I was introduced to the fast and furious world of Public Relations by an aunt who owned one of the biggest PR agencies in the Philippines at the time. It was the mid-‘80s–an exciting but turbulent decade in our country. Fresh out of college from the Ateneo De Davao University, I initially thought that the job did not quite align with my degree in Business Administration. But I plodded on and without sounding too trite, PR grew on me. My appreciation for the field deepened as I became immersed in the daily rhythm of the practice.
Moving Up
You could say that Media Relations is both an art and a social science. Having worked in different agencies, plus a stint with a former senator, I learned to become observant and disciplined in my career while also being intuitive and an out-of-the-box thinker.
It’s actually very hard work, and yet about 15 years since my first foray into PR, I felt I was ready to leap into freelancing. Starting with a single client, my small apartment also became my home office. After a year, a client from my former agency asked me to work with them on a per-project basis and this eventually led to top-tier companies expressing their preference to work with me. This gave me the fortitude to finally decide to put up NGP PR Consultancy with my sister, Olive. We established an office in the business district of Ortigas Center.
Hard-Earned Loyalties
The birthing pains served to sharpen my leadership style and strategy, which can be summed up as “personalized, responsive, and effective”: simple words but admittedly not so easy to find in an industry of ever-changing loyalties and market realities.
I believe that the sustained growth of our company demonstrates NGP’s well-earned reputation of delivering high-value results for every project we are involved in, and the authentic relationships we have cultivated along the way. Most of our clients were with us from 5 to 19 years!
Today, NGP has an extremely diversified portfolio, from food and beverage, health, and real estate to automotive, energy, and political assignments. The needs of our clients have also since evolved from purely publicity to 360 campaigns, which led us to transform NGP in 2009 into an Integrated Marketing Communications agency that caters to the multiple requirements of our clients. Apart from brand management, our organization now also specializes in the world’s latest PR practice which is a business strategy designed to generate economic value that produces value for society by addressing its challenges.
A Family That Achieves Together
NGP is a hands-on agency and I think this allows us to be more tuned in to our company’s mission and vision. For every client, big or small, we make sure to create satisfying outcomes, as well as for their customers. This, for me, is the biggest award: when clients feel and know that the results they came to us for in the first place have been achieved. Our clients have remained with us for many years because they know that the agency can deliver, regardless of the nature of their requirement.
Every office nurtures a culture, and ours is oneness, treating each other with care, love, and respect, and above all, helping others and trusting God. That’s why I have made it a tradition to celebrate company anniversaries with an outreach program at public schools in resource-constrained communities across the country. In our own little way, doing this brings back our focus to helping the teachers and grade school children with their needs, reminding us that a job well done is really about making a difference well outside the confines of the office.
The unconditional attitude of my people towards work and their respect towards management contribute to the success of our every undertaking. With tremendous help from my staff, our organization’s expanded expertise and reach have allowed us to make a positive impact on the clients’ businesses and the larger community.
Onwards and Upwards
It’s truly gratifying to be given the privilege to steer a career and company all these 21 years. Beyond my fondest hopes, we’ve collaborated with the country’s top corporations, industry start-ups, and those in-between, creating advantage for them by connecting the clients’ unique propositions to audiences eager for solutions that resonate with their own personal experiences.
At its best, effective Public Relations is about touching lives, don’t you think? And when PR is less about “having connections” and more about having a sense of “connectedness”, great things can happen. With this in mind, bring on the next 21 years! To God be all the glory!
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