How sharing passions helped the Smart Barkada hone their craft
BrandedUp in partnership with
The pandemic might have kept people within the confines of their home, but it didn’t stop the Smart Barkada from pursuing their passions and sharing their stories online. For Iñigo Pascual, Hannah and Donny Pangilinan, AC Bonifacio, Jayda Avanzado, and Michael Pacquiao, sharing these passions even allowed them to bring their craft to a whole new level and tick off their goals.
At the recent Smart Barkada Hangout streamed live on Facebook and Kumu, the six friends had fun ‘kulitan’ moments and gave away prizes to viewers. Most importantly, they touched on how sharing your passions with the rest of the world could broaden your horizons.
Growing a blossoming career out of your interests
For Hannah, sharing her passion for filmmaking by posting vlogs on YouTube allowed her to find her career path.
“I’ve been doing content creation ever since I was young, and it only became like a job three years ago. I used to do it just for fun and now it’s a full-blown industry—I just so happen to be in the midst of it. Since I’m already here, I might as well see where it takes me, and hopefully it takes me in the right direction,” she says.
The same goes for world record-breaking singer, songwriter, and actor Inigo. The young artist found international success by sharing his passions online and, in doing so, found opportunities to collaborate with fellow artists. On top of that, he shares how putting his work out there helped him get noticed internationally.
"Personally, I experienced a lot of opportunities wherein I was able to communicate with an idol from another country or even potential collaborators. We’re blessed to live in this generation where we can share our passions online and collaborate with different artists as well,” he shares.
Taking cues from her idol Taylor Swift, singer-songwriter Jayda has been making good use of social media and other music platforms to share her love for music. For her, finding new ways to connect with audiences is important in the middle of the pandemic, which is why she’s such a big fan of Taylor, who released two albums—Evermore and Folklore—last year.
“Taylor has always inspired me as a singer-songwriter; I’ve been writing songs since I was 12 years old. Even as a performer she inspires me and she has influenced me with my upcoming show as well as the songs I’ll be releasing.”
Connecting with more people and becoming a force for good
Admitting to being very shy, Michael says sharing his passion for rap music helped him build his self-confidence. It also gave him an avenue to connect with more people, who have now become part of his journey as a budding rapper.
“At this time when we are all connected on social media, I realized how easy and fun it is to meet new people. I now have new friends and fans who love my music and connecting with them is what drives me to keep going,” enthuses Michael.
Meanwhile, singer, actress, and vlogger AC met more people who share the same interests and passions as her. Through TikTok, she found a community that enjoys making dance videos and bringing joy to people.
“Dance is a language that brings everyone together. With TikTok, the new platform that everyone is on, I see a bunch of different nationalities, basically everyone around the world doing the same dance. It just brings everyone together and I love seeing that,” AC says.
Donny believes that communicating with others and listening to their stories allows you to reflect on yourself to become a force of good for others.
“We’re here to lift each other up,” the young actor says. “Hearing about your passions encourages me to keep pursuing mine. Don’t lose hope that things will get better. Now is the time to reflect and reassess everything in life. It hasn’t been easy the past few months and years but we’re all here to lift each other up.”
Share your passions and stories with Double GIGA Stories
As the Smart Barkada has shown, a lot of good things can come from sharing your passions and stories with others. Smart makes connecting, sharing, supporting, and inspiring others simpler through its Double GIGA Stories.
Double GIGA Stories gives subscribers 2 GB for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok and Kumu guaranteed every day, plus data for all sites! Subscribers can register to Double GIGA Stories via the GigaLife App, which is downloadable on Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Huawei Mobile Services. They may also dial *123# and choose DOUBLE GIGA. The offer is available to all Smart Prepaid, Smart Bro, and TNT subscribers.
Double GIGA Stories is powered by Smart, the country’s fastest mobile data network as reported by third-party mobile internet analytics firm Ookla® and Opensignal.
Ookla, the global leader in internet testing and analysis, named Smart as the country’s fastest mobile data network for three years in a row now. It also recently cited Smart as the fastest mobile data network in the second half of 2020 after it achieved a Speed Score™ of 24.99, with average speeds of 20.08 Mbps for download, and 7.42 Mbps for upload, based on 3,915,679 user-initiated tests taken with Speedtest®.
On the other hand, Smart has scored a rare sweep in the April 2021 Philippines Mobile Network Experience Awards* by independent analytics firm Opensignal, beating the competition across all metrics in three essential aspects of service: Coverage (4G Coverage Experience, 4G Availability), Speed (Download and Upload Speed) and Experience (Games, Video and Voice App).
Smart also enables subscribers to take their passions to a whole new level with Smart 5G's superfast speeds and ultra-low latency powered by the country's most extensive 5G network.
To know more about Double GIGA Stories, follow Smart’s official accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
*Opensignal Awards – Philippines: Mobile Network Experience Report April 2021, based on independent analysis of mobile measurements recorded during the period January 1 – March 31, 2021 © 2021 Opensignal Limited.
***
Editor's Note: This article was provided by Smart Communications.