Perth Zoo ad wins first round of 2011 Sirens!!!

Perth Zoo ad wins first round of 2011 Sirens

An ad promoting Perth Zoo has won the overall and single categories for round one of the 2011 Siren Awards. The ad called “Red-Eyed Tree Frog” was written by Josh Edge and Rikki Burns from The Brand Agency in Perth.

Judge, David Roberts, creative from US Sydney said about the winning ad: “Great story, great casting. By far the best ad ever done about a red eyed tree frog.”

Writers, Josh Edge and Rikki Burns said the most important elements in creating an effective radio ad were: “Cut-through. Space to breathe. Great talent. Time. A client that understands the medium.”

They said about the inspiration for their ad: “At first we tried forced association techniques, like getting a tortoise to mate with a gazelle. When that appeared to fail, we instead focused on the fact that people tended to look like the animals they loved. Like how my mum likes Golden Retrievers. And how Val Kilmer likes Puffer Fish.”

There were two highly commended ads in the single category. Both talk about the effects of stroke for the National Stroke Foundation and were called “Emma – Mirror” and “Glen – Vocal Chord.” Both ads were written by Josh Armstrong, Chris Shoolman and Sanjay Rego from agency, Draftcb in Melbourne.

Winner of the campaign category was also the National Stroke Foundation, with a campaign encouraging people to check their blood pressure. The campaign called “A stroke makes even the simplest things hard”, includes the two highly commended ads in the single category and was written by Josh Armstrong, Chris Shoolman and Sanjay Rego from agency, Draftcb in Melbourne.

Highly commended in the campaign category was “Sports Slurpee” promoting slurpees for 7-Eleven. The ads were written by Andrew Woodhead from agency, Leo Burnett in Melbourne.

Winner of the craft category was an ad for Adelaide Zoo called “Bath” which promotes an unusual Mother’s Day gift to encourage people to visit the Zoo. It was produced by sound engineer, Martyn Zub from production studio, Oasis Post in Adelaide.

There was one highly commended ad in the craft category. It was an ad for the Red Square Complex called “Red Square Re-Born”, produced by sound engineer, Eddie Bye from production studio, Nova 919 in Adelaide.

The national Siren Awards are run by Commercial Radio Australia and are designed to recognise the best radio advertising in the country. This year there are some new elements to the Awards including:

· the round judging will now include two judges from the Siren Creative Council as well as the winner of the previous round.

· The 2011 Siren Awards will also include an additional award known as the Siren Client Award. This will be won by one of the five overall round winners and will be judged by a panel made up of clients – rather than agency creative directors. The client panel will be made up of the clients who commissioned the winning Gold and Silver Siren winners from the year before and invitations will also be made to specific category guest judges. The Award will be a cash prize of $5,000.

Entries for round two of the 2011 Siren Awards are now open and close on July 23.  For more information visit the dedicated website www.sirenawards.com.au.