Communications Channels category at the 2024 Panata Brand Effectiveness Awards. Accepting the
award are Smart representatives Lloyd R. Manaloto (right) and Lorenzo E. Torres.
Mobile services provider Smart Communications, Inc. took home the lone Gold citation for Single Medium – Out of Home (OOH) Marketing Communications Channels category at the 2024 Panata Brand Effectiveness Awards held last September 6 at Seda Hotel, Bonifacio Global City.
Organized by the Philippine Association of National Advertisers, the annual awards is a grand celebration of excellence and effectiveness in advertising in the country.
Smart, an official global partner of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, hosted the historic basketball tournament and turned the Mall of Asia (MOA) Ball into a massive basketball with a hoop OOH to celebrate the tournament and the Filipinos’ love of the game. With the help of Metropolis Evolving Media Solutions Corp. & Up Rising Corporation, Smart was able to light up the MOA ball, considered one of the most awe-inspiring and larger-than-life basketball tributes in the country, and perhaps the world.
“We share this citation with the teams that worked on this project and our partner agencies for making the MOA Ball basketball tribute part of the country’s basketball history and one memorable reminder for Filipinos to be truly proud of as we successfully hosted the climax of the FIBA World Cup 2023,” said Kristine A. Go, Senior Vice President for Wireless Consumer Business at Smart.
“Smart’s MOA Ball OOH really took our FIBA World Cup 2023 hosting to a whole new level for basketball fans and FIBA delegates from all over the world,” added Lloyd Manaloto, First Vice President at Smart.
R. Manaloto and Lorenzo E. Torres (fifth and sixth from left, respectively). Also in the photo are (from
left): Zard Lao, Chief Executice Officer of Up Rising Corporation; John Andes, Chief Marketing
Officer of Up Rising Corporation; Mark Ibardaloza, Senior OOH Media Manager of Metropolis
Evolving Media Solutions Corp.; Neil Andre Abad, General Manager of Metropolis Evolving Media
Solutions Corp.; Mick Atienza, PANA President; Onet Diño, Chief Operating Officer of Up Rising
Corporation; and Did Diño, Creative Director of Up Rising Corporation
Aside from the Panata gold award, the Smart MOA Ball execution also earned prestigious recognitions from local and international award-giving bodies including a bronze award from the 2023 CLIO Sports Awards, Excellence in OOH Advertising from the Marketing Excellence Awards 2024, and Best Outdoor Ad from BestAdsOnTV.com.
The MOA Ball measuring 1.5 meters in diameter inside a goal with 111 meters in circumference was the result of the hard work of 248 workers (on-site workers, engineers, safety officers, and designers among others) who made sure basketball fans were in for a mesmerizing and worthy reminder that Filipinos were able to welcome the world’s best basketball players and teams for a once in a lifetime experience.
Smart remains a global partner of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 to be held in Qatar. The four-year partnership extension results from Smart’s stellar promotional work for FIBA 2023.