Last year, Diageo’s Plan W Philippines launched the first-of-its-kind platform that uses “singing” as a means to empower women in their communities. Globally, the program aims to enable women to have the skills and resources to build better futures for themselves. The focus is on women because the company believes that “if women are empowered, they have more access to opportunities, thus their incomes increase, their families become healthier, and their children have greater access to education.”
“I’m very proud to say that here in the Philippines, 35 percent of our leadership positions are currently occupied by women. So we just don’t talk about it, we actually ‘walk it.’ Since we are Johnnie Walker, this is very important,” says Jon Good, general manager of Diageo Philippines. He continues, “Women talk about celebrating life everyday everywhere, (and) it’s also about enriching communities everywhere.”
“Plan W is a global platform, and it’s all about empowering women,” Good explains. “The goal is to empower over two million women across Asia Pacific by the year 2017. Apparently, we’ve empowered 600,000 people already and we’ve got two more years ahead.”
Johnnie Walker is currently in 180 countries, and that makes them involved in 180 communities. Diageo’s community investment program has been actively creating programs that nurture and develop the skills of women around the world.
“In the Philippines, the reaction has been very positive. What they ask is to find something uniquely cultural,” explains Good. “We generally looked at communities, and we looked at the challenges like business challenges, or the way that the economy works, (like) maybe the husbands need to go offshore. Obviously in the Philippines, we could look at that as well, but instead we looked at a passion point, and I think looking at a passion point, in the Philippines has really unlocked wonderful things about what we’re trying to do,” he adds.
In every country that Plan W is involved in, they have different challenges that are operating in a particular country specifically about empowering women. But out of all the programs globally, the Philippines is the only one that focuses on singing, in particular, choir singing.
“We do things quite differently,” shares Good. “The singing element is something that caught the curiosity globally out of everything that Plan W is doing.” So far, through its partnership with Sing Philippines, 34 women vocal teachers and choir conductors nationwide have been provided with a platform to hone their talents and skills and eventually give back to their communities using their talents and the knowledge they’ve learned from the program. The participants were immersed in a seven-day intensive training course at the University of the Philippines-Diliman last October and culminated in a concert at the Philippine International Convention Center.
“It’s in progress; we’ve got two parts, the training and second is the application,” explains Good. “We’re very pleased with how it’s going. Working with Sing Philippines has helped the impact that we’ve made on the communities. So far, we’ve gone into competitions and they’ve done very well. More importantly, it goes back into the community; more people have benefitted from it, (and) we’re starting to see the snowball effect of the 34 we’ve trained so far. This is the beginning of something so we’re committed.”
Good reiterated their satisfaction at the partnership with Sing Philippines, saying what they have seen this year has been very encouraging. “We want to continue this journey, but it doesn’t mean that what we are doing this year is what we’re going to do next. But together, we see a big opportunity to empower women,” he adds.
In celebration of Plan W and in preparation for women’s month, Diageo had a private celebration in their main office and concocted Plan W cocktails in honor of the 34 empowered women. Diageo Reserve brand ambassador Rian Asiddao created The W, Plan W Blue, and The Golden Voice mixes. The W, a spinoff of a white Russian, Smirnoff vodka as base, with Baileys and a coffee liqueur, “signifies sweetness – cool and modest – but deep inside it’s like the Plan W strong women,” Asiddao explains. Plan W Blue has Ciroc Vodka, blue curacao, grapefruit, sugar and pandan. “It is color blue, very soft and fruity, very gentle in the palate, just like the softness of the heart of Plan W ladies,” he describes. Lastly, The Golden Voice, which is a spinoff of a gold rush cocktail, with Johnnie Walker gold label reserve as base, mixed with honey, lemon and cinnamon. “It’s all about music and voice. Inspired by the dedication and hard work of Plan W, with which their talents continue to emerge like gold.”