Tech This Week: Let's Save Together with GCash, Firefly LED to Provide Brighter Holidays

We all have our own stories of financial mistakes. Bad spending habits, investing in a wrong company to keeping money in an unsafe place. As a financial advisor, I always tell my clients to safe and invest. This World Savings Day, let us review our finances and learn how to save so we have something to use in times of need.

Leading mobile wallet GCash recently sparked an online discussion on this important issue, led by key influencers and brand ambassadors such as television host Robi Domingo admitting to their own stories of financial mistakes and not being able to save. According to the 2017 The Global Findex Database of the World Bank, 66 percent of Filipinos do not have a formal savings account.

As a result, social media was abuzz in recent weeks with posts from netizens sharing their own financial woes with the #PlsSaveMe hashtag, illustrating how this reality hits close to home for Filipinos from various walks of life. The dialogue spanned the entire nation, with conversations and revelations in local dialects covering the different regions and provinces of the country.

“The campaign aims to help people come out in the open and be honest about their shortcomings with regard to handling finances well. Just as with any other problems in life, admitting that you need help is the first step to improvement,” said GCash assistant vice president for financial services Kim Seng.

GCash is now encouraging Filipinos to start on the path of financial wellness with the #LetsSaveTogether movement. One such innovation is opening a digital savings account on the GCash platform. In partnership with digital-first Malaysian bank CIMB, the in-app digital savings account seeks to enhance financial inclusion and financial literacy for more Filipinos.

GCash allows users to set aside money and earn up to 12 times higher than industry-prevailing interest rates, with no minimum deposit or maintaining balance required. In order to open a savings account, only one valid identification card is required to get fully verified on the GCash app. To start saving with GCash, download the app for free or visit their page here.

Just in time for the landmark World Savings Day on October 31, #LetsSaveTogether is GCash’s call to encourage Filipinos to achieve financial wellness through the basic financial concept of saving.

Firefly LED and Jose Mari Chan aims to Provide Brighter Holidays in the Philippines

It's the time of the year again when we bring out those festive Christmas decors. I'm excited to put up our white Christmas tree and decorate it with red ornaments, adding beautiful lights to brighten the night.

Firefly LED and Jose Mari Chan

Setting up a Christmas decor need not be expensive. You can get cheap Christmas decors in bazaar like the one in Ayala Cloverleaf, it is called the Little Dapitan. Stay tuned as I toured your around this new bazaar place. When it comes to Christmas lighting, I don't settle for anything less and substandard and one is Firefly. We have Firefly light bulbs installed in our living room and bathroom. 

Singer and songwriter Jose Mari Chan is not just a brand ambassador for Firefly LED Lights. He also collaborated with the Firefly team for the concept and making of the digital video unveiled on October 16, to launch its "Celebright Christmas" campaign for the holidays.

The digital video, which carries the theme and tagline "The spirit of Christmas made even brighter with Firefly LED Lights," (the phrase coined by Jose Mari Chan himself) shows the singer in a Filipino home talking to each of the family members about Firefly LED lights and safety. In the video, two Christmas Icons come together with Santa Claus’ makes an appearance and amusingly mimics Jose Mari Chan.

Firefly LED Christmas Lights

The video, co-created by Firefly LED Brand Team, Gigil Ad Agency and Jose Mari Chan, was launched on October 16 on Firefly LED's Facebook and YouTube accounts. As Chan tells it, "Christmas in our Hearts" was the result of the efforts of a number of individuals, including himself, Bella Tan of Universal Records, lyricist Rina Caniza and even his daughter Lisa, who had to learn the song practically overnight.

"It's a perfect product for Christmas. What is Christmas without lights? That only happens in the Philippines where people have Christmas trees and lights in their homes. On the streets, people from Pampanga sell parol. Lights and Christmas go together and Firefly exemplifies that. When they asked me, I immediately said yes. Firefly, Christmas lights, LED - that's the in thing. LED is safe. It won't cause fires," said the singer-songwriter.

‘Song of the Firefly’

For the Chan family - Jose Mari, his wife Mary Ann and their children - trimming the tree is a big event. They have had the same tree for years. It is the same one that they brought from New York, where they lived for 11 years. Many of the three ornaments have stories to tell and the family has had them for years, too. Of course, the tree is lit up with Firefly LED Christmas Lights, the first Firefly-branded Christmas lights in the country.

Firefly LED is not the only brand that offered Chan an endorsement but he accepted it because the company manufactures products that he believes in. Trivia: Chan has a Christmas song called "Song of the Firefly."

Last year, Firefly also lit up trees at SM Mall of Asia, SM City North Edsa and Ayala Cebu, the Christmas installations at Tiendesitas (Ortigas East), Bradco Avenue, Aseana City and Ayala Circuit Makati.

The brand is once again lighting-up the 70-foot tree at Central Park, SM by the BAY, Mall of Asia Complex on November 9, in partnership with SM by the BAY, and to be graced by Firefly LED’s celebrity ambassador, Jose Mari Chan.

Firefly LED Bright Christmas lights is the first Firefly-branded Christmas lights in the market today. These lights are tested safe as the product has a built-in safety fuse and made of  high-grade materials such as copper wire, instead of aluminum. All Firefly Christmas lights  are approved by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Firefly’s Christmas lights come in warm white, white and RGB (red, green and blue). The Christmas lights prices range from P439 for the 90 LED bulbs, 6-meter, steady-on string lights, to P2,499 for the curtain lights with 400 LED bulbs and with a blinking night sky effect.