A buzz’s life

Creating buzz is a struggle. It is a marriage between online and offline efforts and there’s no formula for getting it right. It’s a painstaking effort to make the buzz a loud and strong sound. One has to think about how to make one whisper become everybody’s shout. The sleepless nights and busy days dedicated to the very detailed communication plans turn into everyday affairs. Buzz generation is a carefully planned and plotted scheme—yes, but not always.

I’m pretty sure Rebecca Black didn’t plan for her video to turn viral.

Corporate Mama Bears

Who wouldn’t want to go to parties and events? Being invited to these kinds of events only makes you part of the A-list. However, it becomes a different part of the story when you are the one running around making sure that the event goes off without a hitch.

Aside from my Starcom experience, I also had a short stint as a production assistant. I wasn’t as lucky as others that ventured into events and have gone to faraway places but I absolutely loved the experience. I had always been interested in events as a possible career path for me and last summer, I was able to try it for real. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take part in the planning because by the time they took me aboard, the planning phases were over and the implementation was already the focus.

My first event was held at a famous lounge in a famous hotel. The event was for a famous manufacturer of printers. I was both excited and nervous. It was a small and intimate event but it was still important to get things right.

Too many bright ideas, too little foresight

 

Brilliant ideas are sometimes too bright that it turns us blind. The danger of being impressed with one’s own work is that one tends to focus on the bright side alone. Looking at the bright side is good but failing to look at what’s on the other side is suicidal.

Afraid of the dark? You should be. Lots of dangerous things are lurking in the dark. In there, bad things are just waiting to happen.

More often than not, we become too absorbed in our own work that we only look at how it will turn out to be a success. We tend to forget looking into why it may not work.

This becomes our deepest downfall because we fail to anticipate potential mishaps that our work may encounter once it goes out there. In anticipating these kinds of things, we may further improve our already superb ideas.

The challenge: You vs. Your Wisdom Teeth

What is the pre-requisite of wisdom? They say age. This may be true sometimes but not all the time.

What is the sign of aging, then? More than the wrinkled skin and failing eyesight, wisdom teeth are also one. 😉

Mine are starting to grow out but it’s been crazy for it is messing with my perfectly aligned, no-longer-overbite, post-braces set of teeth.

Getting them straight

Now, I have to wear my retainers during daytime again instead of only during sleep. This is to avoid my other teeth from moving due to the coming out of my wisdom teeth.

The Professional Drinking Game

Still developing my taste for this.

I’m no drinker. I rarely drink alcohol and I only do it when I’m with friends. The first few occasions I engaged in drinking sessions with my beloved block-mates, I ended up having face-to-face encounters with the toilet bowl. Note that both encounters occurred only after a few shots. Yes, I was that lame.

Only very recently did I take up the alcohol challenge again. This time, I was triumphant over the so-called “Weng-Weng”—a then unknown opponent. I figured that the only way to be more “alcohol-tolerant” is to familiarize myself with it, which is, to drink.

What makes a brand “panatag”?

Nowadays, it is important for a brand to have some kind of image to its consumers and potential consumers as well. If your brand rings a bell, you can also hear the “kaching kaching” of cash registers along with this.

The enormous aisles at the grocery stores lined up with shelves filled with a variety of products are sure to make your eyes widen. The vast options that we now have are overwhelming as much as it is confusing. As consumers, we are always on the lookout for the best bargains. However, the unfinished reports and baskets of laundry will not disappear magically so we tend to do everything else ala The Flash.

And it is during these times that “brand equity” is essential.

PAL: A story of unrequited love

The Philippine Airlines is the first air service provider in Asia. It was established in 1941. PAL was one of the top corporations in the country but during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, they were severely affected. This phenomenon forced PAL to downsize their international operations. In fact, their fall was dubbed as the Philippines’ biggest corporate failure.

On a more recent note, July 2010, 25 of PAL’s pilots left their jobs to pursue better offers from foreign airlines without PAL’s knowledge. This turn of events brought PAL back into headlines and turned the bright but scorching spotlight on them. Furthermore, it was that same month when PAL announced they will start outsourcing employees.

So what did it mean when PAL said that they will start “outsourcing”? This meant taking in contractual employees (from a third party) instead of hiring their very own employees. Naturally, the labor union of PAL, which is PALEA, was far from happy upon hearing the news. For affected employees, this meant losing the benefits from PAL –getting only a fraction of what they are entitled to if their employment were transferred to the outsourcing company. To senior employees, this meant losing the security of tenure they have very hardly worked for. To them, it was just unfair.

Hyperspecialization: Brain-shrinking or Idea-boosting?

“The term hyperspecialization … means breaking work previously done by one person into more-specialized pieces done by several people” (Johns et al, 2011).

Hyperspecialization of workers is becoming a trend because of the many advantages it tenders to both employers and employees. The whole idea of coming up with an output that is done through collaborations not only makes it sound easy but also better. (You know, honoring the old adage “two heads are better than one.” Only in this case, perhaps more than two heads is more applicable.)

How true is this? What will be the effect of hyperspecialization to the employees? Will it raise employee satisfaction or will it do otherwise?

My OrCom steak is cooked rare and well at the same time.

Q: How hard is it to make people understand something that they don’t even know about?

A: Very, very hard.

Let me tell you a story which happened only recently. (The shortened version of it, of course.)

I was on the bus and some guy who is approximately 40-45 years of age sits beside me. Some silly turn of event involving his hundred peso bill and bus ticket eventually caused us to engage in some sort of conversation. When the conversation about that specific topic ended, he asked me if I am a UP student. I said yes. He said he knew of it since I told the bus conductor to drop me off at Faura and he even added that his son goes to UP Manila as well. Following the usual course of college related questions, he then asked me what my major is. I told the man that I was taking up Organizational Communication. And here comes the juicy part (pun intended).

So why is Jen jumping?

For so long, I have been “Jumping Jen”. That have been my online persona since I-can’t-remember-when. People in my social circle would often wonder why and there are some who just can’t help but ask. Honestly, I’m not sure why I’m using that as well. Maybe because at one point in my OrCom life it seemed as if I was jumping from one place to another—literally and figuratively.

Getting used to “the OrCom life” was not a smooth transition for me. Before Dr. Sarile, I used to think that communication is easy; that it comes naturally. Surprise, surprise. Things really are never what they seem to be. I had to break down all my initial thoughts about communication and take in all things OrCom. Voila! I see the world from a different light now. I have come to realize that communicating is indeed hard work. Fast forward to my junior year, I know from experience that so much thought is needed to come up with a brilliant communication plan and that there is no one way to successfully get your message across. I’m not saying communication is tortuous, I’m just stating the fact that most people see it at first glance and automatically think of it as a no-brainer. Truth is, the most dazzling ideas ever thought of can never truly sparkle if not communicated to people in such a way that they can fully understand.