An ad for McDonalds called Amazing, has won the single and overall categories in round four of the 2013 Siren Awards.
The ad was written by Cameron Hoelter and Richard Morgan from agency, DDB Sydney for the McDonalds McValue meal.
Winning writers, Hoelter and Morgan said the ad was inspired by a scene in the movie Uncle Buck: “There was a great scene in the movie where John Candy and Macaulay Culkin have a really dry, rapid-fire question and answer conversation and we thought it might funny to do something similar in a radio ad.
“Effective radio has to be single minded. But the best ideas also leverage the benefits of the medium. It’s nothing new, but radio gives you the power to trigger people’s imagination, better than any other medium.”
Winner of the single and overall categories in round three and a judge in round four, Andrew Woodhead from Leo Burnett Melbourne says: “Anyone who’s written retail radio knows it’s almost impossible to be engaging when your list of mandatories include the price, the product ingredients, the opening times and the jingle. This ad manages to do it all without compromising the entertainment value.”
The “Amazing” ad is now in the running to win the best radio ad of the year, which will be announced in May. Writers of the best radio ad for 2013 win airfares, accommodation, plus automatic entry and tickets to this year’s Cannes Advertising Lions Festival held 16-22 June. For the second year running, the client of the Gold Siren winning ad also wins a trip to Cannes and the festival.
The campaign category winner in round four was the series of three ads for Britax Safe n Sound child car seats. Written by Eamonn Dixon and Daniel Grech from agency DDB Melbourne, the series of ads cleverly paint a picture of the danger of other drivers on the road and why listeners should purchase a Britax Safe n Sound seat.
Winner of the craft category was the ad titled Back in the Day produced by Ralph van Dijk (Eardrum) and Abby Sie (Song Zu). In the South Australian Tourism Commission ad, comedian Fiona O’Louglin reminisces about family holiday road trips.
A further three ads were highly commended in the single category; another McDonalds ad from Cameron Hoelter and Richard Morgan of DDB Sydney titled Lucky Day, the ad titled Kirsty from the Britax Safe n Sound campaign winning series by Eamonn Dixon and Daniel Grech and Whybin TBWA’s ad for Nissan Motor Co Australia, titled It’s Hard to Picture It – HIT written by Chris Ellis.
Others highly commended in the craft category was another ad from Ralph van Dijk (Eardrum) and Abby Sie (Song Zu) for the South Australian Tourism Commission called Ages Ago, a Nova 106..9 Brisbane ad produced by sound engineer Ben Clayton for Queensland Theatre Company called Photographs and an ad for the University of Canberra by Production Alley sound engineers Rodney Lowe and Nic Buchanan.
CRA chief executive officer Joan Warner says entries into the Siren Awards “continue to be highly creative and showcase radio as an effective advertising medium.”
Round five, the last opportunity for entry into the 2013 Siren Awards is now open. Entries close for round 5 on 15 February.
