All About Newspapers

Indian newspapers receives eight INMA Awards
Coveted ‘Best of Show’ award goes to The Times of India and the
Jang Group of Pakistan for ‘Aman Ki Asha’

Signifying the news industry’s top marketing campaigns from the past year, The International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) announced recipients of the prestigious INMA Awards which were presented by INMA president Michael Phelps, CEO of the Washington Examiner, at the conclusion of the 81st Annual INMA World Congress in New York in august presence of more than 200 media executives from around the world. In total, INMA unveiled 91 first, second, and third place recipients of the prestigious INMA Awards across 10 categories and three circulation groups. These award recipients came from 72 newspapers in 21 countries. The three top campaigns came from The Times of India and Jang Group, The Gazette, and FINN.

Winning the coveted ‘Best of Show’ award was a joint campaign by The Times of India and the Jang Group of Pakistan titled ‘Aman Ki Asha’, a corporate social responsibility campaign that looked beyond the contentious 60-year-old political border between the two countries to find common ground via a cultural exchange, conflict resolution, and commerce opportunities. The campaign by the Indian and Pakistani publishing powerhouses has been hailed a ‘game-changer’ in India-Pakistan relations.

The Times of India CEO, Ravi Dhariwal, INMA president Michael Phelps, and Jung Group managing director Shahrukh Hasan.

Second place in ‘Best of Show’ went to The Gazette in Montreal for its ‘The’ campaign — part of its long-term ‘Words Matter’ campaign that shows its reverence for words. ‘The’ dropped the ‘Gazette’ name from the print masthead and the website in a startling attempt to show how The Gazette was such an important part of Montreal. The campaign aimed at older Anglophone Montrealers while demonstrating the newspaper’s relevance to a target audience that consumes media in print and digital formats. While third place in ‘Best of Show’ went to FINN, the Norway-based online classified advertising portal owned by Schibsted, for its creative marketing campaign that communicates the FINN brand in new ways. FINN invited young couples to move in to ‘FINNland’ for six months and create their everyday life based on products and services they find on FINN. While FINN executives hoped for short-term traffic, their primary long-term aim was to strengthen the brand.

Alok Sanwal, editor and project head, i next and Anshuman Tiwari, chief of national bureau, Dainik Jagran receiving the award from Michael Phelps, president, INMA.

“Competition was particularly fierce for the ‘Best of Show’ awards this year,” said Earl J Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA, “Yet these three top campaigns were really breakthrough in impact and creativity. What they all have in common is a determined focus on brand, often a key differentiator in today’s crowded marketplace.”

Only two newspapers won multiple first place awards: The New York Times and the Las Cruces Sun-News, both in the United States. From India, i next (Kanpur) was winner of three awards: two for ‘Bikeathon 10’ (first and second place) and one for ‘Fresh n Crazy’ (third place), while Mid Day (Mumbai) received two awards for ‘Meter Down’ (third place). Dainik Jagran (New Delhi) and Mint (Mumbai) won one award each for ‘Jan Jagran - A Campaign for Judicial Reforms’ (second place), and ‘Mint Money Launch’ (second place), respectively.

The 76-year-old INMA Awards competition generated 550 entries from 143 market-leading newspapers in 30 countries. Based on concept, creativity, copy/graphic design, production, effectiveness and results, judging of entries was done by an international panel of industry experts involved with media companies, advertising agencies, trade magazines, and more.