VG best in show at INMA Awards

Thirty of the world’s best news media sales and marketing initiatives were rewarded Tuesday, May 13, by the International News Media Association (INMA), punctuated by Norway’s VG taking home the coveted “Best In Show.”

The INMA Awards were presented at the concluding dinner of the 84th Annual INMA World Congress at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco before nearly 300 media executives. Overall, 30 first place awards in 15 categories across two audience groups were presented to 24 media companies. The competition garnered 560 entries from 149 market-leading news media companies in 37 countries.

Not your father’s newspaper anymore

“The winning entries this year clearly show that this isn’t your father’s newspaper or magazine anymore,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. “The common theme was engagement on new platforms and developing a relationship with consumers across multiple platforms. For advertisers, there are so many more audience and platforms options, and challenge for media companies is syncing needs with options. The creativity was fantastic.”

Highlights from the evening:

Best In Show: The coveted “Best in Show” award, signifying the best campaign in the INMA Awards 2014 competition, went to Schibsted’s VG for its “VG Chess World Championship 2013.” Read more
Multi-winners: Six companies won two first-place awards, among them Aftenposten and VG.

VG: Best in Show

The VG initiative that won “Best in Show” sought to build awareness for Norway’s little-known chess prodigy, Magnus Carlsson, who was taking part in the World Chess Championships in India and whom VG was sponsoring. The challenge was to create buzz among the general public and get them to follow the progress of the championships on VG.

Yet how could VG achieve this when the company didn’t have the broadcast rights? The solution was to create “Chess For the People,” which saw the launch of a new digital service, VG Direct. A mixture of humourous and expert commentaries were streamed live on VG Direct, and dialogue with the audience was created via social media.

Six out of 10 Norwegians tuned in to VG Direct to follow the Chess Championships, which was more than the national broadcaster achieved.

Judges called the VG Chess World Championship 2013 campaign a “true cross-media and innovative effort,” a “reference model of multi-media campaigns,” an example of how to make “minor” events “transcend,” and an “inspiring” initiative that “got the average Joe interested.”

Look to Scandinavia

Aftonbladet TV was awarded first prize in the category “Best Idea to Grow Digital Audience or Engagement”.

The jury consists of media representatives from around the globe.

“This is very satisfying,” says publisher Jan Helin who was present to receive the award.

“Sweden and Scandinavia hold a very advanced position in media development right now. If we see it that way is one thing, but tonight it has been confirmed that the rest of the world actually sees it that way too,” Helin pointed out.

The Jury said:

In 2013, Aftonbladet embarked on what has possibly been the most confident television venture ever made by a newspaper company. Live reporting has strengthened Aftonbladet’s position as the country’s leading news source.

Aftonbladet’s web TV reaches millions of viewers each year. One example was when President Obama visited Stockholm last September. Aftonbladet’s live reporting of the event reached 7.7 million readers and 1.6 million viewers.

In addition to live coverage, Aftonbladet TV broadcasts a range of different programs. One of them, “Brottscentralen” (The Crime Centre), gained particular praise from the jury.

“It’s great to have been recognized in a context like this. I’d like to thank the entire team involved in Aftonbladet TV,” Jan Helin said.