theSun colours news with ad breakthrough

Malaysia – True to its tradition of breaking new ground in offering non-traditional ad space within its pages, free-sheet theSun, recently teamed with Sony Cyber-shot to mash up the news with ads, in a unique media offering.

In the execution the Cyber-shot Skinny T creative work breaks into the news text and alters the traditional restricted news column space and the page adopts the colour pallete of the camera model shown, all under the banner title News Without Borders.

In a media buy across three pages, the work was designed to reflect Cyber-shot’s unique selling point of ‘splashes of colours’ as handled by Mediaedge:CIA (MEC).

James Ho, general manager, Mediaedge:CIA said the agency had gone all out to draw attention and deliver a message in what is understood to be a first for a newspaper in Malaysia through the ‘coloured background’ creative buy.

“The agency’s big idea was to have coloured background with the combination of the ad visual and editorial to achieve an impact on the whole page while reaching its target audience from urban and market centres.

“We explored this idea with theSun – known for its creative media options – and the paper loved the idea and were thrilled that this would be the first time it’s being done on the paper,” said Ho.

Giving credit to the editorial and graphic teams in theSun and Sony in executing the media idea, the ads achieved the aim of driving high foot traffic to the Skinny T launch on Sept 27, held at the Berjaya Times Square.

theSun’s acting editor-in-chief Chong Cheng Hai said when the free model was conceived, the paper had consciously created space and elements for advertising.

“Since we are dependent entirely on advertisements for revenue and survival, theSun is less inhibitive and prohibitive when it comes to accepting innovative and unique creatives. Though editorial space is very important, it’s not sacred but there was a lot of give and take and compromise from the marketing and editorial team,” he said.

Charles Peters, advertising and marketing general manager, theSun also admits that the teams work very well with “its fair share of debate on the path to discovering various new exciting possibilities”.

Chong assumes the editor and readers’ role in considering the practicality and common sense in implementing the creative and the aesthetics of the page.

The editorial has always been made to understand that the concept of a free paper was that it had to be flexible, more giving and willing to go the extra mile to make advertisers happy when it comes to creative and other solutions.

theSun is also confident that its readers enjoy such surprises in the paper and remember them.

“Hopefully they remember that they saw the ads in theSun and associate the brand with boldness and innovation and derring,” Chong says.

The paper is determined to lead in the development and promotion of creative and innovative print communication ideas through the newspaper and we believe innovative advertising and engaging advertisement executions increases readership, Peters agreed.

The advertisements are part of Sony Cyber-shot media campaign which includes magazines, out-of-home and online channels.

“From the coloured background concept, we have translated it to magazines as well as with creative buy that will associate our product with fashion, accessories and others, accordingly with the Skinny T unique colours,” Ho said, pledging to strive to continue making the impact achieved.

“Ultimately we want to equate creativity with results and so far, the feedback received has been very positive,” he added.