Marian Rivera Wins as Yahoo Celebrity Awards Media Magnet

Wazzup Pilipinas!

There was no surprise that Marian Rivera came out as the winner of the Yahoo Media Magnet award gathered from votes given by members of the media through Yahoo Philippines. Marian won as the Celebrity of the Year from last year's Yahoo awards and she is also a candidate again for this year. She is well deserving to win the recognition as she has truly made a great impact in the industry this year. She really impersonates what an iconic media personality should be - confident, expressive and beautiful!

Yahoo Philippines is again very excited to roll the purple carpet once again for their annual celebrity awards but before the big night it all starts with the voting site. The former Yahoo OMG! Awards is now called Yahoo Celebrity Awards and has recently announced the voting site (http://www.yahoo.com.ph/celebrityawards) and the list of celebrity nominees at a star-studded press launch held last June 4, 2014 at the Amber Ultra Lounge located at the Bonifacio Global City.

The reason for the change was because "celebrity kind of encapsulates the content of the site much better" says Mike Constantino, Country Sales Director of Yahoo Philippines. "and the awards is a reflection of the site and the content that we host there." adds Yahoo Philippine's Country Manager and Country Editor Kate De Los Reyes.

Many celebrities graced the event which includes Christian Bautista, Saab Magalona, Rocco Nacino, Janele Salvador, Kaye Abad, Bea Binene, Jake Vargas, Nicole Hyala, Ritz Azul, and Jeron Teng. The event was hosted by Sam Oh, also a nominee for Female DJ of the Year, who stirred the crowd into excitement.

Marian Rivera has always been the top winner of many surveys and voting sessions that it was not surprising I immediately had a hunch she was the Media Magnet winner. Well, it was also because I haven't seen her at the media launch when all the rest where saying she was reported to be somewhere within the area already which led me to conclude Yahoo Philippines wanted her to come out in a grand entrance.

The Yahoo Celebrity Awards is powered by You!

Sam Oh interviews Yahoo Philippines' Country Manager Kate De Los Reyes and Country Sales Director Mike Constantino

Christian Bautista

Jake Vargas and Bea Binene

Janelle Salvador

Jeron Teng

Kaye Abad

Nicole Hyala

Ritz Azul

Rocco Nacino

Saab Magalona

The list has grown into 140 nominees across 28 categories containing 10 new additions to respond to the emerging trends in the entertainment industry. This year's Yahoo Celebrity Awards now includes Celebrity Couple, Celebrity Family, Male and Female Hotletes (a play on the words 'hot" and "athlete"), Band of the Year, Male and Female 'Kontrabida', Energing Band, Song of the Year and Social Media Star.

Most of the new categories focuses on sports and music because Yahoo Philippines realized that their readers love sports and music. In this celebrity-crazy country, athletes and musicians are celebrities and stars in their own right.

However, Mike said that the reason they are doing this is because of the fans. For the past three years that they have been doing celebrity awards, they get all of their search queries and then they look at all the comments and the shared articles and they determine who the nominees will be. "And because we do that we want it to be a daily habit of yours. We keep fielding content that's relevant to you guys and relevant to our users so that everyday uou have a reason to go back to the celebrity site." says Mike.

The Yahoo Celebrity Awards site just launched last June 4, 2014 but somehow there were already a few votes present meaning some users found the site and started voting already. "Alam mo naman ang mga Pinoy ...very resourceful looking for everything online." says Mike.

Voting at the site is very easy and you can instantaneously see the percentages of the votes so you'll know if you need to root or campaign more for your favorite celebrity or category. "Based on experience, the fans really do not slack off. They are never complacent. They keep on voting." says Kate.

Last year, Yahoo Philippines got an amazing over 9 million votes form the fans which of course they would want to exceed it by a mile this year.

The site has a slew of content like articles about the celebrities, photo galleries and videos that will be updated multiple times a day, including interviews with the celebrities who were present that night. Yahoo Philippines is using their Tumblr platform to get the readers to vote for what they want to see during the grand awards night. As of now they've got more than a huindred entries already. Mike even said he voted to see Bamboo, Rico Blanco and Rivermaya perform as one big happy family.

The Yahoo-On-the-Road bus

Another new addition that will be rolling down the colleges and universities' roads to get votes from students is the big and purple 'Yahoo-On-the-Road' bus. I've personally seen and hopped inside the bus and found it equipped with Internet-connected computers and smartphones where students can vote for their chosen celebrities per category, plus engage with featured artists and bands live as it also has a rooftop where celebrities can perform based on request from their fans.

The Yahoo-On-the-Road bus - the other side

Inside the Yahoo-On-the-Road bus are computers with Internet connection

The Yahoo-On-the-Road bus contains laptops and smartphones

Vote now at the Yahoo-On-the-Road bus when it visits your school soon

Smartphones all connected to the Yahoo Celebrity Awards voting site

Sam Oh tells us all about the new the Yahoo-On-the-Road bus

Yahoo Philippines is going to start touring with the Yahoo-On-the-Road bus starting with the Far Eastern University (FEU), then the Technological University of the Philippines (TUP), and more schools coming soon.

The band Duster, where Saab Magalona is a member, performs to entertain the attendees of the Yahoo Celebrity Awards media launch

Voting has started already and will last until July 12, 2014 to make way for the grand awarding ceremonies to be held on July 18, 2014 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena just like last year.

Users can follow the awards on Twitter at @yahooph #YahooAwards and "Like" the Yahoo Philippines Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/yahoophilippines