growth, the team had so many things to celebrate. 2011 has been a great ride for all of us - old or new. Ibang klase talaga. What's both exciting and nerve-wracking is how we'll move forward to 2012. :)

As always, our team dinner did not lack in bloopers and laughs. Priceless guys, priceless!

Tons of pictures after the jump!

Taga-McCann ako. Taga-McCann.

This video was released during our annual Christmas party at Skye Lounge last December 21, 2011. Awesome song! So awesome I'm actually loving McCann. haha!

MRM is made of win

The McCann Worldgroup Most Improved Agency
just click here to enlarge

The MRM team went out for lunch at Bowler in Makati today to celebrate perhaps the biggest win in recent memory - the MWG Quantum Leap award - in other words, the Most Improved Agency in the McCann Worldgroup network. Yes, among all McCann offices/disciplines, MRM Philippines claimed it with flying colors. Our team was the only MRM agency as well as from Southeast Asia, to win an award across all categories. In a span of more than a year, the team went through a major turnaround to finally reach where it is today. Makes me feel so good whenever I remember the time we were barely 10 in the team when I went in. Talk about expansion!

Proud to be MRM!

McCann Worldgroup @ 2011 Araw Awards

As I've tweeted, this past weekend has probably been one of the best in recent memory. Had so much fun in my first Philippine Ad Congress. My weekend, mostly with my MRM peeps, was definitely a blast. Will post pictures next time around :)

One Year.

Twelve months ago, I was this very eager and excited kid from UP-Diliman who was just about to enter the corporate world as a Data Analyst for one of the biggest advertising agencies in the country.

I came not really knowing how does a guy like me fit in a company known for it's crafty strategies and famous work. I knew I was going to do some number crunching and whatnots for a number of brands but I always thought I could learn more outside of my field.

Yes, that was my dream - to do analytics in a marketing perspective - and boy did I move further from my original jd.

A whole lot of meetings. Data Analytics. Data extractions. Validations. Research.

Some account management. Out-of-town presentations. and a whole lot of competitives.

Few months later, new vision was instilled and yeah, digital was all over it. For a moment, I thought "why am I here?" There were moments when I wondered if this was what I wanted. It wasn't like I wasn't fit for it but it was more like "do I belong here?"

Being the positive person that I am, I just went with the flow. Digital Immersion is what I want to call it. Eat, drink and sleep Digital. Literally.

Next thing you know I was tasked to champion digital media. Imagine all that reading and self-studying. Yes, all this happening as I was adjusting with the fact that I had a second job that time. Life was so stressful. Well up to now I guess.

Since then, I've had a change of position name/role in the team, a well-earned certification in Google advertising, oh so numerous digital campaigns implemented, now two teaching gigs and a whole lot more. I still do some analytics but now in a digital perspective. I am what they call the team's "numbers guy". Yeah, for some it's pretty nerdy, but that's how I earn my money.

One year. Boy was that one heck of a ride. I still remember my boss saying, "this is just the tip of the iceberg" back then. Up until now that's how I feel. Big things are bound to come. I just know it.

I used to eat, drink and sleep digital. Now I still do but now I also think and speak digital.

And now, that's how I roll.

Transformation

After going on leave last monday for a teaching demo, I went straight to Fiamma for McCann Worldgroup Townhall. Agency's new identity was revealed and changes in leadership were made official. It was a big day for the whole agency. Aside from the spanking new business cards, we also received our new chairman's first executive order: PARTEEEYYYYYYY!!!

Good times :)