Smart leads in Asia Communication Awards nominations

MANILA, Philippines - Last year’s most-awarded Philippine operator in Asia Communication Awards (ACA) is this year’s top contender. Smart Communications Inc. has garnered nine nominations, including one for Operator of the Year.

Organized annually by the London-based industry publication Total Telecom, the ACA recognizes the achievements of Asia’s traditional carriers, multimedia content providers, vendors, and other communication service providers. This year’s winners will be announced on June 19 in Singapore.

Smart is the only Philippine telco to be named finalist for Operator of the Year, an honor it won in 2011 and 2012.

The company’s Spinnr music service is short-listed in the Best Content Service category, which was won by SmartNet last year. Spinnr is an application that allows Smart subscribers to stream and download up to three million songs, and pay for their transactions via prepaid load or postpaid credits.

Nominated for the Innovation Award is PowerApp, a revolutionary app that allows Smart subscribers to access various Internet bundles — including Photo, Social, Chat, Email, and Unli packages — for as low as P5.

Smart’s Jump In campaign, which will receive the prestigious Gold Quill award for business communication in Toronto this June, is in the running for Best Brand Campaign at the ACA.

Jump In is an initiative to inspire young Filipino barkadas to embrace changes and challenges that will enable them to “Live More.” The campaign also aims to encourage the youth to avail themselves of exclusive Jump In voice, SMS, and data offerings, which are both barkada- and budget-friendly.

Meanwhile, the recent renovation of Smart Stores is short-listed for the Customer Service Initiative award. Inspired by neighborhood artisanal cafés, the renovated Smart Stores encourage visitors to linger and experience the Smart services that best suit their respective digital lifestyles.

Also in the list of Smart finalists are two mobile money services launched by the company’s subsidiary Smart e-Money Inc. (SMI). Shortlisted for Project of the Year is SMI’s mobile cash transfer program which was used to pay Yolanda survivors who participated in the United Nations Development Program’s cash-for-work initiative. The SMI project recently won the Best Mobile Payments Implementation award at the 3rd Smart Awards Asia ceremony in Singapore.

Named finalist for the Social Contribution Award is SMI’s Panalo SIKAP, a mobile-based incentivized credit, voluntary savings, insurance, and livelihood program that will benefit the financially vulnerable segments of society.

Also nominated in this category is SafePh, Smart’s disaster preparedness and emergency response program which was put to the test when Super Typhoon Yolanda devastated Central Philippines last November. SafePh was earlier named “Best Use of Mobile in Emergency or Humanitarian Situations” at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards 2014, which is dubbed the Oscars of the mobile industry.

Smart won the Social Contribution Award last year with Project Zero, an empowering livelihood and environmental initiative for an Iloilo community.

Lastly, Smart’s Green Merchandising program — a sustained effort to reduce the impact of Smart’s operations on the environment via the use of eco-friendly materials — is short-listed for the Green Award. The project was named winner in the Environment and Value Chain Management category of the Asian CSR Awards 2013.