2019 was a great year for Evident: we grew the team, we grew our business, and we helped our clients achieve their goals. From moving to a new office to covering the Southeast Asian Games, this year has been full to bursting for our little agency.
That being said, here are the standouts:
1. Bigger staff, bigger office, better policies
From a company of seventeen in 2018, we doubled our size to 33 employees in 2019. We now have six full-fledged departments: Advocacy Communications, Corporate and Public Affairs, Brand and Consumer Management, Data and Insights Unit, Administrations, and Creatives.
To make room for our bigger staff, we lovingly said goodbye to our old headquarters along Rada Street, and relocated to a spacious new office along Valero Street.
Continuing our pursuit of work-life balance, we made a few additions to our office policies. These now include recovery leave, solo parent leave, and extended parental leave. Worth noting as well is the inclusion of an extensive child protection policy in our company manual.
2. Finally, an anniversary party (after 6 years)
For the first time since Evident’s inception, we took the opportunity to thank our clients, partners, and suppliers with our own anniversary party at Brick and Mortar last September 27. We were happy to celebrate with everyone who supported and trusted us for the past six years.
3. Scaling advocacy projects
This year has been about scale for our advocacy-based projects, expanding and adding to the causes that we already stand for.
Previously, we campaigned for women’s empowerment and education through our projects with Investing in Women. In 2019, we expanded our efforts to address gender-based violence with the United Nations Population Fund – Philippines (UNFPA). We worked closely with the internally displaced persons in Marawi—conducting research and community engagement—to learn how to prevent and eradicate gender-based violence among displaced peoples.
We added forest conservation and rehabilitation (Forest Foundation), child protection from sexual abuse (ChildFund), and education in conflict-prone areas (UNICEF) to our roster of advocacy-based projects.
For Forest Foundation and their partner grassroots organizations, we conducted workshops on communications for development and knowledge management.
We did groundbreaking media research and training for ChildFund Philippines to counter Online Sexual Exploitation of Children.
Another key addition is the development and completion of the Coca-Cola World Without Waste campaign, where we conducted solid waste management workshops in Iloilo and Bacolod.
4. Establishing Evident Sports
With a former national athlete and plenty of avid sports fans in our team, the office generates strong support for Filipino athletes. Driven by this sentiment, we decided to extend our services to those in the sports industry to help connect professional sports teams with their fans, and to bring better sports viewing experiences.
Through plenty of hard work, Evident Sports—our sports-centric business unit—is now up and running.
Our first clients under this unit are Phoenix Pulse Fuelmasters and the Philippine Ice Hockey Team. We generate support for these clients by culturing an active online community and a strong online presence.
5. A few creative firsts
This year’s projects gave our Creatives department the chance to achieve a few landmark firsts.
We had our first major video production this year, courtesy of YouthWorks PH, a five-year project of Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) funded by USAID which aims to provide work-based training to young Filipinos.
This was followed by our first video production on ice, a manifesto titled ‘Liyab sa Lamig’ introducing the Philippine Ice Hockey Team to Filipino sports fans. The video garnered plenty of views and engagement, and was also shown on select television billboards in SM Megamall, Robinson’s Galleria, and SM Mall of Asia. Our work with the Philippine Ice Hockey Team also gave us the opportunity to cover the South East Asian Games!
Last but not the least is our work with Investing in Women. This year we supported the creation of their landmark SNAPS Report on gender norms in South East Asia, supported by country fact sheets and social media posts. By communicating complex material in a digestible way, we were able to discuss gender norms and women’s economic participation with a wider audience.
6. Awards all around
This 2019, we received recognition for two of our projects:
The Gold Stevie Award for PR Campaign of the Year in Public Service for STEMpower Our Girls. This program, designed by Evident in partnership with PBEd, aims to create an environment where young girls are inspired and prepared to become leaders in STEM; and The Philippine Quill Merit Award for Social Media Programs for the Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters.
We are so proud that our very own Director of Advocacy Communications, Dove Subingsubing, received Campaign Asia’s Women Leading Change 2019 award in the Rising Star category. The Women Leading Change Awards celebrate women changemakers, leaders, achievers in today’s marketing, media, and technology sectors. With a decade’s worth of experience working in development and advocacy communications, Dove leads our AdvoComms Unit, enabling Evident to empower non-government and development organizations to advance their mission and reach their goals through maximizing technology and communication.
2019 has been kind to us. It has allowed us to do good, impactful, and influential work. This 2020, we will continue doing good, if not better work. Upwards and onwards, here’s to a more promising 2020!
