IN today’s cutthroat and challenging environment, businesses need to deploy the right tools and tap the right people to help them succeed. To thrive, all companies need business communicators who can help them relay vital information about their company.
Without effective business communicators, enterprises would be hard-pressed to meet the goals and to engage the community in their operations. Their importance can never be emphasized enough.
The Quill Awards recognizes excellent communicators who have made an impact not only on the operations of their company but also on the lives of the stakeholders and the community they want to serve. Organized by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Philippines, the Quill Awards honors business communicators who have exhibited thought leadership, strategic management, creativity and resourcefulness.
For the past 13 years IABC has called upon organizations from all regions in the nation to raise their banners and put their finest communication programs to a test. IABC’s challenge to these organizations is simple: to prove their excellence.
Companies, comprised of skillful communicators, spend hours and days in preparing their best works for the competition. They make sure that every entry represents their best effort in using communication to attain their business goals. Their road to victory is not easy, but they know it’s always worth it to fight for the greatest prize in business communication in the country.
This year’s Quill Awards is considered the biggest, as the number of entrants rose by more than 49 percent compared to the figure recorded the previous year.
“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 for 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,” said Belle Tiongco, one of the heads in this year’s Quill Awards.
Standouts in 2014
The 2014 winners were led by Metrobank Foundation Inc., Shell Companies in the Philippines, the Communication Research Department of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication and Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
Metrobank received the Communication Management Top Award for its Metrobank Group Helping Hands Relief and Rehabilitation Response for Yolanda Survivors. Shell got the Communication Skills Top Award for its Shell Centennial Campaign, while the UP Communication Research Department won the Communication Training and Education Top Award for its communication conference, titled “BEWARE: You are at risk.” Letran, on the other hand, notched the top award for the entry Rainbow X at the Philippine Student Quill Awards, the junior version of the Quill Awards that honors outstanding communication work by college students.
The Quill Top Award is conferred to entries that garnered the highest score among Excellence Awardees per division. Meanwhile, the organization, agency and school that won the most Excellence Awards gets distinguished as the Company, Agency and School of the Year, respectively.
For 2014, University of Santo Tomas was named School of the Year and Strategic Works Inc. was hailed Agency of the Year. Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and ABS-CBN Corp. placed first and second runner-up, respectively, to Shell for the Company of the Year award.
Another winner in the event was the entry Tahan Na by Prism Productions also from Letran, which received the first-ever Holcim Philippines Special Award for Sustainability—a special award given to the student entry that stands out in the crowd for its communication initiative to advocate and support sustainability. It rewards exceptional work that pushes for a culture of safety, high ethical standards, collaboration, aesthetics, innovation and opportunities for replications.
Also 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 Chairman 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.
IABC Philippines’s first digital publication
This year’s ceremonies also included the launch of The Best Practices in Communication Planning and Implementation electronic book, the IABC Philippines’ first-ever digital publication.
Now available on www.amazon.com, the book features the winning entries in the 2013 cycle of the Quill, deemed the biggest and most comprehensive awards in business communication.
According to IABC Philippines Publication head Rosan Cruz, the digital book is part of the group’s continuing advocacy for communication excellence.
“This will serve as a great reference for communication practitioners, professors and students alike on how to effectively use communication in attaining business goals. By showing them how the best companies do it, we hope to inspire them to take their own programs to the next level as well, and strive for excellence,” she said.
IABC Philippines President Kane Errol Choa also said the book can inspire its readers to appreciate the communication profession much more. “The book features programs that have a positive impact that goes beyond a company. 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.
Tiongco, together with her co-committee head Richard Arboleda, also said the book can also help professionals and students alike to win in the Quill.
“The book can be a guide for organizations on how to win in the Quill Awards since it contains the entries of past winners. Those who aspire to win the Quill will see here how previous awardees presented and explained their works in a brief, clear and comprehensive manner that our expert judges appreciate,” Tiongco said.
“I encourage students to get a copy of this electronic book. Sooner or later, they will have to develop their own campaigns in the real world. Hopefully, the book will help them create great programs as early as today through their school projects. Who knows, they may even win a Top Award or School of the Year for it,” Arboleda said.