“Mediacorp The Pinwheels, Singapore’s Content Creator Awards” offer Singapore’s content creators up to S$15,000 (~$11,600) in production grants across ten categories, with winners selected through a multi-stage judging process culminating in a ceremony on November 21. Established in 2021 by Bloomr.SG, the annual program tackles a key challenge in Singapore’s creator field: the tendency for creators to gain momentary popularity before disappearing within a year.

“Creator career is supposed to be, you grow the quality of your content according to what the market needs,” explains Diogo Martins, founder and lead of Bloomr.SG. “If the market pays you only to advertise instead of improving your content, creators become just another channel in the marketing supply chain rather than being creative.”

“The Pinwheels” were created in direct response to a persistent pattern Diogo observed in Singapore’s creator community. “People grow fast when the algorithm pushes viral content,” he explains. “Then brands rush to work with them. They do a few projects, get tired, their audience gets tired, and then they fade.”

This cycle repeats “every two to three years,” with creators unable to sustain careers beyond brief moments of algorithmic success. The root cause, according to Diogo, lies in misaligned incentives. When creators are valued primarily as marketing channels rather than for their creative output, long-term development stagnates. 

“A creator might hit a million followers, monetize too quickly, stop growing creatively, become a problem for the industry, and then disappear,” Diogo says.

Now entering its fourth year, “The Pinwheels” distinguishes itself from typical industry awards by prioritizing creative excellence over popularity metrics. The 2025 edition centers on the theme “Create Your Own Luck” for content published between May 2024 and May 2025.

Bloomr.SG: From Media Network to Creator Incubator

“The Pinwheels” is organized by Bloomr.SG, which operates as part of Mediacorp, Singapore’s national media network. To better support content creators, Mediacorp appointed Diogo to lead Bloomr.SG”

“Bloomr.SG was born from struggling to work with YouTubers, KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders), and influencers,” Diogo shares. “Campaigns were slow, lacked creativity, the deals weren’t great, and costs were too high.”

Today, Bloomr.SG functions as a creator support system, encompassing talent development, campaign execution, and platform building. The organization maintains a physical presence that includes office space, studios, and props, while providing critical client connections and professional development training.

“We’ve had creators start with a thousand followers and grow to millions,” Diogo says. “That comes from training, support, resources, and access to clients, studios, and props.”

Award Categories and Evaluation Process

“The Pinwheels” features ten carefully selected award categories that have been refined over time to reflect the strengths of Singapore’s creator community. “We started with more categories, but reduced and optimized,” Diogo explains. “Singapore is a small market, so it’s hard to find several exceptional creators in each segment.”

The 2025 awards continue to focus on creative excellence across diverse formats, ensuring fair competition between independent creators and established media entities. “Even for Mediacorp, our creators can only apply in two verticals – nonfiction and fiction,” Diogo says.

The evaluation process involves multiple stages designed to identify genuine creative excellence. Applications undergo initial vetting through a double-blind test, followed by the selection of top candidates. A five-person judging panel consisting of industry leaders then makes final determinations, with the entire process reviewed by a third party to ensure fairness.

“The five judges are either top creators or C-level leaders of major media companies,” Diogo explains. Judges must reach consensus on winners across each of the awards, ensuring that selections represent genuine creative excellence rather than subjective preferences.

Value for Creators Beyond Recognition

“The Pinwheels” 2025 focuses on providing resources that directly support career development through ten categories: 

1. Best Collaboration Video
2. Best Drama (Scripted) Video
3. Best Lifestyle Video
4. Best Newcomer
5. Best Non-Fiction (Non-Scripted) Video
6. Most Artistic Video
7. Most Innovative Video
8. Most Social Good Video
9. Content of the Year
10. Content Creator of the Year

“‘Content Creator of the Year’ gets S$10,000 as a production grant, enough to produce several pieces of content covering talent, studio, and equipment.” The second prize is a S$5,000 grant for “Content of the Year,” while the third is an exclusive creator contract with Bloomr.SG for one year. 

These resources make measurable differences in creators’ careers, as Diogo illustrates: “Last year’s winner produced an entire season with the grant.

Beyond financial support, “The Pinwheels” provides crucial market validation that helps creators overcome what Diogo calls algorithm-based inequality in the industry. 

“After ‘The Pinwheels,’ it’s always mentioned in conversations, with the government, with NDI (National Digital Identity) and IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority), with major brands,” he notes. “We highlight that a creator has been through our accelerator, works with us regularly, and has won or been nominated.”

This institutional backing, he adds, helps creators secure opportunities based on creative quality rather than follower counts alone. “If I want a creator with 10,000 followers but amazing content to work with a client, ‘The Pinwheels’ helps integrate them into the conversation,” Diogo explains.

Impact on Creator Careers

“The Pinwheels” has already demonstrated an impact on the professional paths of creators. Diogo highlights several success stories that illustrate the program’s ability to elevate undiscovered talent.

“We’ve had creators apply with simple YouTube videos, but their storytelling got them nominated and won,” he says. “That led to interviews, PR coverage, and eventually presenting the award to the next year’s best newcomer.”

The program excels particularly in discovering hidden talent that might otherwise remain overlooked. “Every year we find creators almost nobody knows in Singapore,” Diogo shares. “That fits perfectly with our mission to discover and elevate new talent to compete with the best.”

The Awards Experience

Beyond the recognition and prizes, “The Pinwheels” ceremony itself is designed as an experience that facilitates connections. Diogo describes the event as “more of an experience than just an award,” with carefully designed elements that encourage networking and engagement.

“We look at it from a UX perspective,” he explains. “From what you see first, to how you eat, to the show itself. It’s meant to be seamless.”

The event features entertainment, interactive elements, and strategic opportunities for industry mingling. “People come to enjoy the evening, not just watch the awards,” Diogo says. “We bring in artists and acts to keep the night engaging, with different phases that make people stay until the end.”

Singapore’s Creator Economy

As “The Pinwheels” enters its fourth edition, Diogo sees the program playing an increasingly important role in developing Singapore’s creator economy, which he characterizes as still being in its early stages compared to more mature markets.

“The U.S., UK, and Taiwan are already in their second or third wave of the creator economy,” he observes. “In Singapore, we’re still at the first stage, where influencers and creators are confused, and content often means ads for clients rather than original work.”

“The Pinwheels” aims to speed up this development by establishing quality benchmarks and creating incentives for creative improvement. “‘The Pinwheels’ provides consistency and highlights key moments in the industry’s growth,” Diogo explains. “If we improve the show every year, creators and the wider economy should do the same. That’s why we give grants; so creators can make better content.”

Looking ahead, Diogo envisions an expanding scope for the program that reflects the increasingly global nature of content creation. “As Singaporean creators go regional and global, I’d like to see the reverse, regional and global creators with an impact in Singapore also being recognized,” he shares. “That would mean expanding the awards, but always through Singapore’s lens.”

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