Singapore, 17 April 2006 – Singapore’s leading media group, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) is proud to announce that its newspapers won five awards at the prestigious PANPA Newspaper Advertising Awards 2006. The PANPA Newspaper Advertising Awards is an annual award that recognises excellence in newspaper-created advertisements and entries hail from the cream of the region’s newspapers. Winners were honoured at a gala dinner on April 3 2006 at Star City, Sydney during the two-day annual PANPA Newspaper Advertising Forum.

SPH is synonymous with print advertising in Singapore and its suite of newspapers continually strives to scale new heights and elevate the benchmark in print advertising. These efforts include working closely with clients to produce print advertisements that leverage the medium’s unique strengths in providing credibility and permanence as well as producing quality in-house work to promote SPH’s newspaper services.

SPH’s work was duly recognised when it was awarded the following PANPA Newspaper Advertising Awards:

• Best Advertising Feature or Supplement over 50,000 – Winner
  (The Straits Times – Health & You Supplement)
  
  
• Most Effective Use of Colour Over 50,000 – Winner
  (Chinese Newspapers Division – Children’s Day Carnival Advertisement)
  
  
• Best Tactical Use of Newspaper In House 15,000- 50,000 – Highly Commended
  (Lianhe Zaobao - Singapore Promising Brand Awards Campaign)
  
  
• Best Campaign over 50,000 – Highly Commended
  (The New Paper - The New Face Call-For-Entry Advertisements)
  
  
• Advertising Feature of Supplement over 50,000 – Finalist
  (SPH Classified Department – Young Classified)

The winning advertisements were created in-house by SPH’s Creative Services department, SPH’s Classified department and Special Projects Unit. SPH’s Creative Services department works closely with SPH’s clients and in-house brands, from conceptualization to execution, to create effective, award-winning advertisements.

Says Linda Leong, Executive Creative Director, Creative Services, SPH Marketing, “We constantly challenge ourselves to reach greater heights in newspaper advertising and the PANPA wins again this year, are an affirmation of our creative strength.”

Last, year, SPH won one PANPA award for Best Campaign over 50,000 with the zb Sunday “Refreshing” campaign.

PANPA (Pacific Area Newspaper Publisher’s Association) is a non-for-profit industry association representing newspapers in the Asia-Pacific region. Its members include newspaper publishers from the Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand, as well as most English-language newspapers in South East Asia and the South Pacific.

SPH’S WINS AT PANPA NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING AWARDS 2006

1. The Straits Times – Health & You Supplement
Award won: Best Advertising Feature or Supplement over 50,000 – Winner

This 48-page supplement for The Straits Times newspaper was produced to draw interest to the
insurance firm AIA’s policies and attract people to a two-day health fair. The content of the
supplement, the photography, and the layout were intended to convey to readers the joys of
maintaining a healthy lifestyle and of preparing for any eventuality.

The call to action succeeded brilliantly: About 120,000 people visited the fair.

2. Chinese Newspapers Division – Children’s Day Carnival Advertisement
Award won: Most Effective Use of Colour Over 50,000 - Winner

Cleverly presented in the format of a comic strip, this “Hall of Heroes” advertisement effectively brings out the theme and mood of the Children’s Day Carnival. The Children’s Day Carnival is an annual three-day event organized by SPH’s Chinese Newspapers Division, which comprises the three Chinese dailies – Lianhe Zaobao, Shinmin Daily News and Lianhe Wanbao.

The bold colours, punchy copy, shrewd use of familiar comic characters and appropriate typography makes it a successful ad that is able to capture the attention of children and adults alike.

3. Lianhe Zaobao - Singapore Promising Brand Awards Campaign
Award won: Best Tactical Use of Newspaper in House 15,000- 50,000 – Highly Commended

Jointly launched by Lianhe Zaobao and the Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (ASME) in 2002, the Singapore Promising Brand Awards is annual award that recognizes Singapore brands and aims to promote branding as an effective marketing strategy among SMEs.

This series of ads features the success stories of Singapore Promising Brand Awards winners to highlight the importance of building a brand for business success. At the same time, the newspaper demonstrates its advertising effectiveness by being attributed as a major factor in the winning brands’ success.

4. The New Paper - The New Face Call-For-Entry Advertisements
Award won: Best Campaign over 50,000 – Highly Commended

The New Face beauty pageant, a landmark event of The New Paper, is an effective brand platform that encapsulates the young, vibrant nature of the publication. Like the publication, The New Face contest is a hot topic that creates talking points within the community.

The creative juxtaposition of photography and illustration in this series of call-for-entry ads effectively attracts the attention of its target audience – young, trendy females. An excellent example of a creative concept with practical execution!

5. SPH Classified Department – Young Classified
Award won: Advertising Feature of Supplement over 50,000 – Finalist

The objective of this free feature serves to reach out to and build a steady readership amongst youths between 12 to 18 years old in CATS Classified. By creating a suitable platform to interest and engage teenagers, CATS Classified establishs this feature as a tactical means of enticing advertisers to showcase their youth-based products and/or services, thereby generating advertising revenue from these sources in the long run.

The creative concept centred on a vibrant, youthful theme. In order to attract teenagers to the one-page feature, the page was designed with bursts of vivid colours to make it look funky and stand out from the rest of the black/white pages. The editorials and blurbs were paginated in non-linear formats so as to break free from an otherwise rigid look and further lend energy to the page. To entice reading, larger fonts were used and lead-ins were written on the CATS Classified cover page to evoke interest.


Issued by Singapore Press Holdings Limited
Co. Regn. No: 198402868E


For more information, please contact:

Ng Chew Wee
Singapore Press Holdings
Product Development & Branding
DID: 6319 1439
Mobile: 9841 5539
Email: ngcw@sph.com.sg

About Singapore Press Holdings
Main board listed Singapore Press Holdings Limited is the leading media company in Singapore, in the print, Internet and broadcasting platforms. It publishes 13 newspapers in the four official languages and more than 80 magazine titles. Everyday, 2.8 million individuals, or 88 per cent of the people above 15 years old, read one of the SPH publications. Its Internet Business Unit manages the online editions of SPH's major newspapers, which enjoy over 100 million pageviews from 6 million unique visitors every month.

SPH also owns a 20% stake in MediaCorp TV Holdings Pte Ltd, which operates free-to-air channels 5, 8, U and TV Mobile, and a 40% stake in MediaCorp Press Pte Ltd, which publishes free sheet Today. SPH has a 70% stake in UnionWorks, which operates two entertainment radio channels, UFM 100.3 FM in Chinese and WKRZ 91.3 FM in English. In addition, SPH holds an 80% stake in SPH MediaBoxOffice Pte Ltd, Singapore’s largest LED network media company, and a 35% stake in TOM Outdoor Media Group, a leading outdoor advertising company in China.