Smart holds 1st online benefit concert

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) recently held its first online concert dubbed Rhythm to the Rescue to help raise funds for the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC).

Smart invited artists Champ Lui Pio, Somedaydream and Luigi d’Avola to perform at the Jump Experience Center in SM Megamall, and streamed the concert online to reach a larger audience base. Smart donated funds to the PNRC and encouraged concert viewers to do the same by texting a code and having their donation deducted from their load credits.

Smart subscribers can still donate to the PNRC by texting RED <space> AMOUNT to 4143. They can donate in the following denominations: 10, 25, 50, 100, 300, 500 or 1000.

“We always say that Smart lets its subscribers ‘live more.’ Through this concert-for-a-cause, we enabled Smart subscribers to be the ones helping others live more. We thank them for donating to the PNRC and for supporting our first-ever online concert,” said Smart EVP and head of Wireless Consumer Division Emmanuel Lorenzana.

“The online concert was a success, and so we’re planning to come up with more,” he added.

#SmartOnlineConcert became a trending topic on Twitter on the day of the show, with ma ny Filipino Twitter users expressing their excitement about and appreciation for the live-streamed performances.

Twitter users were also able to get to know the featured artists better, as they were encouraged to tweet questions using the #SmartOnlineConcert hashtag. The artists then answered them in real-time.

Champ, Somedaydream and Luigi closed the show with the Smart Live More song, It’s Your Life, a composition made for Smart by international musicians James Banbury and Pete Davis.