HEY! It’s our 60th issue
Let’s look at the moments that have shaped HEY!
By Derek Rodriguez
1. We started an innovative iPad edition
Since its launch in 2011, HEY! has consistently pushed the boundaries of creativity and technologies to better serve our student readers. We were one of the few in Singapore to have a corporate publication on iPad soon after Apple debuted the tablet.
Later, we introduced the HEY!Shake app, developed by an NTU startup. Readers who spotted the HEY!Shake icon on campus screens could shake their phones to see additional HEY! content or win prizes.
2. Our use of AR has been a roaring success
In 2019, we revamped HEY! into an augmented reality (AR) magazine for more immersive storytelling. Starting with a roaring T-Rex that stomped into the Nanyang Auditorium at the launch of our NTU HEY! AR app, each issue now comes packed with AR content, including 3D animations and videos. The newly launched app quickly climbed the charts on both the App Store and Google Play to trend as the most downloaded education app. Our 3D elements have also appeared on NTU’s social media pages and at various campus events.
3. We nailed magazine cover shoots with mobile photography
As part of our 2019 revamp, we made the bold decision to have all photos taken for HEY!, including on the cover, captured using smartphones. This was also a reflection of the advances in and inherent power of smartphones by then.
4. We reimagined magazine-making with AI
In 2023, the year that chatbots first went viral, HEY! leapt at the opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) with AR to produce a special issue of HEY!. We used ChatGPT to generate ideas, draft headlines and captions, and as a copyeditor, while AI programs like Midjourney and Heygen brought video concepts to life. On the cover was a hyper-realistic AI persona named Hailey, who blends seamlessly into a video when the cover is scanned with the HEY! AR app, popping out to tell us about her day at NTU. Through this issue that was co-created with AI, we learnt about the potential and inadequacies of AI.
5. We have won the Oscars of PR
With the support of its readers, HEY! has caught the attention of international communicators and judges, winning over 40 awards for communication excellence presented by professional bodies across Europe, North America and Asia. Its foray into AR resulted in the prestigious Best of the Best Award at the 2020 Gold Quill Awards in the US, organised by the International Association of Business Communicators. More recently, the bold experiment to co-create an entire issue with AI led to two awards at the Golden World Awards for Excellence, dubbed the “Oscars of PR”. HEY!’s Creative Director Don Tan also won the Global PR Rising Star of the Year at the World PR and Communication Awards in 2023.
This story was published in the Jan-Feb 2025 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.
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