The Star wins big in awards
Volunteer programme takes gold in marketing awards
We did it: (From left) Knorex account executive Yew Weisin, group marketing executive Michelle Har, corporate communications executive Selina Ng, R.AGE acting editor Ian Yee, R.AGE journalist Sharmila Nair and Siti Hajar with the trophies.
WITH three gold awards and a silver tucked under its belt, The Star shone during Advertising+Marketing magazine’s inaugural Marketing Excellence Awards last Friday.
Two of the awards won were for The Star’s Do Good. Volunteer campaign – a gold for Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility and a silver for Excellence in Public Relations (internal/employee communications).
This campaign puts volunteerism into action through an online portal (dogoodvolunteer.com).
“The online portal has always been our main driver of this volunteer initiative as it is a platform to connect volunteers and NGOs in order for them to work together,” said Star Publications (M) Bhd corporate communications assistant manager Siti Hajar Abdul Rahman.
According to Siti Hajar, the campaign started off with an intention to connect with the youth, as “we thought young people would be the most likely group of volunteers.”
However, Do Good. Volunteer has proven to be able to reach a wider field of people beyond just the youth. “We are living in an age where there is a lot of focus on ‘me’.
“People are time-starved, so we didn’t expect it to be easy asking people – our own staff included – to give and volunteer,” said the company’s deputy group chief marketing officer Angelina Villanueva.
“The response has been really beyond our expectations. We have drawn a lot of interest from corporations, many of them eager to come in as partners, so the campaign has had an impact on both businesses and individuals.”
The Star’s iSnap augmented reality function also won gold in the Excellence in Mobile Marketing category. “iSnap works because it engages our readers better by bringing the news to life through movie and visuals,” said Villanueva.
“These awards show that we are continually innovating to ensure our products engage their respective market segments effectively.”
As for R.AGE, The Star’s multimedia youth platform, it won a gold award in the Excellence in Social Media category for its strategies for engaging young people with news content. This is the fifth award won by R.AGE in the last 12 months.
The biggest award of the night, Marketer of the Year, went to Maybank, with The Star coming in a close second. – By Amanda Soo
