A Chinese proverb says, “A picture is worth ten thousand words.” But for the Philippines’ leading imaging company, this is more than just a saying.

Canon Marketing Philippines recently launched its “Imagenation” campaign for 2013 at the Rockwell tent with the announcement of its partnership with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA).

Started in 2007, the campaign’s objective is to build a community of photography-loving Filipinos to help improve the image of the country through the sharing of thousands of images using Canon cameras.

Guest of honor PIA undersecretary José Mari Oquinena said the image of the country abroad is improving especially after the launch of the Department of Tourism’s “It’s more fun in the Philippines” campaign.

“We want to complement that with something that targets Filipinos and makes them excited about their own country, not only the beautiful scenery but also about core Filipino values and culture,” said Oquinena.

Canon, guided by the corporate philosophy of kyosei (which means living and working together for the common good), has several ongoing corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that deal with social welfare development, education as well as environmental and cultural conservation and preservation.

“With more than 70 years of imaging expertise, we believe that we can immortalize all the efforts that we do in this beautiful country through our expansive input-to-output products and solutions,” said Alan Chng, president and CEO of Canon Marketing Philippines, Inc. “We hope that the photos captured during these advocacy projects would create awareness, ignite the spirit of bayanihan and inspire Filipinos everywhere to join us in helping the country reach its full potential.”

Canon has grouped these projects under four flagship CSR programs: the Canon Advocacy Team (A Team); Canon GreenNation; Canon Advocacy for Reinforcing Education (CARE); and Print for Smiles programs.

As for its partnership with PIA, Canon recently launched its Happy Birthday Tree project, which aims to help repopulate trees in the country. The kickoff activity was held at La Mesa Forest Park and saw volunteers from Canon, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Rizal Technical University and La Consolacion College plant more than 500 tree seedlings donated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Visit www.canon.com.ph/csr