Usually, one’s undergrad thesis is a one-and-done affair, a rite of passage.
Despite seeming like the whole world, like the plot of college life, despite the extensive, seemingly overnight, expertise following months of reading the same related literature (you did read it, right?), rarely do people think that the actual subject matter of one’s college thesis is something to take further once the diploma arrives.
Such isn’t the case with millennial “Queenovator” Sharon Yu Ong, cofounder and CEO of pioneering events company Waveplay Interactive. When the global pandemic broke out last year and effectively shut down on-ground events, Sharon turned to her undergraduate thesis and led the pivot of her company to launch the country’s first virtual platform called Webplay.
The game-changing concept continues to yield awards and recognitions for Sharon, the latest being the Innovator of the Year in Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Women Leading Change Awards 2021 last month. Despite the accolades, the decorated innovator chooses to describe her line of work in jest as “an overnight expert.”
Now, this isn’t so much a boast as it is a person’s reflection on learning the fits of many hats across each project. Ask Sharon to calibrate the motion sensor sensitivity of an augmented reality camera attachment, and she can. Ask her which colorway suits a brand’s concept best (red and black or orange and black?) and she’ll likely give an educated, informed suggestion.
All this has to do with her thesis project—using often interactive, sometimes augmented, always gamified technology to entice visitors to an event, screening, or exhibit to engage even more with the message or product presented.
An emerging field
It was the early 2010s when Sharon entered the events sector after a first job in advertising. Back then, the notion of having interactive booths, games, and exhibits was considered an extraneous, sometimes even unnecessary, expense.
It was taken for granted that in live television, as well as in events, both the studio audience and the attendees were essentially in a more-or-less passive, one-way relationship with the producers. You went to an event, listened to speakers, perhaps signed up for a few promotions, took home a few freebies. The most interactive component was with fellow attendees—networking.
Today, looking at the number of companies big and small who develop both event-specific and “perennial” brand-related apps and games, it’s increasingly being considered a wasted opportunity if an event didn’t have a component where the audience actively participated.
It is fair to say that Sharon’s Waveplay Interactive led the charge in the country. The company creates interactive events, experiences, booths, and the like tailored to clients’ needs, often deploying technologies such as motion-sensing, augmented reality. In just eight months since launching Webplay in May last year, the group has produced over 60 unique virtual venues, powered over 300 event days, accommodated 700,000+ attendees, and created more than 250 custom side activities.
The first client of Webplay was technically Sharon’s thesis subject, the Ayala Museum, and how interactive solutions could be applied in such a setting. A slew of other firsts followed, from launching the first interactive cinema in Asia with SM to the first interactive live TV segment with GMA-7. In a 2011 interview for Full Court Fresh, Sharon shared that she hoped to reach international clients. To date, Waveplay Interactive has worked with brands in the SEA region and beyond.
There was an initial skepticism, too, at the perceived gimmicky nature of games, but a decade of both on-the-ground experience and new research in decision science reveals that gamified marketing indeed taps into innate human competitiveness and desire for rewards.
Decisively relaxed
“I didn’t always play by the rules,” Sharon says. She grew up in what she describes as a traditional and conservative home, social, and school environment, where doing something different from what everyone else was doing was viewed as shameful.
In her all-girls Christian school, girls were expected to be demure. Sharon was often called out by teachers. When the class was doing pranks, fingers often went her way when questions were raised. “Looking back, may pagka-creative din ako,” she opines, on how such an environment actually, literally, encouraged thinking out of the box.
Sharon was once a courtside reporter, too, and she still carries the enthusiasm, resolve, and open-mindedness such an experience gives. You are, as she reveals in said 2011 interview, scrutinized by producers and audiences alike, all while having to stay cheerful and graceful under pressure.
She recalls that even after college, her parents, however well-meaning, initially didn’t understand the concept she wanted to pursue for her business, and suggested she try other, more tried-and-tested industries. They did, however, encourage her to pursue entrepreneurship after 10 months in a desk job.
Now a family woman herself, Sharon has grown more relaxed and decisive. She, her husband, and their daughters share hobbies. If he’s in the mood to test out a new toy in a long drive, he’ll take her, Sharon fondly shares. If it’s a quiet movie night, everyone’s in. It’s honestly reassuring, as the world increasingly trades once shared spaces for individualized screens.
All this, as elements of Sharon’s “school bukol” vibe contribute to her approach to guiding her kids. But don’t get her wrong: while on one hand, she reminds her daughters not to worry about being honor students, she also teaches them about open communication and constructive criticism, as the two go hand-in-hand.
“You want to show them how the world really is,” Sharon shares, adding that “you mustn’t overdo it, however.”
During our e-interview, I get to witness a part of this dynamic when one of her daughters enters the frame, asking if Mom can check out this drawing on a piece of scratch paper. Without any second thoughts, Sharon picks her kid up, asks her to say “Hi to mommy’s friends” (and the girl does, telling me about her drawing, too), and that “mommy will check the drawing later, she’s in a meeting right now.”
No psst, no hoy!, no shouting, no sita.
“That paper,” Sharon beams, laughing, “is actually scratch from the days when we used to do live events.”