What Happened at Yahoo! OMG Awards 2013

I barely attend events with mainstream celebrities (no offense) but when Grace told me she got me in to cover the Yahoo! OMG Awards 2013, I couldn't say no. And truth be told, I only did my readings about it a day before the event (hehe). I was supposed to meet the rest of the media at 6750 Ayala Avenue but when my sister requested for me to pass by Maxims Hotel for a fashion emergency, which would make me minutes late from the call-time, I decided to meet the rest of the gang at Mall of Asia Arena. It was a Friday afternoon after all and we all know what could happen on a rainy Friday rush-hour on EDSA.

After claiming our media passes on the registration, we bumped into the Boys Night Out dj's Slick Rick (Eric Virata), Tony Toni (Anthony James Bueno) and Sam YG (Samir Gogna). And as always, they're so chummy-chummy to talk to. :)

Rain was pouring hard so we decided to get inside where we were ushered to the media lounge for dinner. Here with me is the smart and charming Andria—Grace's daughter.

We settled inside while waiting for the event to start. But while we scout around for a better place for photos, we hear fans screaming outside. As we walked towards the red purple carpet entrance, we bumped into radio dj duo's Nicole Hyala and Chis Tsuper—who are both nominated for Female and Male Radio DJ of the Year.

So we decided to peek for a closer look. And I landed on a better photo-view beside TV networks' cameras. Ha! :) 

Here's Marian Rivera being interviewed.

Rocco Nacino 

Barbie Almalbis 

Also nominated that night was Radio dj Papa Jack on red purple carpet with his wife and his daughter.

And Bea Binene—named Yahoo! OMG Awards 2013 Best Dressed—wearing a leather-chiffon gown by Porfi Medina.

The event started with a blasting opening number from Gary Valenciano and Billy Crawford.

And here's what you have been waiting for,
the complete list of the winners for the 3rd Annual Yahoo! OMG Awards:

Child Star of the Year
Ryzza Mae Dizon

Comedianne of the Year 
Eugene Domingo

Comedian of the Year
Vice Ganda

Radio Show of the Year 
Tambalan 90.7

FM Radio Station of the Year 
Barangay LS 97.1

Female Radio DJ of the Year
Nicole Hyala

Male Radio DJ of the Year 
Papa Jack

Female TV Host of the Year 
Toni Gonzaga

Male TV Host of the Year 
Vic Sotto

Male Performer of the Year 
Elmo Magalona

Female Performer of the Year 
Julie Anne San Jose

Fan Club of the Year 
JuliElmo Pexers

Best Love Team of the Year 
Kim Chiu and Xian Lim

Best Movie of the Year 
It Takes a Man and a Woman

Teleserye of the Year 
Ina, Kapatid, Anak

Noon Time Show of the Year 
Eat Bulaga

News and Public Affairs of the Year 
TV Patrol

Breakthrough Actress 
Kathryn Bernardo

Breakthrough Actor 
Enrique Gil

Actress of the Year 
Angel Locsin

Actor of the Year 
Coco Martin

Celebrity of the Year 
Marian Rivera

The hilarious tandem—Edu Manzano and Billy Crawford were hosting.

The night was also filled with enthralling performances from Lovi Poe and Solenn Heusaff

Erik Santos and Yeng Constantino

Sheng Belmonte, Kris Lawrence and Young JV 

 Christian Bautista and Rachelle Ann Go 

 Callalily

With Kean Cipriano on the lead while Jag models strut the stunning jeans collection.

And the funniest skit by Jon Santos introducing the Yahoo! OMG Movie of the Year as Governor Vilma Santos.

Other performances include Julie Anne San Jose, Franco, Kjwan, and Elmo Magalona.
And a gripping finale from the Yahoo! OMG Awards 2013 Media Magnet and International Sensation—Charice.

The third annual Yahoo! OMG Awards event recognized winners from 22 categories, selected through popular search queries and polling methods online on Yahoo!’s leading entertainment property in the Philippines. Yahoo! OMG Awards official results were tallied via online and SMS voting.  

Yahoo! OMG Awards was co-presented by McCafe and sponsored by Jag, Colgate Optic White, Cream Silk and Pond’s.  

For more details, visit ph.omg.yahoo.com

In Life And In Crisis

Over the summer, I ran out of tv series to watch on my free time or whenever I can't sleep so I messaged one of the best entertainment blogger I know—Rod Magaru. He suggested Revenge, but said I should check out Scandal first. It was in the wee hours of the morning and too lazy to Google, I ask him why. Our conversation went on and on that it made me too curious of what Scandal is all about. And since I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon anyway, I turned my laptop on and researched.  

