‘We had to maintain our lead without compromising editorial integrity’

Tham Khai Wor, 81

Mr Tham Khai Wor was best known as the chief salesman to his marketing colleagues at Singapore Press Holdings (SPH).

His career with the group started in 1972 at Times Printers Sdn Bhd where he was regional marketing manager. One of his memorable achievements was the contract to produce the Asian editions of Time magazine and later Fortune in Singapore, ahead of the US editions being printed in New York. The facsimile was relayed to Times Printers from the US via satellite transmission. It was the first major contract of its kind for the company.

Of his many memories at SPH until he left in 2005, Mr Tham cites the record $800 million in advertising revenue generated – largely from print – in financial year 2000. According to the company’s annual report, it pushed the group’s turnover to more than $1 billion for the first time in its history.

For his influence in shaping the media advertising landscape, Mr Tham, now 81, won many Asian industry awards and was inducted into the Singapore Media Industry Hall of Fame in 2022.

Recollections

“The Straits Times in the last 180 years has been and continues to be resilient and relevant to Singapore. This was true right from the beginning.

In 1845, its Page 1 was filled with advertisements about goods that arrived in Singapore and had to be sold after months at sea. It shows that even then, we realised how important advertisements were.

Advertising can be as relevant as news, depending on the readers’ needs. The highest cost for any media will be production, and advertising incomes will make the difference.

In 1984, I was transferred from Times Printers to head marketing at The Straits Times Press (1975) Ltd in view of the changing media scene.

The other media company, Singapore News and Publications, had launched the English newspaper, Singapore Monitor, in 1982. We had to maintain our lead, be advertiser-friendly and innovative without compromising our integrity. 

The Straits Times remained effective – editorial got the eyeballs and advertising served consumer needs.

During my time, television broadcast competition was also relentless.

One of the things we did was to launch the fictitious X.O. Beer campaign to prove that advertisements do not need sound or movement to be effective, especially for fast-moving consumer products.

For this, we strategised and challenged advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather to produce a powerful campaign.

A series of colour advertisements were run from March 22 to 31, 1993, in three of SPH’s papers – The Straits Times, Business Times and Lianhe Zaobao. That got beer marketeers scurrying around Singapore looking for the potential newcomer.

However, the final advertisement on April 1 dropped the bombshell: that X.O. Beer did not exist. April Fool!

By then, however, the advertisements had attracted considerable interest in the beer, demonstrating that creative newspaper advertisements had as much impact as TV commercials. It won a major advertising award around the world and was recorded in marketing case studies.

We were creative with ads, bringing in more colour and odd-shaped advertisements, while editors ensured that the paper stayed editorially relevant. Scented inks were introduced for different occasions. For example, our newspaper advertisements promoting mandarin oranges during Chinese New Year had orange-scented ink, while hand soap advertisements had their own scent imprinted.

Next came the advent of digital media. But for The Straits Times to join the bandwagon and go digital was accelerating its own downfall. You don’t sleep with the enemy, and secondly, we have our strengths. Singapore is unique in the world, with high population density, 95 per cent living in high-rise and 95 per cent literacy. That makes delivering The Straits Times print copy easy.”