South China Morning Post wins first and second prizes at prestigious global INMA 2011 Awards Competition

Hong Kong, May 18, 2011South China Morning Post received first and second prizes at the prestigious INMA Awards presentation in New York on 17th May, the news industry’s top marketing awards.

The awards were presented at the 81st Annual INMA World Congress at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in New York at a dinner attended by over 200 media executives from around the world.

The 76-year-old INMA Awards competition generated 550 entries from 143 market-leading newspapers in 30 countries. Judging for the ten award categories was done by an international panel of industry experts involved with media companies, advertising agencies, trade magazines, and more. Judges came from Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Canada, India, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Taking first prize for its category in "New brand/product/audience development" was the South China Morning Post‘s iPad™ brand launch campaign, "Today, tomorrow and the next day." Devised by their in house creative director, Mr. Wayne Knowles, the campaign was spearheaded by a front page take over to launch the South China Morning Post‘s iPad™ app on the day of its inauguration. The advertisement featured the iPad™ app with the same day’s news as the true newspaper front page that followed it, an accomplishment made possible by preparing artwork after the day’s news was locked but before the paper was put to bed.

The second prize awarded to the newspaper was for its SCMP Marketing Services division, a unit set up specifically to assist advertisers with integrated marketing solutions. The prize category won was for "Marketing Solutions for Advertising Clients".

The fully integrated campaign "Redefining Cool" created for client Miele, was devised to help them launch their refrigeration solutions to a style conscious and affluent young crowd. Comprising a multi-media solution across many platforms and including print, online, mobile and an event, the campaign leveraged social media with a competition featuring a cool "Freeze-a-matic" iPhone? app as a downloadable device to capture images of beloved items customers most wanted to preserve. Images were emailed in and voted on through social media to win a prize. The "Redefining Cool" campaign was spearheaded by Ms Sylvia Lee, Head of SCMP Marketing Services. It won praise from the client and recognition from the INMA judges.

Commenting on the wins, Ms Anne Wong, Director of Marketing for South China Morning Post said: "We are deeply honoured to receive recognition from such an esteemed industry body as INMA. With such marketing excellence around the world, for us to receive two awards is a testament to our team’s devotion to marketing excellence, both for our own brand and for our advertisers."

South China Morning Post this week launched a new brand campaign "Make Every Day Matter" and a significant new revamp to the newspaper, which was very well received by an audience of nearly 200 advertisers at the inaugural presentation held at the Island Shangri-La on Monday 16th May.

The new South China Morning Post now features a significantly brighter, fresher new look, more intuitive navigation and much more content, including new columns and five new tabloid sections covering personal interest topics including money, health and wellness, food and wine, fashion and lifestyle, parenting and education.

Full details about the INMA awards can be seen at their website: http://www.inma.org/blogs/main/post.cfm/inma-unveils-top-news-industry-marketing-campaigns

-End-


About SCMP Group Ltd and South China Morning Post

SCMP Group Limited (SEHK: 583) is a leading newspaper and magazine publisher in Asia. Its flagship publication, South China Morning Post, is Hong Kong’s world renowned English language newspaper and has the city’s most affluent and influential readership. First published in 1903, the newspaper has developed an enviable reputation for authoritative, influential and independent reporting on Hong Kong, China and the rest of Asia. Available in print, iPad™ and online through scmp.com and e-reader editions, South China Morning Post reaches a global audience with daily breaking news, insightful analysis and opinion, multimedia articles and interactive forums. Striving to maintain the highest standards among the world’s quality newspapers, the South China Morning Post receives constant international recognition. It received 60 awards in 2010 for excellence in editorial, marketing and technical capability. Other publication titles of the Group include the Sunday Morning Post, the Chinese editions of Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar and CosmoGirl! magazines. For more information, please visit us at www.scmpgroup.com.

For enquiries please contact:

Anne Wong
Director of Marketing
South China Morning Post
Email: communications@scmp.com