Naga SMILES

In last Saturday’s morning basketball in our subdivision in Greenwoods-Pasig, a pañero recounted to me his recent New Year’s drive-date to Bikol with his wife.

“My wife and I just thought of going for an out-of-town adventure,” he said, “and I remembered your stories about Naga, Cam Sur, and Bikol, and how to take the South Road.”

Thus, the couple pushed through with their first ever trip to Bikol with CWC in mind. They liked the accommodations of CWC and had a memorable stay. They also went to Legaspi to see Mayon and the Cagsawa Ruins. They enjoyed their entire trip, and are now planning to go back in the summer with their children.

So, I thought of checking out what’s the latest in our beloved Naga City and our Bikol homeland.

I must say I’m glad with Mayor John Bongat and his team’s efforts in putting up a new website for our city. Its new look and feel of naga smiles to the world is colorful and inviting. But dropping “to the world” would have made naga smiles more direct to the point and easier to recall. Considering also the SMILES links for quick information access where the website’s main functionalities are kept to five: See, Meet, Invest, Live, Experience, andStudy.

Our mayor’s smiling photo on the homepage is good, but better if reduced for balance. In fact, a community or group picture would be more suitable since you’re promoting the happy people of Naga. And with the football fever gripping the country now, especially with our Azkals’ 2-0 conquest of Mongolia in Bacolod, a photo of our own young football players like our ABC STARS boys and girls having fun playing the world’s most popular sport would certainly be the best.

The city’s tourism logo has been changed to Maogmang Naga, which is catchier than Maogmang Lugar. But this is redundant and only clutters the website since you already have naga smiles. You know, in ad campaigns—as I learned from my eight years with Philippine Airlines where I happened to once help in our corporate website re-launch project then—you need to stick to one point or your core business offering for better and lasting impact.

Naga as the gateway to the rest of Bikol is highlighted. Unfortunately though, the link in Suggested Itineraries for “Wakeboarding @ CWC, considered by professionals as the country's best wakeboarding venue” is a dead link. It doesn’t take you to CWC’s website, that is, http://cwcwake.com. I hope there’s no more politics here, particularly for CWC or Cam Sur. As the earlier example of my pañero has shown, he and his wife would not have gone to Bikol if not for CWC.