smh.com.au and theage.co.au celebrate 20 years with trade comp for advertisers + media agencies

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SMH and Age 20th (1).jpgFairfax Media’s smh.com.au and theage.com.au recently ran a trade competition for advertisers and media agencies to celebrate their 20th anniversary online.

The promotion included interesting stories about the conception of the masthead’s digital platforms as well as an education competition that asked entrants to answer a unique question about each of the brands over five days.

One of the stories in the competition package was from the early days of the site’s inception:

“As if designing the first smh.com.au website wasn’t hard enough back in 1995, the developers also had to deal with pigeon poo raining down on their nascent computers. The original designer’s office was a boatshed converted into artists’ studios and, as well as regular power outages, the intrepid digital pioneers kept super-soaker water pistols on each desk to discourage the birds from fouling their mice.”

All entrants who answered the competition questions correctly went into the draw to win a technology-related prize each day.

Says Tom Armstrong, commercial and marketing services director, Fairfax Media: “The smh.com.au and theage.com.au websites were among the first news websites to launch in the world, so turning 20 is a significant milestone. This campaign was designed to highlight our great digital product offering, as well as outlining the history of our digital mastheads, with inside stories and just how far they have come in 20 years.

“I’d like to congratulate all the winners of our 20th anniversary competition.”

The competition winners are:

Day 1 – Jason Clark – Vizeum (MacBook AIr 13″)

Day 2 – Rachel Smith – Zenith Optimedia (Sony 50″ Full HD LED LCD Smart TV)

Day 3 – Lucy Evans – UM (iPad Mini 3 and a set of Bose noise cancelling headphones)

Day 4 – Christopher Moxon – Carat (iPhone 6 and a Bose bluetooth speaker)

Day 5 – Kim Jacobs – Oddfish Media (Apple Watch)