Inquirer news on chat, stickers win gold, silver at Asian Digital Media Awards

Inquirer Mobile’s Brigette Tan Villarin and JV Rufino during the Asian Digital Media Awards.

(UPDATE) For delivering news on mobile devices that best suits new consumer lifestyles, Inquirer’s news reporting on chat won gold for Best Mobile News Service while Inquirer’s Guyito Viber stickers won silver for Best Reader Engagement at the Asian Digital Media Awards held in Singapore, November 9.

Curated by a team led by Inquirer Mobile Editor-in-Chief and Director for Social, JV Rufino, the Inquirer news reporting on chat is available in all the oft-used chat apps in the Philippines with more than 500,000 followers. It sends alerts on breaking news, feature articles, article links and infographics from the Inquirer’s web, social, print, tablet and radio platforms.

After successfully establishing a community of engaged newsreaders through the Viber Public Chat, LINE, WeChat and Firechat official accounts and Snapchat, Inquirer Mobile – Megamobile created sticker sets that featured the Inquirer’s mascot Guyito in various cartoon images to highlight the Inquirer’s presence on multiple platforms.

Frequently used expressions were localized and adapted for use in daily chat conversations and the result was a Viber sticker record of more than 100,000 downloads in 16 days.

Other leading news media companies, including Apple Daily, Singapore Press Holdings, Astro Awani and MediaCorp were among the winners of the annual awards, which were jointly presented by Google and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

All entries were evaluated by a panel of 23 judges from over 10 different countries, including media professionals currently working in publications such as The Guardian, The Economist and Die Welt.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Best Data Visualisation Project

Gold- Animals Crossing by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Silver- The Day the Mountain Shook by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Bronze- Formula One season by Thomson Reuters Asia Pte Ltd

Best Digital Advertising Campaign

Gold- OHI (Obviously Harith Iskander) by Astro Awani Network Sdn Bhd

Silver- Brand Insider / SPH Razor: Canon – From a Mother to a Mother by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Bronze- Go Around Japan with KIT KAT by Next Mobile Limited

Best in Tablet Publishing

Gold- The Age tablet app by The Age Company Limited

Silver- A Gallery of Old and New by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Bronze- ZIP (Zon Interaktif Pesona) by The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd

Best News Mobile Service

Gold- Inquirer Chat Apps by Philippine Daily Inquirer/Megamobile

Silver- Stomp’s WhatsApp Service by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Bronze- SCMP Mobile Edition by South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd

Best News Website

Gold- Fleeing to Survive by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Silver- Straitstimes.com by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Bronze- Bloomberg.com/asia by Bloomberg Media

Best Lifestyle Website

Gold- OHI (Obviously Harith Iskander) by Astro Awani Network Sdn Bhd

Silver- A Gallery of Old and New by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Bronze- AsiaTatler.com by Edipresse Media Asia Limited

Best New Product

Gold- R.AGE TV by Star Media Group Berhad

Silver- TODAY’s Mobile App by Mediacorp Press Ltd, TODAY

Bronze- askST by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Best Reader Engagement

Gold- 2015 District Council Election Minisite by Apple Daily Ltd.

Silver- Inquirer Guyito Stickers Campaign by Philippine Daily Inquirer/Megamobile

Bronze- Stomp by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Best Use of Online Video

Gold- Left-behind Children: Orphans with Parents, the Tragedies of 70 Million by Apple Daily Ltd.

Silver- Kupu-kupu Malam: Indonesia’s Night Butterflies by Mediacorp Pte Ltd, Channel NewsAsia (Digital News)

Bronze- Rwanda’s Madame Poulet from Singapore by Mediacorp Pte Ltd, Channel NewsAsia (Digital News)