Why TheLOBBYiST.biz?

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Why TheLOBBYiST.biz?

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PUBLiCUS and the Blue Ocean Strategy PUBLiCUS Co., Ltd. is the Philippines first and only registered lobbying and political management firm. When we formally registered our company in 2003, we never planned to be big. In putting together our company, we decided to build our niche and, most would say, adopt a Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS).

So in 2003, PUBLiCUS was threading unknown terrain since both lobbying and political management were not associated to professional services. To be a lobbyist then was to be an “influence peddler.” To be a political manager or consultant then was to be known as a political operator. PUBLiCUS was neither one of them.

So we defined our niche, we set the trend and we attempt to build our industry. After such bold move, several shops opened as public affairs, offering almost similar services as PUBLiCUS. Some would probably feel insecure about these developments but PUBLiCUS is not, since the more full-service shops that open, the better for the industry.

PUBLiCUS has left its mark in professionalizing political management in the country, from its deep involvement in the senatorial campaign of the No. 1 Senator in 2004 to winning local elections in Pangasinan, Bulacan, Manila and diving into the fray of local campaigns in Navotas/Malabon, Valenzuela, Calapan City, and Batangas in 2007.

PUBLiCUS has also done its share in covering public and corporate interests such as patient’s rights (formerly medical malpractice), oil exchange bill, biofuels, open skies, juvenile justice, absentee voting and dual citizenship, and artist’s rights, among others.

We have moved further by offering two new products in the market: VOX Opinion Research and The LOBBYiST, an online magazine. VOX Opinion Research has no intention of replicating what SWS and Pulse Asia provide; it primarily focuses on local governments as well as on Political Branding and Principles & Values surveys. On the other hand, The LOBBYiST is intended to be the portal on different issues in the country and in the ASEAN region. Its target audience are decision-makers covering Congress, Top 100 CEOs and the Diplomatic Corps. As it matures, it will be repositioned for the ASEAN parliament, business corporations, regional-based non-governmental organizations, and trade/industry associations.

Thus in the tradition of the BOS, PUBLiCUS again rides the wave leveraging on the trend towards online publication.

Riding the Wave and the Death of Print

On 28 November 2005, News Corp. head honcho Rupert Murdoch said that hardly anyone under 30 years of age reads classified advertising in newspapers. But it was actually David Carson who proclaimed print is dying in the title of his bestselling monograph The End of Print. Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief of MIT's Technology Review, says he believes the disappearance of print will come sooner than we think, thanks largely to "citizen journalism" and an increasingly fragmented digital media platform. Years after the Dot-Com Era, we find ourselves increasingly getting our news online, whether from the citizen journalism of blogs or the online entity of the local newspaper.

Hence, PUBLiCUS, combining Web 2.0 of blogs, YouTube and podcasting has decided to launch an online magazine, which is environment friendly, connects with the iPod Generation, and has greater reach and interaction leading towards building a social network where citizens define and market the site. As Ben McConnell and Jackie Hubba said in their book, Citizen Marketers, “everyday people increasingly create content on behalf of companies, brands or products, they are collaborating with others just like themselves and forming ever-growing communities of enthusiasts and evangelists. From the rough to the sophisticated, the "user-generated media" of blogs, online bulletin boards, podcasts, photos, songs, and animations are influencing companies' customer relationships, product design, and marketing campaigns, whether they participate willingly or not.”

Web 2.0 describes a set of next-generation Internet technologies. These protocols and tools make it easier to create online applications that behave dynamically, much like traditional PC-based software. They're also highly social, encouraging users to manipulate and interact with content in new ways.

Web 2.0 pushes computing power off the desktop and onto the Internet, which means less time and money spent on PC software administration.

As a general rule, Web 2.0 tools are also less expensive than traditional software — and many are even free. Because they're Web-based, all you need to get started is an up-to-date browser. It’s in the language of the future.

As The LOBBYiST uses Web 2.0, it promotes social network service that focuses on building and verifying online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others, and which necessitates the use of software. Most social network services are primarily web based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on.

From philcongress.com to thelobbyist.biz

PUBLiCUS Founder/General Manager has since 1998 been advocating of e-Governance and citizen engagement. She teamed up with web designers of peyups.com and pushed for her advocacy for an electronic site of the Philippine Congress. The team created the portal philcongress.com, which was the People’s Choice for the Government category in the 3rd Philippine Web Awards in 2000. She pushed for Philippine political parties to have websites so that critical engagement can be built and political engagement harnessed. This led to the website of the Liberal Party, one of the few parties in the Philippines that embraced the Internet.

Still believing that “electronic government provides citizens with quicker and easier access to information and services and facilitates decision-making that permits broad grass-roots engagement with the democratic process”, PUBLiCUS Founder/General Manager has pushed the argument further by creating a portal where “citizen input is not just a matter of convenience anymore but has become essential for how democracies work.”

The LOBBYiST is more than just views. Broadsheets offer opinions from news. Opinions are views of writers, contributors, columnists, and analysts. The articles that you will be reading in the thelobbyist.biz are advocacies that are arrived at and are supported by data, studies, etc. These are definitely more than just views. These can be empirically based or anecdotal laden or from primary sources.

The News contains aggregated news that we deem useful to decision-makers. Inside Congress is on hot button issues of national significance in both chambers of Congress. Life and Leisure is all about places and events, fashion and trends and the current buzz in town. Columns are from individuals that you don’t often see in broadsheets but are respected individuals who are known for various advocacies and issues. Regular columnists will be selected, depending on traffic generated by their columns.

As a lobbying firm, we are proud to offer three sections that promote citizen engagement and can be a source of much information for our target audience: legislators, CEOs and the diplomatic community. These sections are Citizen Journalism, Advocates’ Desk, and Forum.

Since thelobbyist.biz intends to provide more interactive content, various nodes for comments, feedbacks, votes (simple survey to most popular article) and blogs are interspersed online. We value your comments and contributions. You and only you can make this online magazine the talk of the town. Go learn with us and experience how to be The LOBBYiST!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions advanced in this article is the author’s own, and may not necessarily represent the views and opinions of THE LOBBYiST, its editors, or its publishers.

Factual Errors? Email us at editorial@thelobbyist.biz.

Copyright 2007 The LOBBYiST. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the expressed permission of The LOBBYiST.