DB Corp (India), Stuff Ltd. (New Zealand), Malayala Manorama (India), Børneavisen (Denmark), and Times of India were the winners in the Advertising Innovation, Special Editions, Sustainability Innovation, Products for Young Readers and Product Innovation categories respectively.
Each year, the Print Innovation Awards are awarded for the best innovations in print advertising and products of newspapers and magazines. The awards are open to newspaper and magazine publishers as well as for advertisers and advertising agencies.
“Innovation in print is essential for newspapers, and this year’s contestants demonstrated a number of creative innovations,” said Ingi Rafn Olafsson, Director of the World Printers Forum, WAN-IFRA. “It was really inspiring to see this year’s ideas.”
“Print demand is declining and print news demand is declining. You may think there is no room for development or innovation, but a lot of good ideas are floating around and some of them have been developed in such a way that they can be considered as innovations,” said Anu Ahola, Senior Vice President, News and Retail at UPM Communications Papers, which sponsored the awards.
“In this year’s awards, it is particularly great to see how quickly our community came up with COVID-19 related innovations in print. This highlights the relevance of printed products for our consumers,” she added.
Advertising Innovation: DB Corp
DB Corp, publisher of Dainik Bhaskar, one of India’s leading dailies, won the Advertising Innovation category with its “spine card” innovation. The spine card advertisement printed for its automobile client Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, for the launch of their Mahindra Supro Maxi truck, was the first of its kind in India. Spine cards of 5” x 7” dimensions with multicolour printing on both sides with the logo and design of the Supro Maxi truck were pasted in the spine of the second and third pages of their newspapers Dainik Bhaskar (Hindi), Divya Bhaskar (Gujarati) and Divya Marathi (Marathi).
“One of our core values is being a trendsetter. Being true to our DNA we created a spine card innovation for our client which stood out and did not miss a single eye,” said R D Bhatnagar, CTO, DB Corp.
Product Innovation: Times of India
In the Product Innovation category, Mumbai-based Times of India were the winners with their Pour and Reveal project. The idea was to raise awareness among students about which blood groups could be donated to a compatible group.
“This is the third time in a row we got a product category innovation award from WAN-IFRA. There have been almost 159 different innovations that we have launched. We could monetise about 59 innovations so far and our revenue is $245 million. It’s been a great journey so far,” said Snehasis Roy, Director – Technical, Bennett Coleman Co Ltd., India.
Special Editions: Stuff
The Forever Project from Stuff Ltd., New Zealand, bagged the award in the Special Editions category. The magazine, which is a quarterly special edition, focuses on climate change and sustainability. The first edition of the magazine was published in March 2020 and drew overwhelming feedback.
“The Forever Project brought together journalists from all over Stuff Ltd.’s newsroom and staff from all around our company to show climate change and sustainability are priorities for the whole organisation,” said Patrick Crewdson, Editor in Chief, Stuff. “We have packaged New Zealand’s most innovative and ambitious climate change reporting in a striking and carbon neutral magazine worth holding on to and a digital hub. We have turned this into an opportunity for advertising clients to reach conscious consumers and tell their own sustainability stories and it’s a symbol of Stuff’s commitment to reducing its own environmental impact through a science based approach.”
Sustainability Innovation: Malayala Manorama
In the Sustainability Innovation category, India’s Malayala Manorama won with their 10 MW Wind Turbine Project. In an initiative to promote green energy while becoming self-sufficient to meet their energy requirement, the team installed and commissioned a 10 MW captive wind turbine plant at Palakkad, Kerala, India.
“Our press operations are 100 percent on renewable energy, generated by captive 10 MW wind turbine generators installed in 2018. Our annual consumption for 21 presses spread across Kerala is about 21 million units whereas the generation is around 26 millions units. This helps us to reduce the carbon footprint a lot,” said Shibu George, Chief General Manager, Malayala Manorama company Ltd.
Products for Young Readers: Børneavisen