SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – It’s easy to measure success in numbers: 12 awards. 42 points. One Grand Stevie. But the real story of SM Supermalls’ record-breaking performance at the 2025 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards lies in the spaces between those numbers — in the daily decisions, the decades of discipline, and the quiet conviction that doing good and doing business are not mutually exclusive.
This year, the 2025 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards culminated in a grand gala banquet on May 13 at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, South Korea. The awards honor exemplary leadership, innovation, and community impact across the region, with winners announced last April 02.
SM Supermalls — comprised of SM Supermalls, SM Foundation, and SM Retail under the SM Group — was crowned Most Honored Organization of the Year, a title bestowed upon the company that accumulates the highest award points across all categories. The recognition is staggering in breadth, spanning everything from experiential mall activations to grassroots literacy programs, sustainability efforts, and inclusive employment initiatives.
Leading the charge was the SM Art Market, which won the Gold Award for Innovation in the Use of Events. This initiative went beyond traditional retail by transforming mall spaces into dynamic cultural hubs, showcasing Filipino artistry and creativity in vibrant and immersive ways that brought the community closer to the heart of Filipino culture.
SM Supermalls’s wide-ranging impact was further recognized through multiple Silver awards highlighting purposeful initiatives across its malls and CSR programs.
Its 12 Stevie Awards were formally received at the APAC Stevie Awards Banquet by key leaders, including Joaquin “Jonjon” San Agustin, EVP for Marketing, Jefferson Suarez, Senior AVP for North Luzon Marketing, and Richard Caluyo, AVP for SM Cares, SM Family Entertainment Center, and Sports & Leisure Center Marketing. Under Jonjon’s leadership, SM Supermalls also previously earned back-to-back “Organization of the Year” honors in 2018 and 2019, highlighting a sustained culture of excellence.
“It’s always an honor to be recognized internationally,” said Jonjon. “But at the end of the day, it really boils down to the company’s vision.”
Speaking to adobo Magazine at the awards banquet in Seoul, Jonjon explained that the company’s vision and hard work are driven by the desire to serve customers well, aiming to provide an exceptional experience beyond traditional dining and shopping.
“What really drives us, as one entire group of companies, is the fact that we’re very focused, particularly on the customers that we service — the customers we need to delight,” he said. “I used to ask all our marketing officers in the mall to do just one thing: simply make our customers smile. Because when you make our customers smile, you tug an emotional cord that can last forever.”
This focus on delighting customers resonates throughout SM’s broad spectrum of awards, many of which recognized programs not for spectacle but for deep, community-centered impact.
“Out of the 12 awards SM Supermalls won, seven of them are not your popular festivals or parades or Christmas launches,” Jonjon proudly shared. “We’ve dimensionalized into being able to do sustainability, to talk about job fairs, and deepen community relationships. SM Supermalls not only innovates, but it evolves to dimensionalize everything we deliver.”
“Gen Zs and Millennials look for sustainability, inclusivity, and CSR in the brand,” he added. “They look for sincerity. They look for authenticity and purpose.”
Michael Gallagher, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Stevie Awards, also spoke to adobo Magazine about what it truly means to garner a Grand Stevie Award, emphasizing the importance of organizational commitment at every level.
“Winning a Grand Stevie means that a company or organization is committed to seeking national, regional, and global recognition … but really, more importantly, for their people,” Michael explained. “We have categories to recognize the entire organization, but we also have a lot of categories to recognize specific departments, different functional teams, and individual performers. When an organization like SM wins a Grand Stevie for Most Honored Organization, it means they’re really committed to seeking recognition right down the line.”
Michael highlighted how such commitment shines brightest through storytelling: “All of human history is told in stories. People respond to stories — more than bar graphs, bullet points.
“When you step back from individual achievements and look at the organization’s achievements as a whole, you start to formulate a story that even a disinterested third party — or someone who doesn’t know much about your industry — can understand. That becomes a story you can use not just for awards nominations, but in talking to investors, press, potential employees, and partners. There are so many benefits to how those stories can be used.”
For SM Supermalls, storytelling is interwoven with its core philosophy.
“Innovation and evolution — that’s what we always do. It’s our guiding principle, our North Star,” Jonjon elaborated. “The customer’s needs are evolving. In fact, they’re even more difficult today than they were 20 years ago. So it’s always important that we stick to that particular discipline of innovation, evolution, and most importantly, hard work.”
“At the end of the day,” he concluded, “it’s all about focusing on your customer and having a very sound strategy. Stick to the strategy. Stick to your vision. Satisfy your customer. It’s as simple as that sometimes.”
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.
