Creative agency The Monkeys recognised for radio ads in Round 3 of Siren Awards

Crafting commercials for radio is not an easy thing to do, but Sydney agency The Monkeys has managed to pull it off, claiming Round 3 of the 2018 Siren Awards.

The group (now part of Accenture Interactive) took out the single category, as well as the overall win with the Meat and Livestock Australia ad “Beef. The Greatest”.

Monkey’s creative team Chelsea Parks, Hugh Gurney and Grant Rutherford wowed judges by incorporating a song into the ad, explaining why beef isn’t ‘just’ beef. A customer asks a butcher for ‘just a rump steak’ and the butcher’s team burst into song reminding listeners of the greatness of beef.

“The inspiration comes from the fact that people often take great things, like Australian Beef, for granted,” the creative team said.

“We wanted to remind Aussies to choose beef for dinner, in a way that would stick in their brains long after they heard it on the radio, so we wrote an earworm of a song, and wrapped our message into it.”

The winner of the campaign category was agency Fenton Stephens with the campaign, titled “Words are More Memorable than Numbers” for Telstra Phonewords.

Creatives Jess Wheeler and Guillermo Carvajlal created three ads in the radio campaign to communicate to Australian business owner that words are more memorable than numbers, taking iconic and memorable movie quotes and replacing a key word with their alphanumerical equivalent, making them immediately less memorable.

CEO of Commercial Radio Australia Joan Warner said the Siren Awards continued to highlight great radio ads.

“The number of entries grow each round and the quality of ads produced by agencies continue to highlight how effective radio ads can be for clients.”

The craft winner for round three was an ad called “Volkswagen Amarok” for Volkswagen by sound engineer Simon Kane from studio Song Zu.

A further nine ads entered in round three were highly commended by judges. Three of the Telstra Phonewords ads from agency Fenton Stephens: “Braveheart”, “Vader” and “Terminator” were all highly commended in the single category.

Rumble Creative & Media creatives Rhys Venning and Bec McCall were highly commended for gotU ads in the single category for the ad “Bad Hair Date” and highly commended in the campaign category for “gotU – Just When You Need It” both for client Allianz Worldwide Partners.

Also, highly commended in the campaign category was the ad “The True Spirit of Alpine Australia” for Mount Hotham Resort Management Board from agency 10 feet tall creative team Stuart Black and Matthew Toebelman.

Highly commended in the craft category was sound engineer, Rodney Lowe from Production Alley sound studio for two ads, “Braveheart” and “Terminator” from the Telstra Phonewords campaign. Also highly commended in the craft category was sound engineer Mike Lange from Cutting Edge studio for the gotU ad “Bad Hair Date”.

The Siren Awards, run by Commercial Radio Australia, celebrate the best in radio advertising and are judged over five rounds throughout the year by a panel of industry experts, made up of creative directors from leading ad agencies, known as the Siren Creative Council.

The 2018 Gold Siren winner will be announced in May 2018 and wins a trip to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Round 4 of the 2018 Siren Awards is open, and you can hear all of the Round 3 winning ads here.