SM wins ICSC Community Support, Digital Mktng. awards

SM Prime Holdings won two major awards during the recent International Council of Shopping Centers Asia Pacific Shopping Center Awards ceremonies in Shanghai, China.

It received the prestigious Asia-Pacific Community Support Award for Operation Sendong: People Helping People to Rebuild a City and the Digital Media Marketing Gold Award for its iButterfly Hunt campaign, as well as numerous citations for its campaigns in the Cause Related, Business to Business, Public Relations, and Sales Promotions categories.

With its vision to create an inspired global shopping center industry responsive to the needs of its communities, the ICSC Community Support Awards recognizes corporate social responsibility and community outreach efforts around the world. The award comes with a $5,000.00 donation to the winner’s charity.

SM Prime’s Operation Sendong: People Helping People to Rebuild a City highlights the company’s response to the devastation brought about by typhoon Sendong in December 2011 in Northern Mindanao. One of the hardest hit by the storm was Cagayan de Oro, a city which had not experienced a typhoon for the past thirty years, and in which SM has a mall.

Being part of the community, SM Prime together with SM Foundation and SM Supermarket was one of the first to take part in relief efforts, distributing relief packs to 19,500 families, assisting the city government in relief efforts, and creating programs that will lift the community’s spirit. It continues to offer long -term solutions by building 200 homes through its partnership with Gawad Kalinga.

The iButterfly Hunt digital marketing campaign, on the other hand, which was held from May 5 to June 30, 2012, had 64 exciting offers to shoppers in eight SM malls. This successful campaign had 39,545 total downloads, 17,401 butterflies caught, and an average redemption rate of 13 percent.

SM City Cebu’s Christmas Village of Hope also received recognition in Asia Pacific Community Support Awards under the Cause Related Marketing category. SM City Cebu created the Christmas Village of Hope last year to raise funds for the treatment of underprivileged pediatric cancer patients. The Christmas village occupied almost 800 square feet of the mall, where donors could adopt a piece of this magical place and be recognized for their generosity, raising almost $60,000.

Through its Global Awards Program, the ICSC has recognized and honored the shopping center industry’s most cutting edge properties, innovative solutions, and creative marketing trends, as well outstanding examples of design and development throughout the world.