A domestic helper who helped ease the burden of a career mum with three young kids received a Mother’s Day surprise this year – a scrapbook showing photos of her own son from across the sea.
Missing her family after working in Singapore for a year, Edelyn was so grateful to her employer for cobbling together the album after she secretly contacted her husband in the Philippines for the photos.
The true tale of a mother’s gratitude to the caregiver who had to make sacrifices in order take care of someone else’s kids was the inspiration behind AsiaOne website’s winning campaign for its advertising client Canon, ‘From a Mother to a Mother’.
Running for 12 weeks on Singapore Press Holdings’ BrandInsider content marketing platform since early May, it beat other contenders to snag the silver award for best digital advertising campaign in the Digital Media Awards 2016 organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.
The grateful working mum in the story is none other than BrandInsider editor Cynthia Loh, who penned her experiences in the heartfelt article. It was accompanied by a short video, which features impromptu interviews with her and Edelyn. And of course, the propitious moments when she received the scrapbook
On how her team arrived at their winning idea, Loh said: “The client brief was to revive interest in photo printing and share moments that are worth reliving through photos. The BrandInsider team brainstormed for a story that would resonate with their target audience and had authenticity too.
“As Mother’s Day was coming up and one of our team members had a soft spot for migrant workers (and we all agreed that these workers contributed to our lives in positive ways), we put the two and two together, and realised we had a wonderful story to tell. We bounced this idea around the office, including our video team, and received good feedback. So we shared the idea with the client who agreed to it and that’s how the story went.”
The mostly unscripted clip, which shows both women in tears as Edelyn talked about her sacrifices to eke out a living overseas in order to help her family back home, has none of the hard sell that one sees in many ad campaigns.
“At the end of the day, this isn’t just a video to market a printer, this is a video that celebrates a mum and motherhood, and is powered by the beauty and power of photos,” said content curator Dewi Sriwahyuto, adding that it is the aim of the team to execute meaningful campaigns that would provide value to readers too.
Delighted with the award, Serene Goh, head of SPH Content Lab, said: “This award demonstrates their creativity and expertise in the field, and establishes them as a forerunner in storytelling in the digital space. I’m sure they will continue to bring in many more great, award winning ideas in the days to come!”
chenj@sph.com,sg
