Last May 21st was my first time to attend a Blogapalooza event. Billing itself as the Philippines’ first and largest B2B: Business-to-Blogger Networking and Marketing Event, Blogapalooza brings together business looking for bloggers to write about them and bloggers looking for content to feature.
My primary reason for going to Blogapalooza was to listen to the speakers. As both a blogger and someone who was thrust into social media marketing without any prior training, I wanted to learn more about how PR professionals approached social media marketing and how bloggers chose the companies that they worked with. However, that didn’t mean that I couldn’t have fun and learn more about the products that the businesses were promoting.
The two panels that made the day worth it were Blogging as a Business by Ginger Arboleda of MommyGinger.com and the discussion panel How Brands Can Work Best with Celebrities and Influencers by Norman Agatep, Matec Villanueva (two PR pros), Mikael Daez, and Erika Padilla (two celebs I know nothing about). Granted, I didn’t know who these people were prior to Blogapalooza but their presentations and insights were very much welcome. I loved how Ginger broke down marketing strategy into easy-to-understand pieces that a non-Marketing graduate could understand (Ginger, don’t ever apologize for discussing technicals! Those were awesome.). She discussed the importance of knowing who you are as a blogger, what you stand for (your personal brand!), and what your purpose is before you even start blogging. There was also a section on knowing who your demographics were and the importance of approaching companies who share the same demographics AND values as yourself. After all, you can only sincerely and truthfully promote a product that you believe in, right? 🙂 A lot of what Ginger discussed was something I knew on an instinctual level, but it’s very different to hear a professional’s take on it.
The panel discussion with both PR professionals and the celebrities who work with PR was also enlightening. The PR practitioners talked about what they look for in their blogger ambassadors (they confirmed what Ginger said), how engagement is more important than reach, and how it’s all about the quality versus the quantity of followers. Mikael Daez and Erika Padilla were also interesting panelists, with Erika sharing how being dubbed by social media as “#PambansangBestFriend” and solidifying her personal brand as an actress+model+sportscaster+yogi in social media resulted in more exposure and projects for her. While I was expecting the celebrities to be bloggers who became popular then became brand ambassadors, versus people who were already famous but used social media to their advantage, Mikael and Erika contributed a lot to the discussion.
Among the brands who were present at Blogapalooza, there were a few that really stood out for me:
Arla, a dairy cooperative owned by over 12,000 farmers in seven countries in northern Europe, has lactose-free cow’s milk. WHAT?! Lactose-free cow’s milk is a thing?! I didn’t even know that was possible.
Unfortunately, their booth personnel didn’t know how the process worked so I Googled as soon as I got home. Apparently, Arla physically filters out half the lactose then adds lactase to the rest. Lactase (the enzyme us lactose-intolerant folks are missing) breaks down the lactose into the sugars glucose and galactose, which are easily digested by the body. The Arla booth wasn’t serving samples of the lactose-free milk so I don’t know if tastes different compared to regular milk, but I will look out for it on my next grocery run.
On the surface, TAG77 is just another event ticketing company (think EventBrite or even TicketNet) but what makes them extra-special is that they offer practically everything that an event manager would want: online ticketing (you can also have the TAG team handle onsite ticketing), cashless purchases at the event using an NFC chip-enabled wristband (the wristband can store ticket information too), AND a referral rewards system for people who promote the event. I had a long chat with their sales reps (shoutout to Ms. Gilda) and their system sounds fantastic. I’ll definitely have to talk to them for our next event.
A photo posted by Macy (@theislandergirl) on
The HappyFresh website and app (available on iTunes or Google Play) allows you to do your groceries online and have them delivered to your house in as little has one hour. Robinson’s Supermarket fulfills the orders in the Philippines (Metro Manila only at this time) so whether HappyFresh is available or not will depend on whether there’s a Robinson’s Supermarket store near you.
HappyFresh charges a flat delivery fee of Php 149 and a Shopper’s fee (a convenience fee that depends on the order total). Payments for the groceries are on a cash-on-delivery basis only.
World Vision, a “Christian relief, development, and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families, and communities to overcome poverty and injustice”, also had a booth at Blogapalooza. Their engagement plan for bloggers is so simple, I’m annoyed I didn’t think of it myself: they’re asking bloggers to donate AD SPACE to World Vision. The bloggers just have to tell World Vision how much the ad space is worth and they’ll make out a Certificate of Donation for that amount. This is in addition to the standard practice of asking bloggers to write about their efforts. I am all for this. Just waiting for their Sponsorship Acquisition department to send me the appropriate image for the ad and information.
All in all, Blogapalooza was a great experience. Definitely looking forward to next year’s event.
And oh, here’s Christian Bautista being super cute onstage and promoting Blue Water Day Spa:
Thank you Ms. Macy! Looking forward to be part of your upcoming event. We’re also inviting you in our Tag Mixer on June 1, Wednesday at The Shang Grand Tower from 7pm-11pm. See you there! 🙂
Ms. Macy! haha! I also attended BLOGAPALOOZA last May?! 😮 It’s amazing to know that we are attending the same events. haha.. cool!
Here’s my blog about it:
https://thelovelyrhythm.com/2016/05/28/blogapalooza-event/
I don’t attend a lot of events actually. Haha. So it’s nice to know that we’re attending the same ones 🙂