The Star shines at Spark Awards

The Star Online journalist Victoria Brown and Chua Chee Beng, The Star Media Group Bhd's general manager for advertising and business development, posing with the awards.

SINGAPORE: The Star once again proved to be among the best media groups in the region after winning two awards at this year's Spark Awards.  

The Star Media Group Berhad won the top awards in the Best Media Solution - print category for its Mountain Dew Neon Edition campaign - beating Summit Media, New Straits Times, Mongoose Publishing and Singapore Press Holdings.  

The Star's winning campaign coincided with the launch of the Mountain Dew Neon Edition in April, where it took over page one for five consecutive days.  

The groundbreaking nationwide print campaign involved a 3D light-up neon bottle, neon-green takeovers on editorial pages, a glow-in-the-dark balloon, a fluorescent-inked poster with a contest gimmick, and naturally, a redemption coupon for a Mountain Dew at RM1. 

The Star Online also received the bronze award for the Best Website by a Media Owner category, defeating Time Out Kuala Lumpur and Singapore Press Holdings.

Both awards were presented to The Star at a gala dinner on Thursday at the Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel. 

BBC Worldwide received the gold award while Timeout Singapore bagged silver for the Best Website category. 

The Star Online editor Philip Golingai said the online team is proud to have been acknowledged in such a competitive market.  

"The Star Online is pleased that it clinched a bronze award as this reaffirms our commitment to offer an awesome website experience to our audience," said Golingai.  

The Star Online incorporates multimedia elements like video, photography and mood meters into its articles to better benefit the reader and elevate user experience. 

It also has many subsites such as Star2.com, StarProperty.my, myStarjob.com and R.AGE that are interlinked on the main site, and are just one click away. 

The Star Online, which is one of the most-read English language news portals in Malaysia, celebrated its 20th anniversary on June 23 this year. 

The Spark Awards recognises top media solutions, products and services from media owners and publishers across South Asia, South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.