The best Australian radio ad of 2018 as judged by the Siren Council has been won by Ray Ali and Carlo Mazzarella from Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.
The pair won Gold and Silver at the Siren Awards with an ad about anxiety for mental health advocacy group beyondblue.
Their ad “Sound Booth”, aimed at raising awareness about anxiety and encouraging those with symptoms to seek help, was awarded the prestigious Gold Siren at an event in Sydney and the Silver Siren for best single radio ad.
The ad completed a trifecta by also winning the Client Award, a $5,000 cash prize which is judged by a separate panel of clients, rather than agency creative directors.
Winning creative team, Ray and Carlo believe the most effective radio ads are those that are not too complicated: “Working on the anxiety campaign, we learned how crippling a condition it can be, often stopping people from finishing things they want to achieve. We thought that this could be a pretty powerful concept to explore.”
The Silver Siren for best radio campaign (three or more ads in a campaign) went to Tim Newton and Wilora Keeley from J. Walter Thompson for a powerful campaign for the WA Police Union in support of a 1.5% pay increase for police officers.
The “How much to…?” campaign uses real-life scenarios to pose confronting questions about how much money it would take to encourage the average person to do the job faced by police.
Matt Perrott from Uncanny Valley won the Silver Siren in the craft category for production of the ad “NSW Water Safety” for the NSW Government.
The 14th annual Siren Awards, run by Commercial Radio Australia, are designed to encourage excellence and creativity in radio advertising. They were presented at an event in Sydney hosted by comedian Cam Knight and attended by creative writers, directors and producers from leading creative agencies, executives from the radio industry, and radioinfo’s Wendy Whalley.
Do you know how heavy those Siren awards are? You could do a gym workout with them! Wendy picked up the gold and silver ones and says they seriously are heavy!
The Gold Siren and the Silver Siren winners across the craft, single and radio campaign categories, were selected from hundreds of entries throughout 2017-18 over five rounds, plus a final call. They were judged by a panel comprised of creative directors and producers from leading advertising and creative agencies and studios across Australia.
The winners were thrilled with their awards and are looking forward to going to Cannes for a try at the Gold Lion. The pair told Wendy there is generally good felling between different agencies because there is so much movement between them in terms of staff changes. “We all get along… there is not too much politics in our industry.”
Speaking at the Awards, CRA’s Joan Warner said: “The awards are a reminder of how effective audio is in getting a message across. We congratulate all the finalists and winners on the high level of quality that has been displayed through all the rounds of award entries this year.”
Ali and Mazzarella receive automatic entry for their winning ad into the international Cannes Advertising Lions Festival in June. The creatives and their client also win accommodation, airfares and delegate passes to attend the event.
All the winning ads can be heard here.
