In July - Aug, StarHub Digital Cable ran a successful transit media campaign for 'Smart TV' (a new digital recording set top box). This campaign garnered a bronze at this year's SOAA (Singapore Outdoor Advertising Awards) for the category of MRT train carriage. The clever use of media coupled with witty headlines aided in generating high recall.

Beside the MRT train carriage, floor stickers in front of the MRT platform doors flashed catchy headlines such as "Why Rush?" to entice busy professional when they are rushing home from work. In that mindset, they were fed with messaging that Smart TV can enable them to enjoy TV in their own time.

This embodies the symbiotic relationship between the client, the media and the creative. Working seamlessly together, the 3 parties partnered to create a contextual relevant campaign that aimed to cut straight to the essence of a commuter's mood state.

On 1st Sep, MediaCorp Group announced the merger of the sales, marketing and creative functions for four of its subsidiaries: TODAY (Press), MediaCorp Radio (Radio), Channel News Asia (TV) and MediaCorp Publishing (Print).

The aim for this merger is to provide advertisers a one-stop platform in addressing their marketing needs. This integrated sales force will seek to provide advertisers holistic marketing solutions that will cut through the clutter, riding on economies of scale and synergies between the mediums.

The growing global trend towards cross-media advertising is increasingly displayed in Singapore. Earlier on, SPH had taken this route of integrating their multiple platforms. MediaCorp's current move is also a response to that.

Essentially, the media owners are all vying for the same pie, looking to increase their revenue. This move aids to open up more opportunities for advertisers to cross-fertilise amongst the mediums, allowing messages to be put across in different ways. Potentially, this will rake in more revenue for the media owners.

SPH Unionworks 91.3 Station undergoes yet another facelift. What used to be WKRZ 91.3 is now Radio 91.3. Last year, the station repositioned itself as a station targeting women, away from a dance music focused station. This round, it is positioned as an adult (targeting A25-45) contemporary music and talk house station.

This revamp is a timely move. It may just help to revive the station's listenership. The station’s weekly listenership had fallen from 4.7% (last year) to 3.7%*. In a bid to boost the listenership, popular DJs Joe Augustin and Petrina Kow (ex-Class 95 DJs) are brought in to host the morning time-belt called “The Morning Show with Petrina & Joe” (Mondays – Fridays, 6am-10am.)

According to the station, initial feedback from listeners had been positive. As 91.3FM is positioned similarly to established stations like Class 95 and Gold 90.5FM, 91.3 FM will need to offer something unique to the listeners in order to draw them over.

*Source: Nielsen Media Research Diary Survey