Prothom Alo grabs five awards at South Asian Digital Media Awards 2022

The Daily Prothom Alo, largest media in Bangladesh, has bagged five awards – a gold, two silvers and two bronze – at the South Asian Digital Media Awards 2022.

The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) announced the winners of the South Asian Digital Media Awards 2022, the sixth edition of digital media awards for South Asia, on Tuesday.

These prestigious awards recognise the outstanding digital media projects delivered by news publishers from across the region. An eminent panel of international judges evaluated the entries.

Prothom Alo came in second with five awards after Indian news website The Quint, which won six awards. India’s The Hindu won four awards; Indian Express and largest Hindi language daily Jagran bagged three each; Anandabazar Patrika and BBC won two each; NDTV, Afghan Woman News Agency, Deutsche Welle and India Today bagged an award apiece.

The 2022 edition saw more than 100 news publishers competing for the honours across South Asia with 17 media outlets winning 36 awards in 13 categories.

The winners will receive the award at an event on 17 March in New Delhi. The ‘Gold’ winners including Prothom Alo automatically enter WAN-IFRA’s World Digital Media Awards competition, to be held in Taiwan in June.

The panel of jury for the award consisted with 26 senior journalists and media experts from various countries including United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Sweden and Mexico.

Prothom Alo won the gold for it ‘bKash Eid Ayojon’ initiative in Best Digital Advertising Project category. Prothom Alo and bKash, a mobile financial service providing company, jointly arranged this initiative during Eid-ul-Fitr in 2021. A new approach called ‘content to commerce’ was created in digital advertising during this campaign using artificial intelligence. At that time, specific keywords were selected from news contents on fashion, foods and lifestyle, which were published in Prothom Alo online, and then those keywords were included to the websites and online marketplaces where readers can buy their relevant products.

One jury said, “This campaign has used several approaches from affiliate marketing, celebrity influencers to creating lifestyle pieces that resonate with the target audience – all while weaving in the convenience of cashless payment powered by the brand partner. It’s a well strategised digital advertising campaign.”

“This is a big, high-impact campaign, which drives healthy media results. I like how the team combined editorial content with influencer marketing and social extension in their strategy. It’s a very clever use of ‘full funnel’ marketing with upper-funnel awareness driven by inspiring content that then links through to conversions through the affiliate strategy. A very good campaign, huge congratulations,” another jury noted.

Regarding the winning of the gold prize, bKash chief marketing officer Mir Nawbut Ali said, “The campaign with Prothom Alo Digital was unique and effective among all of our campaigns on digital media to make more payment through bKash during Eid shopping. Here readers have been assisted with providing very relevant information in contents, not showing excessive advertisements.”

With a slogan ‘find your dream home staying at your home’, Prothom Alo Digital organised an online real estate fair. Forty-two real estate companies took part in this seven-day event. Prothom Alo bagged the silver award in Best Digital Advertising Project category.

Earlier, Prothom Alo won the second prize for this online real estate fair initative in the 'Best idea to grow advertising sales' category in the 'Global Media Award-2022' organised by International News Media Association (INMA) in June 2022.

WAN-IFRA recognised Prothom Alo for its audience engagement on textual, audio and video contents published in its online and social media platforms centring the Padma bridge inauguration. Prothom Alo bagged the silver award for its Padma Bridge Inauguration Campaign in the Best in Audience Engagement category. Anandabazar Patrika from West Bengal and popular fashion magazine Vanitha from South India was conferred gold and bronze respectively.

Prothom Alo has made the electronic version of it print versions available for its readers on eprothomalo.com, which is the first-ever subscription based news service in Bangladesh. Prothom Alo bagged bronze for its eEdition in the Best ePaper-Concept category as well as for its New Subscription Model in the Best Digital Subscription Initiative category. The Hindu and Indian Express won gold in these two categories respectively while DT Next and The Hindu received silver award.

Regarding this achievement of Prothom Alo, WAN-IFRA South Asia managing director Magdoom Mohamed said, "I have always admired the digital initiatives of Prothom Alo and their wins at South Asian Digital Media Awards 2022 demonstrate their prowess at offering the digital solution for their clients and readers.”

“The virtual real estate project is a case in point, where the increase in audience traffic to the site is effectively used to promote an advertiser's brand. Had a chance to look at site architecture and impressed by how technology is used to meet the user and advertiser needs. Equally interesting is the 'Padma Bridge' project which engaged with the readers everyday on a single story for a week. It is both innovative and exceptional in content and use. Well done," he added.

Regarding this accomplishment, Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman said, “The reading culture and habit of the readers have been changing in digital platforms. Top media of the world are bringing new initiatives every day to keep pace with it. We are trying to take many innovative initiatives on Prothom Alo website, which is the largest and most widely read Bangla language website in the world. The WAN-IFRA award is the recognition of our effort.”

Prothom Alo won in two categories in the South Asian Digital Media Awards 2019 for the first time and bagged two major awards in the 'Global Media Award-2022' last year.

This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna