If there’s one thing that Don Peji enjoys doing, it’s creating – literally and figuratively, as the story of Sun Life Financial’s Creative and Digital Marketing Head would reveal.
As a high school student in Marinduque, he was bent on taking up Computer Science in college, fascinated with the possibilities that can be explored using what was then a burgeoning technology. He enjoyed tinkering with an old-school software called Print Shop, and, together with friends, made a business out of making customized greeting cards.
“But then my father went to Manila and, without informing me, took the initiative to enroll me in a Journalism course. He felt that writing was my strength. I just shrugged and said, ‘okay,’” he recalled with a laugh.
Turning point
Having started school at a young age, he was done with college by the time he was 18. Plans to take go back to school and finally take up Computer Science did not materialize, as a job offer immediately came after graduation. He was hired as an editorial assistant in a public relations firm.
It was a brief, albeit productive, stint; after which he moved to Sun Life as a tempo hire who encoded client information into a system. Then he was placed in Human Resources where he helped create the company intranet and produced communication materials for internal events. These roles laid the foundation of what was going to be his biggest task in the company: helping build the Sun Life brand.
The turning point came when a re-organization within Sun Life had him moving to the Marketing department. “We were a new group and the situation was quite volatile. We went through several trial-and-error situations,” he said. “But after a while, with the support of the management, we found our groove.” This resulted to good things. They started creating campaigns that set the tone in the industry, blazing trails in how insurance and investments were typically promoted.
Gaining honors, giving back
Among the many projects he has helped create, one of his favorites by far is Sun Shorts, a collection of digital short films that tackles the importance of insurance and investments. A novel approach to Sun Life’s financial literacy advocacy, Sun Shorts has been honored by local and international award-giving bodies such as the Gold Quill Awards, the New York Festival for Film and Television, and the Tokyo Broadcasting System.
On a personal level, Sun Shorts was a victory for Don as it married both his interests: technology and creative work. Moreover, it brought him back to his childhood in the province, when he’d hang out in the local movie house’s projector room. “I was always curious about how films made people move on the screen, and how they were larger than life,” he shared.
Sun Shorts wasn’t the first time that work and passion crossed paths for Don. Such was also the case in the SunPiology run, which started out as a fun project that soon became a highly-anticipated annual event that attracts thousands of runners every year. This initiative is close to Don’s heart because it’s an opportunity to give back, since the proceeds are used to help fund the education of numerous scholars so they could finish school.
Maximizing opportunities
While he’s already accomplished a lot, Don believes that there’s still a lot more that can be done. There are also personal projects that he’d like to pursue, like producing a film or writing a fiction. And for all these, inspiration could be drawn from anywhere. “You just have to be observant of things going on around you. Listen. Read. Then challenge yourself to come up with something good,” he said.
From the projects he’s handled to the opportunities he’s given, it’s always been about maximizing what’s available. And from producing award-winning campaigns to shaping his own path, it's always been about the process of making something out of nothing.
"An opportunity could arise any time, and you have to challenge yourself to think of what you can do with it and how you can enhance it. If you don’t, then that opportunity could go to waste," he said. "You just have to make the most out of everything."
#
Comments
Post a Comment