Performance advertising is struggling. Acquisition costs are rising, conversions are falling, and new privacy regulations are creating significant blind spots. Marketers are realising clicks alone are no longer a reliable measure of success.

SPH Media, Singapore’s leading publisher, is pioneering a more effective approach. At the INMA Asia/Pacific News Media Summit, Tina Pang, lead of media strategy, detailed their innovative solution. 

The company leverages two key assets: its trusted first-party data and a comprehensive omnichannel ecosystem.

This network spans print, digital, radio, podcasts, and out-of-home media. By harnessing this powerful combination, SPH Media helps advertisers move beyond simplistic click-based metrics to connect brands with high-intent audiences through truly effective engagement.

Trust and credibility

Pang outlined SPH Media’s substantial scale and established reputation.

The group commands a nationwide reach of 84% in Singapore through an extensive ecosystem that includes over 50 news titles, nine lifestyle brands, five radio stations, 25 podcasts, and more than 100 digital and social channels. Its portfolio spans four languages and features iconic, legacy brands like The Straits Times.

“What’s most important, we feel, is building trust and credibility with our readers,” Pang said.

This commitment is validated by Reuters’ Digital News Report, which ranked The Straits Times highest for trust in Singapore.

This trust generates measurable impact. Two out of three readers who viewed advertisements across SPH Media properties took subsequent action, either through consideration or purchase.

Advertiser challenges

Despite this strong heritage and audience reach, Pang acknowledged the significant challenges advertisers currently face.

“Performance advertising is not getting any easier. We’ve heard a lot of feedback from clients that performance is starting to plateau, with higher acquisition costs and diminishing returns.”

The proliferation of privacy barriers and blind targeting has intensified these issues, creating “more blind spots” in campaign measurement. For SPH Media, this necessitated redefining performance beyond digital clicks and impressions.

“Performance is really the end game. The result the client cares about. It’s not just about cost per thousand impressions or cost per click.”

Data transformation road map

Embracing this revised perspective, SPH Media turned to its first-party data strategy to establish a more robust foundation for performance marketing. Their approach follows four key steps: collect and enrich, democratise, personalise, and commercialise.

SPH Media’s data foundation was constructed systematically through what Pang described as a “data transformation road map.”

The process began with establishing a data lake and implementing real-time collection through software development kits. SPH Media then advanced to data governance, dashboard development, and training teams in data enablement.

AI tools for tagging, translation, transcription, and content discoverability were integrated, while comprehensive compliance and consent frameworks ensured privacy and reliability.

Today, SPH Media processes over 5 billion data signals monthly, encompassing pageviews, video interactions, subscription activity, and advertisement engagement. These are enhanced with survey responses, second-party partnerships, and third-party data.

“It’s not a one-time action. Over time, you have to continually build on it and continually develop this,” Pang said. “And finally, the end game is the experience — activating the insights so that we deliver the right content and advertising across the channels where the users experience our content.”

Case studies

This robust data infrastructure enabled practical applications, which Pang demonstrated through several case studies.

One finance client, aiming to reach high-net-worth customers, challenged SPH Media to reduce acquisition costs. Rather than deploying direct advertisements, the team initiated a content-driven storytelling approach.

“We created content as a starting point to educate the audience, show value propositions, and create storytelling. From there, we delivered tailored messages to those who engaged.”

By utilising its full omnichannel network, SPH Media doubled landing rates compared to the client’s previous benchmarks. The campaign achieved a 66% reduction in cost per acquisition and a 6.6 times higher click-through rate.

“What we found was building awareness and brand love first, then driving acquisition, worked strongly in our favour,” Pang said.

This initial case emphasised the importance of establishing audience trust before pursuing direct conversion. A subsequent example illustrated how an omnichannel strategy could simultaneously drive physical and digital outcomes.

For a retail client, SPH Media implemented a comprehensive performance strategy designed to increase in-store traffic while supporting online sales. They maintained consistent brand presence across multiple touchpoints, utilising print, radio, digital out-of-home, and newsletters,

Critical to this effort, the client provided daily sales data, enabling the team to adjust media plans in real time for optimal impact. The campaign produced a 123% increase in units sold and a 35% rise in sales volume.

“The client saw the beauty of an omnichannel approach,” Pang said. “They realised performance advertising doesn’t have to be digital-first.”

While the retail case emphasised volume and visibility, the most innovative experiment involved a private banking client and data cleanroom technology. This approach allows advertisers to activate their first-party data in a privacy-safe environment by integrating it with SPH Media’s own datasets.

“By combining our rich first-party data with cleanroom technology, we were able to give advertisers a way to reach the right audiences, in a trusted, brand-safe ecosystem,” Pang explained.

The results were substantial, with a 98% improvement in Web site traffic quality and a 140% uplift in user engagement. This achievement made SPH Media the first publisher in Singapore to execute a commercial clean room-based campaign, a solution so effective the client has adopted it as an always-on initiative.

Experimentation, transparency, collaboration

Collectively, these experiments demonstrate the diverse approaches SPH Media employs to develop its performance-led offerings. Pang stressed that experimentation, transparency, and collaboration form the bedrock of their progress.

“There isn’t just one way to find success. We continue to evolve, test, and experiment. We’re very lucky that leadership at SPH is very open to us innovating and experimenting with new concepts.”

Her key insights can be distilled into three guiding principles:

• Audience-first insights: Campaigns must originate from understanding and engaging audiences, not merely chasing clicks.

• Privacy-led, data-driven strategies: Developing trusted, compliant systems for activating first-party data ensures sustainable performance.

• Omnichannel performance: Genuine results emerge from connecting audiences across print, digital, audio, and out-of-home media for measurable outcomes.

“We’re still learning and still testing,” Pang concluded. “The data and insights enrich us with more knowledge to bring to the market.”

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