HEY! has breathed new life into the printed world with augmented reality (AR), winning a string of communication awards in the US and Asia

by Derek Rodriguez

Who says print is dead? It’s alive and kicking (and sometimes roaring or running from meteorites) in HEY!. With the magic of AR technology, flat photos turn into videos, 3D objects, or even living, breathing creatures that leap from the page into our world.

When the NTU HEY! AR app was launched in 2019, it trended no. 1 as the most  downloaded education app on both the App Store and Google Play. Says engineering student Kelvin Kaung: “Seeing the first AR-enabled magazine in a university definitely reinforces how technologically advanced NTU is. Having seen the magazine come to life, I don’t ever want to read normal magazines again.”

“I was very excited to be part of the revamp of HEY!, from gathering views on how to improve the magazine, to becoming a student contributor. The team used many new elements that really re-energised the publication, especially with the integration of AR technology.”

Communication student Sergul Toh

Just like NTU, HEY!’s reputation has soARed. Blurring the boundary between the real world and AR seamlessly, the magazine has received praise from global communicators and judges of PR competitions for its creativity and effectiveness.

Produced in-house with regular student contributors, HEY! has snagged six awards so far – the Best of the Best Award and the Excellence Award at the 2020 Gold Quill Awards in the US, the Best Publication in the UK-based 2020 Golden World Awards for Excellence in PR, Gold awards for Best Use of VR/AR and Corporate Publications at the PR Awards Asia 2020, and an award for Best Employee Engagement/Internal Communications at the regional PR Awards.

“We are focused on harnessing the power of digital technology and tech-enabled solutions to support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new  knowledge, and the sustainability of resources at the NTU Smart Campus. These efforts also extend to communication and a ‘smart’ publication like HEY! offers a range of options to share the NTU experience with prospective students, current students and recent alumni.”

NTU President Prof Subra Suresh

One Gold Quill Awards evaluator said: “The engaging visual style is fresh and fun, bright and bold, [and] seems on brand for a smart university”, while another praised NTU’s “choice of colours, layout, styles and the outstanding use of imagery and 3D animation, alongside the selective and effective use of AR”.

HEY! has won 26 awards from organisers of global competitions for communication excellence since its debut in 2011. The NTU Corporate Communications team was also named PR Communications Team of the Year, with Chief Communication Officer Dr Vivien Chiong, the driving force behind the HEY! revamp, named PR Professional of the Year (In-house), by the judges of PR Awards Asia 2020.

This story was published in the Aug-Sep 2020 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.