(From left) Hyperlab VP of Product Marketing and Strategy Chris Greenough, Hyperlab consultant Lee Min Xiang, R.AGE producer Claire Anthony, R.AGE journalists Clarissa Say and Samantha Chow, and Media Prima Digital CEO Rafiq Razali.
KUALA LUMPUR: The award-winning R.AGE investigative journalism team added another feather to their cap when they clinched two gold awards in the Best Platform Development and the Best Use of Digital Innovation – Non-Profit/Pro-bono Campaigns categories for their Predator In My Phone campaign.
Held at Bangsar Shopping Centre on Wednesday night, d Awards 2019 by the Malaysian Digital Association recognises and honours talent and brands that embrace technologies.
The Star chief content officer Esther Ng said: "In a constantly competitive media landscape, the fact that we got honoured is very humbling for us. And these awards have propelled us into wanting to do better".
The Best Platform Development award recognises outstanding digital platforms that provided for a brand/product/services or being part of a campaign.
The latter pro bono category, submitted by AI company Hyperlab, recognises the innovative or ancillary usage of available digital technology to deliver a significant impact to brand, product or service.
For the second phase of the 'Predator In My Phone' campaign, the R.AGE team advocated for comprehensive sexual health education as one of the primary solutions to better child protection.
In April 2018, the team released "Ana", a chatbot that specialises in issues relating to child abuse, sexual health education and digital safety.
The multilingual chatbot is targeted to children, teens and parents, and was developed with the help of Hyperlab and the input of teenagers from around Malaysia, who contributed actual questions relating to the topics.
The responses to these questions were tailored to be child-friendly, and screened through by child protection experts including Unicef Malaysia, Federation of Reproductive Health Associations Malaysia, Women’s Aid Organisation, Women’s Centre for Change, P.S. The Children, PT Foundation, and The Befrienders.
The content is translated to Bahasa Malaysia as well.
"Ana" was launched alongside print stories in The Star, an online documentary video and mini-video series on sexual health education. There were also interactive content developed exclusively for Instagram.
The Star Online also won silver for the Best Digital Publisher of the Year award.
The Best Digital Publisher award honours a "game-changing" publisher for its standout execution of strategy to impact growth not only for its own business but also clients, partners and the Malaysian digital industry as a whole.
MDA’s d Awards
This was the third time the Malaysian Digital Association (MDA) has run its d Awards, Malaysia’s sole digital media and advertising awards that recognise agencies, publishers and developers.
This year, there were 203 entries – an increase of 45% from last year – in 14 categories.
“The increase in the number of entries and participating companies for this year indicates the growing importance that industry players place in increasing the standard of their work, as well as the prominence of the industry event itself,” said d Awards 2019 organising chairman Eileen Ooi.
In a statement, MDA said the awards recognise innovation in developing digital products that touch customers’ lives, and in designing and executing digital marketing campaigns that redefine the way consumers perceive and consume brands.
“This year’s event has succeeded recognising talents, brands and publishers that embrace and use technologies in the digital marketing space to produce innovative work,” said MDA president Serm Teck Choon.
“d Awards has adopted a holistic approach that includes … efforts to educate and empower event participants and industry players on how to create great digital products and execute effective marketing campaigns,” he added.
Other winners include Universal McCann for the coveted Grand Prix for KFC Optimisation on Steroids and the Digital Impact of the Year award.
Magnus Games Studio cofounder Gan Hak Chian was declared Digital Person of the Year, while HyperLab was declared the Best Tech Developer and also triumphed in the Best Use of Digital Innovation (Non-Profit/Pro-bono) Campaign category.
The full list of winners is available on www.d-awards.com.my.
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