SPH Digital offers advertisers customised content

SPH Digital offers advertisers customised content

SPH Digital, a new division of media group Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), yesterday introduced a wide array of advertising options across its digital outlets.

More than 500 advertisers at Swissotel The Stamford witnessed the new offerings of SPH Digital, created in February, which encompasses 25 popular websites. It is the latest move by SPH to respond to fast-rising digital media consumption habits.

The group's sites include the online and mobile editions of flagship newspaper The Straits Times, Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao, as well as citizen journalism site Stomp and portals such as STProperty and STJobs.

Together, they reach 23 million unique browsers and command 360 million page views monthly.

Mr Julian Tan, head of SPH Digital, said that with the wide reach of SPH's websites, SPH Digital is "the most comprehensive yet targeted base for marketers who face increasing challenges of reaching and engaging their target audience in a crowded market".

SPH has also expanded its video offerings, with the launch of the SPH Premium Video Network. Managed by SPH Razor, it draws content from SPH publications and third-party content partners such as The Star Online and Howdini. Content is screened across SPH news and lifestyle sites.

Mr Jonathan Ng, editor of SPH Razor, said video widgets and players will be featured prominently on all websites, with multiple engagement points - home pages, section pages and articles.

Mr Adrian Tay, editor of AsiaOne, showed off SPH's new Content Studio, set up to give brands a means of communicating with their target groups. Experienced journalists work with advertisers to repackage content from SPH archives. The content is then published across SPH digital assets in the form of ads, sitting alongside editorial stories but flagged as sponsored content.

Mr Sony Wong, chief executive of Omnicom Media Group, Singapore, called SPH Digital a "game changer". "It's a big difference from what was offered in the past... content that can be customised for advertising is very powerful." He said he was seeing a gradual shift towards digital advertising among the global media agency's 60 or so clients here, 95 per cent of which advertise with SPH. "Two years ago, advertising revenue was split 80 to 20 between offline and online; now, online accounts for about 30 to 40 per cent of revenue," he noted.

wrennie@sph.com.sg

This article was published on May 9 in The Straits Times.

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