Clemenger BBDO Melbourne takes out best radio ad of the year

Advertising agency, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne has won the 2010 Gold Siren award for best radio ad of the year – the third time the agency has won the top gong in the six years of the Awards.

The ad, called “Clothes” for international brand Tena, developer of absorbent hygiene products, was written by Julian Schreiber and Tom Martin from agency, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. The same ad also won a Silver Siren for winning the single advertisement category. Julian was also one of the writers of the winning Gold Siren Award in 2008 for RACV Financial Services called “Disclaimer”.

The winning Tena ad, which uses humour to promote pads designed for weak bladders, was announced today at a breakfast in Melbourne for the industry’s annual awards for creative excellence in radio advertising. It will automatically be entered into the Cannes Radio Lions to be held next month at the Cannes Advertising Festival and the winning writers receive two free tickets to the event.

Judge, John Mescall from agency, Smart said about the winning ad: “What I loved about the Tena work is how it took a pretty sensitive subject matter and delivered a benefit, with a brand of humour that was empathetic to the target audience. When you put the words ‘humour’ and ‘incontinence pads’ together in the one sentence, in the wrong hands it would be a recipe for disaster. Not so here, and a very worthy winner.”

Judge, Craig Moore, creative director from agency OneForAll said: "It would have been easy to do something serious and boring for this, clearly they went the other way."

Winner of the Silver Siren for the campaign category was the “Glee Launch Campaign” for Network Ten, written by Andrew Garrick from Network Ten. The campaign promoted the launch of Glee, a musical comedy series now screening on Network Ten.

Judge, Rem Bruijn, creative director from agency Make, said about the Glee campaign: “Amazing talent, great production, massively entertaining. Whilst some radio campaigns suffer the ‘weakest link syndrome’, every spot in the Glee campaign adds to the overall promise. “

The other Silver Siren winner announced today was an ad for HBF, called “Passenger” which won the 2010 craft category. The ad was produced by sound engineer, Paul Taylor from production studios, Eardrum and Sound Reservoir in Sydney.

Judge, Brad Grisaffe from production studio, Audiobrien said about the HBF ad: “A soundscape that delivered the message.  I found myself listening intently to the commercial...more than I do to most.  A subtle, clever way of expressing the passing of time (past to present) by the use of the voice as part of the soundscape and as the voice-over narration.”       

Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner said the Gold Siren winning ad provided a great example of radio’s unique ability to deal with products that are a little more personal: “Products in pharmaceutical, hygiene and medical categories are particularly well suited for radio because you can have quite intimate conversations with the consumer,” Ms Warner said.

Ms Warner said the Siren Awards raised the bar each year in terms of creativity and originality. “There have been nearly 600 entries this year – a fantastic result which shows how important this Award has become. Also, the success of past winners and entrants at Cannes is testament to the fact that great work is being achieved with radio ads in Australia,” Ms Warner said.

Last year’s Gold Siren winner, a controversial advertisement called “21st Birthday” for Adults Surviving Child Abuse (ASCA), written by Steve Dodds from agency, Whybin TBWA in Sydney, was one of five Siren winners shortlisted for the Radio Lions at the 2009 Cannes Advertising Festival.

Today’s breakfast was hosted by Ant and Becks, the new drivetime duo on ARN's Mix101.1 in Melbourne and Mix106.5 in Sydney and was followed  by a one-day, hands-on workshop on how to make great radio ads.

Check out all the photo’s from the Awards Siren Breakfast here