PRESS RELEASE

Release Date: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact Person: Fleire Castro, CEO/Business Owner, Third Team MediaTelephone: USA: 001 347 480 1696

PH: 063 032 266 3456MOBILE: 063 918 265 6696

Email: fleire@thirdteam.org

Cebu-based digital agency Third Team Media wins a Stevie® Award

Third Team Media (TTM), a startup social media and digital agency in Cebu City, has won a Silver Stevie® Award in the Services Company of the Year category in the first annual Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards today. Other awardees from the Philippines are network giant ABS-CBN, health publishing company Medical Observer Philippines, real estate company Robinsons Land Corporation, and global call center and IT outsourcing company Telus International Philippines.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are the first business awards program to recognize achievement in business in all 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region. They are the newest of the Stevie Awards programs, which are widely considered to be the world's premier business awards, conferring recognition for achievement in the workplace in programs such as The International Business Awards for more than a decade.

Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word for “crowned,” the awards will be presented to winners at a gala banquet at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, South Korea on 30 May.

Third Team Media is made up of a lean but mean team of digital professionals. Although small, TTM has handled social media and digital marketing and consultancy for a diverse set of international and local clients such as real estate company AboitizLand, electric company Visayan Electric Co., and US-based transportation service provider Safe Rides Unlimited. TTM has also been actively supporting tech startups with nonprofits like Google Business Group Cebu and Techtalks.ph.

Twenty-nine year old business owner Fleire Castro started the Cebu-based company in 2008.

“I started my career in the field of information technology with a fascination for social media – blogging, social networks, and forums,” Castro shared. “When I left my corporate work back in 2008, I found my calling in helping brands and businesses find value from these channels for their own communities.”

Third Team Media was officially registered as a business two years later in 2010. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Castro shared that it hasn’t been an easy task to build a digital agency from the ground up so she is thankful for the people who have helped her and TTM along the way.

“If I had to thank someone, it would be my husband for going through this crazy adventure with me,” said Castro. Her husband, Marco Castro, works with her in TTM as a business partner and quality specialist.

“Thank you to the customers who believe that being a social business is an investment on their brand itself and that it impacts their bottomline. Then there's the mentors and community leaders who have helped me learn a lot running a startup. And of course, thank you to the Third Team itself for being the champions of our clients’ brands,” said Castro.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners were selected by more than 50 executives around the world who participated in first-round judging the week of 14 April. A second international panel of judges will choose five Grand Stevie winners from among the Gold winners in early May. The Grand Stevie winners will be announced at the 30 May banquet in Seoul.

“We are delighted that the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards have debuted with such a stellar group of winners,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. “We look forward to celebrating the winners and presenting them their awards at the gala banquet in Seoul on 30 May. We extend our most heartfelt congratulations to all of this year’s Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners.”

For her part, Castro hopes that the Stevie Award recognition will help further expose the importance of digital marketing in business. “Right now, we are hoping to help more local businesses in Cebu with their digital marketing campaigns,” said Castro.

For more information about Third Team Media, visit www.thirdteam.org. Details about the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and the list of Stevie Award winners are available at asia.stevieawards.com.

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Fleire Castro (front) with the digital professionals that make up the Stevie Award winning company Third Team Media.