A set of TV commercials produced by AsiaOne for its relaunch campaign, won an award at a new competition to honour appealing advertising which deliver their message well.

AsiaOne, the free-access portal of media giant Singapore Press Holdings, received a bronze in the Web/Internet Video (Online Commercial) category at the inaugural Phoenix Awards, also known as the Asia Film, Videos and Digital Media Awards, which were presented at the Great World City last night. AsiaOne was the only winner in this category.

The Phoenix Awards aim to recognise creativity and professional skills in the production of commercial films, video and digital images for advertising and promotional purposes.

The winning TV commercial series, to promote the redesigned AsiaOne portal last September, showcases five AsiaOne's main sites - News, Travel, Just Woman, Health and Motoring - and was produced by Ms Jacqueline Wu, Creative Director of the Special Projects Unit of SPH Marketing.

Each lasting 30 seconds, the five commercials, which were also aired on cable TV, have been well-received for the local humour, which is not slap-stick, and yet drives home the point.

Mr Leslie Fong, Executive Vice-President of SPH's Marketing Division, says: "This award signifies SPH's excellence not just in the print medium, but also in new media. SPH aims to be a multi-media company, going beyond print and extending beyond Singapore. Winning this award is another step closer towards achieving that goal."

Ms Wu, who also helped in the AsiaOne redesign, says the series took just under four weeks to produce - from conceptualisation to post-production.

"We had a very tight deadline, and an even tighter budget to work with," says Ms Wu, whose works have also clinched a number of international newspapers awards, most recently, three awards for Best in Newspaper Supplements given out by Ifra, the world's leading association for newspaper and media publishing.

"It was a challenge to come up with a TV commercial - and to come up with a series of five commercials, each with its own distinctive features and yet congruent as a whole, was even more challenging. I'm glad that the commercials have been well received both by viewers as well as people in the creative circle.

"The commercials make them chuckle. Humour works."

Mr Paul Jansen, supervising Editor of AsiaOne, says: "It's great to discover that even our ads are considered to be of high quality, but even more gratifying is the surge in page views and unique visitors to AsiaOne following the revamp and the commercials."

AsiaOne is Singapore's leading news, lifestyle and business portal. It was launched in June 1995, and currently draws over 100 million page views a month with 6 million unique audiences.

The Phoenix Awards is organised by AdAsia, the leading magazine for the advertising and marketing industry, and is judged by a panel of international experts from the creative industries.

The awards recognise creativity and professional skills in the production of commercial films, video and digital images for advertising and promotional purposes, and cover television commercials, programme trailers, station identities, mobile and Internet advertising and promotion, film credits and movie advertising.

Unlike other awards that honour popular movies, film actors, TV programmes and even TV presenters, the Phoenix Awards' focus is on the work of the skilled professionals behind the television commercials and promotional pieces appearing on television, in cinemas, on the Internet or mobile devices. Awards are given out to directors, cameramen, animators, art directors, set designers, editors, composers and sound engineers.

The awards are open to advertising agencies, film production companies, editing houses, animation studios, special effect firms, individual directors and cinematographers, composers, set designers, sound engineers and film schools.