My Paper revamp blitz strikes Gold

SINGAPORE - When My Paper underwent a revamp last year, a flash mob of 40 cyclists dressed in executive wear took to the heart of the busy Central Business District while reading the bilingual freesheet.

This was one of several facets to My Paper's marketing campaign, which included distributing free coffee to executives, as well as rolling out creative advertisements in print and online.

For its creative campaign, My Paper was awarded the Gold award in Best in Newspaper Marketing at the 12th Asian Media Awards, organised by Wan-Ifra and held on Wednesday night.

Wan-Ifra is a global organisation which represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 media companies in more than 120 countries.

My Paper's marketing campaign beat the entries of two other finalists - Dubai- based Arabic-language newspaper Al Bayan for its coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Malaysian English- language tabloid The Star for its mobile- app feature, The Star iSnap.

The first issue of the revamped My Paper was published on Nov 1 last year.

Mr Tommy Lim, head of creative services and product branding and promotions at the marketing division, said: "It is a nice recognition of the team's creativity and tremendous effort in the project, and the decision-makers who believed in us."

My Paper (English) editor Sarah Ng said that the award was an approbation of the "effective marketing campaign for the revamp of My Paper, whose brighter design and further emphasis on content that caters to the busy executive have proven to be a hit among readers and advertisers".

The newspaper's win was one of six awards bagged by Singapore Press Holdings at the event this year, held in Bangalore, India.

One the six awards was for a teachers' handbook produced by The Straits Times' Schools team called 48 Values From The News: The Straits Times Guide To Building Character. It won in the Best in Community Service category.

tsjwoo@sph.com.sg

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