WATCH!

From the executive producer of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practics (Shonda Rhimes), Scandal is an American tv series about a risk-crisis management team—Olivia Pope and Associates, who call themselves "gladiators in suits", that races against time to defuse-handle-solve intriguing problems before anyone even knows it exists (especially the media) from ordinary people who got involved into a scandal, the moneyed, the powerful, even the President, and led by Kerry Washington who plays Olivia Pope. 

Her spectacular success is mostly due to her unbreakable rule of always trust your gut. But you know what they say, no matter how careful you are when you do damage control for a living (and mostly lie just to get away with it), you're bound to cause more damage even to your own life. And Olivia and her crew eat, sleep, live and breathe crisis, everyday time and again. 

In one of Kerry Washington's interview, she mentioned that the show is inspired by a real-life crisis manager Judy Smith who lives and works in Washington and used to work in the White House as Special Assistant and Deputy Press Secretary to former US President George H. W. Bush. 

Even though Kerry repeatedly clarified that the show is inspired by, and not based on Judy Smith's crisis management career, my mind can't take off Olivia  Pope's character from Judy Smith—like seeing (and still sees) Carrie Bradshaw on Sarah Jessica Parker during SM Aura's opening last May. It's hard to delineate these two people especially that I've started obsessing watching the show, if you know what I mean. :)

See my 2AM Twitter direct messages to Rod below. And please excuse my "excitement". Haha!

So imagine my happiness when Grace invited me to meet Brad Geiser, president and co-founder of GeiserMaclang—one of the country's top and preferred communications company—for a Social Media  Risk Mitigation and Crisis Management. 

"It's not hate that kills a brand, it's love."

Look at those awards!

During the meeting, Brad helped us understand the importance of managing and mitigating crisis in a logical perspective and essentially, helped us identify the three terms: Risk, Issue, Crisis.

Risk is when you're doing something that might upset somebody. When somebody or a group of people is upset by it (risk), that's an issue. When somebody or those group of people upset by it (risk) suddenly feel the desire to make other groups of unrelated people as upset as they are, that's when it become a crisis.  

For instance: 

• when Vice Ganda get flaked and was accused of mocking the rape victims in a joke where Jessica Soho is to be gang-raped; 
• when the Les Deux Garcons Facebook administrator reacted and responded to one of the commenters, "We have no time for bitches."; 
• when writer/director King Palisoc was denied entry at Seventh High due to his cane and wrote his disappointment as a Facebook status.  

And a lot more! It happens (READ: haters, cyber-bullies and online bashers), not only to brands and companies but most commonly on famous personalities, politicians, and celebrities. As well as social media influencers and bloggers, like myself. 

Brad emphasizes, "If you think your brand is immune to crisis, its not. And more importantly, the more committed you are to your brand, the more it will cloud your judgement." 

In tv series and in reality, when we empathize with somebody even though that person is doing something wrong but because of our desire to protect them, we often get confuse who the good guy and the bad guy actually is. We become arrogant and defensive.  

Even the Nestlé Philippines chairman and CEO John Martin Miller knows it all too well, "The greatest dangers that big businesses face are complacency and arrogance."

In addition, the only time you will ever be objective and effective in the middle of a crisis is if you prepare for it in advance or when you're not emotionally connected to response. 

More importantly, understanding three stages of crisis: 

• Pre-crisis stage which includes prevention, mitigation or prior-prevention, planning, and warning systems like for natural disasters. 
• Crisis proper is when to effectively respond, mapping the stakeholders or those who will be affected, communications strategy, and decision-making.
• Post-crisis is strategic planning to over and out of the way of the crisis within 30 days (unless there is a mitigation process like law enforcement investigation ETA), recovery and restoring the image/brand,  and back to business as usual, unless re-branding is needed. 

It was a very informative meeting for all of us.
Although it felt like I needed to know more about risk mitigation and crisis management. And I'm hoping to meet the famed head strategist Amor Maclang soon too! :)

GeiserMaclang also conducts trainings to private companies on risk mitigation, crisis management, and strategic marketing and planning, as well as disaster management trainings for government  agencies.

To know more, go to http://www.geisermaclang.com

Geiser Maclang Marketing Communications is located at 6th floor Cambridge Building, 108 Tordesillas Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City.
For inquiries, contact (02) 856-4624 / 478-4626 or send an email at info@geisermaclangnetwork.com