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Celebrating Asia’s best in Digital

Investment to transform tech, content and focus at the South China Morning Post (SCMP) is yielding results judging by the 11 awards, including six golds, it picked up at the 2019 Asian Digital Media Awards in Hong Kong on 29 October.

by Cherilyn Ireton cherilyn.ireton@wan-ifra.org | October 30, 2019

SCMP, owned by Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group, won three gold awards for its China Tech City website and its newsroom won gold, silver and bronze awards for video. SCMP also took the top award for native/brand advertising campaign. (Full list of categories and award winners below).

The 116-year old paper has benefited from signficicant investment in tech and people as part of a respositioning strategy driven by CEO Gary Liu and Editor in Chief Tammy Tam.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), publisher of the Straits Times, walked away with six awards, including gold for best social media engagement, best startup and best paid content strategy.

Other publishers commended for digital excellence include Indonesia’s PT GVM Networks, which won a gold for Opini.id and Malaysia’s R.Age from the Star, which also won a Gold for the best digital project to engage younger audiences.

Now in their 10th year

This is the 10th year WAN-IFRA has recognised the news organisations which have produced the region’s best and most engaging digital content and offerings.

The winners were awarded at a ceremony in Hong Kong on 29 October as part of the Digital Media Asia conference. Fifteen judges, drawn from the USA and Europe, selected the Gold, Silver and Bronze category prizewinners from a total of 151 entries, from 11 countries.

The gold winners become automatically eligible for WAN-IFRA’s World Digital Media Awards, to complete with the other winners from Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and South Asia in this unique and final international competition.

Best News Website or Mobile Service

Gold: China Tech City by South China Morning Post

Silver: cna.asia by Mediacorp Pte Ltd

Bronze: eco-business.com by Eco-Business

Best in Lifestyle, Sports, Entertainment Website or Mobile Services

Gold: China Tech City by South China Morning Post

Silver: War on waste: The dirty (brown) secret about e-commerce by The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings

Bronze: scmp.com by South China Morning Post

Best Use of Online Video
 (including VR)

Gold: Fighting fentanyl – The drug from China destroying American lives by South China Morning Post

Silver: Homeless in Hong Kong: Life on a footbridge by South China Morning Post

Bronze: I sold my Son to ISIS by South China Morning Post

Best Data Visualisation

Gold: How Beijing’s Forbidden City became one of the largest world museums by South China Morning Post

Silver: The race to save the river Ganges by Reuters (Singapore)

Bronze: Tracking China’s Muslim Gulag by Reuters (Singapore)

Best Paid Content Strategy (incl. pay wall, membership or crowd funding models)

Gold: A machine learning-enabled personalised experience for audience engagement & subscriptions by The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings

Silver: Kompas.id IP-based News Service for Universities by Kompas Daily Newspaper

Bronze: SPH News Tablet by Zaobao, Singapore Press Holdings

Best Native Advertising / Branded Content Campaign

Gold: Hong Kong Tourism Board – Building Connections by South China Morning Post

Silver: Qantas – Flying High, Linking Lives by South China Morning Post

Bronze: Hong Kong Tourism Board – Local Vision: Hong Kong by South China Morning Post

Best Marketing Campaign for News Brand

Gold: Gedein Opini by PT GVM Networks (Opini.id)

Silver: Pusuan Ang Totoo by GMA News and Public Affairs

Bronze: #TolWagTroll by 5 Network

Best in Social Media Engagement

Gold: Instagram: News Challenge by The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings

Silver: Check In (#CNACheckIn) by Mediacorp Pte Ltd

Bronze: Where’s Merly? A National Day game challenge for Singaporeans by The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings

Best Digital Project to Engage Younger and/or Millennial Audiences

Gold: China Tech City by South China Morning Post

Gold: The #StandTogether Kindness Chat Bot by R.AGE, Star Media Group

Silver: ST & BT Podcasts reach younger audiences by Singapore Press Holdings

Bronze: #MillennialsMemilih by IDN Times

Best Digital News Start-up

Gold: Garage by The Business Times by Singapore Press Holdings

Silver: PUBLISH by PUBLISH, Inc

Bronze: 1001 Startup Media Online by Kumparan

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