4 weeks of ACRA’s Finalists Fever 2012 #13

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Radio Today have been spotlighting many of the finalists over the past 4 weeks. See them all here

Today in #13 we spotlight a best sales promotion, Alex Mitchell from Power FM and 2 Best Music Presenter finalists from the same station.

BRYAN MADIGAN

BEST MUSIC PRESENTER (P)
Sea FM, Gold Coast QLD, Southern Cross Austereo

Give us a quick snapshot of your radio background…

Got my first gig at Triple M Sydney after being a prize pig & winning my way to a rooftop party. I waited till the PD at the time was sufficiently drunk before hitting him up for a gig.

Worked at the M’s for about 4 & a half years doing everything from panelling, producing & on air on nearly every shift available.

Made the move to the sunny coast Sea FM early 2012, stayed for a year then made my way to the Gold Coast Sea FM where I currently am.

What’s the best part of your job ?

The fact that it’s different everyday (yep i know everyone says that) eg. today we had random strangers come in off the street to rate one of our breaky hosts kissing style. Name another job where you get to do that?

What are your key achievements over the past 12 months ?

Besides the nomination, I think taking Sea FM to the next level & getting up & beyond the standards of the Today network. We sound completely different from when I first got here and to be a part of that change has been awesome.

You can’t make a speech on the night but let’s pretend you’ve won, here’s a chance to have your moment in the spotlight (don’t forget to thank anyone)….go for it….
 
Thanks Mum

JACK LAWRENCE

BEST MUSIC PRESENTER (P)
Sea FM, Gold Coast QLD, Southern Cross Austereo

Tell us about your background...

Six years ago I was working as  a real estate agent on the Gold Coast and was sick of it. I was sitting in the car listening to the local station Sea FM and thought Hmmm I could do that!! So I started at a community station on the coast working Friday and Saturday nights on air. I did that for 6 months and decided it was time I got paid to do it!

I found an advertisement for a drive announcer for ZZZ FM in Lismore, I applied and got the job. I worked in Lismore for just over 12 months but was never 100% settled because all I wanted to do was get on the station that sparked this new career in the first place Sea FM.

So for those 12 months I would send out air checks every 2 weeks to everyone and anyone that would listen to me. One day I decided to take a punt and send one to Kyle Sandilands and ask for his help. Hours later I had an email reply from Kyle saying he had sent my air check off to Brian Ford and about 3 months later I started at Sea FM as a casual weekends announcer until I weaseled my way into my current 12 – 4pm weekdays shift.

Tell us about your ACRA’s entry…

It’s always really hard putting together an entry because you never quite know what the judges are looking for! This is my fourth ACRAs now. After being nominated in my first year but not winning, I seriously over thought my entry the following year with too much fancy production and did not get a nomination so the following year I decided that I would go with my gut and not over think it too much and I was lucky enough to get nominated that year and win! So this year I went with the same philosophy and was lucky enough to be nominated.

https://radiotoday.com.au/music/JK_ACRAS.mp3
or hear it here

What’s the best part of your job ?

For me the best part of the job is having fun with listeners on air! You can get pure Gold from every day people who call you out of the blue.

I also get a massive kick out of giving away prizes to people that couldn’t be more grateful. I’ll never forget when I gave a lady $1000 cash and she started crying and thanking me for making her year!

I sent a mother and daughter to New York and they sent me a postcard and bought me a gift back! Those things put a smile on my face. Ask my younger sister and she would say all the Celebrity’s she gets to meet!

What are your key achievements over the past 12 months ?

I passed my Content Directors Course and mentored a young guy in community radio to his first paid Country gig & of course have been given the chance to defend my title of best Music Personality from 2011 at the ACRA’s.

Your speech, if you were able to make one…

Gotta do the cliché thing of thanking my parents first! They have always supported me in whatever I have wanted to do and financed a lot of my stupid ideas as well.

Of course all the CD’s that have helped me grow as an announcer, most noteworthy being DB (Derek Bargwanna 2DAY FM)  because I’ve listened back to my original air checks and believe me without direction there is no way I’d be holding an ACRA.

ALEX MITCHELL

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION (C)
Power FM, Muswellbrook NSW, Grant Broadcasters

https://radiotoday.com.au/music/Prod_Alex_Power FM.mp3
or hear it here

Give us a quick snapshot of your radio background…

Started at FBI Radio as a trainee producer. Then produced drive. Went to all-nighters. Then weekend host then mornings host.

Accepted into AFTRS graduate diploma in radio broadcasting and become more involved with production. Offered job after work attachment at 98.1 Power FM Hunter Valley as head of production and presenting drive.

What’s the best part of your job ?

Being able to make promo’s that sound fun and have depth while still sounding simple. I like to try and avoid the cliché over produced in your face radio promos as I think that has been done to death. However, as my skills progress it probably would be quite fun pulling out all the bells and whistles. And of course presenting Drive!!!! I love being a presenter.

What are your key achievements over the past 12 months ?

Getting an ACRA has to be number 1, then being known in my area has been important for me. Nice to connect with your audience. Finally just being in the car hearing your imaging and thinking, I made that! It’s great.

You can’t make a speech on the night but let’s pretend you’ve won, here’s a chance to have your moment in the spotlight, go for it…

Amy Collett from Power FM who has been an amazing Mentor; David Stein, a lecturer from AFTRS who taught me amazing Production skills. And finally my fellow presenters who always make me laugh and push me to come up with more interesting ideas on and off air.

LAUREN HARRISON, INGE SALLMAN, ANDY MILNE, JANE PALFREYMAN and SABINA POPESCU

BEST SALES PROMOTION (M)
MLA Australia Day
Nova Network, Sydney NSW, dmg radio australia
 

https://radiotoday.com.au/music/Promo_Nova ACRAS.mp3
or hear it here

MLA – Meat & Livestock Australia briefed Nova Network on their Australia Day 2012 campaign which featured Sam Kekovich as the Australia Day Lambassador continuing his one man crusade against ‘unaustralianism’. The overall marketing objectives of the campaign were to increase consumer demand in Australia for lamb, by continuing to position lamb as the national dish on Australia day, and making lamb the talk of the nation in January.

Further to this, the specific campaign objectives were:

• To mimic a major music release with Sam Kekovich’s rendition of Barbie Girl
• To infiltrate popular culture ‘music- star’ style
• To drive reach against broad audience

The Nova Network built a campaign designed to integrate Sam Kekovich and his ‘Barbie Girl’ song release throughout the programming of the radio station. As part of the campaign Nova – for the first time – built an ‘Australia Day Top 100 downloaded songs’ countdown hosted by Sam Kekovich.

In the lead up to this campaign, ‘Meshel, Tim & Marty’ (the Nova Drive team) interviewed Sam Kekovich and threw out the challenge – if Sam received 100,000 downloads on his YouTube music video of ‘Barbie Girl’, then Sam could introduce his song as number 1 in the countdown on Australia Day.

As part of Sam’s ‘chopular culture rant’ with the drive team, he directed listeners to head to novafm.com.au to watch his clip, and answer a simple question for the chance to win an Australia day BBQ and Lamb Prize pack.

Within 24 hours, the YouTube views had reached 100,000 and were still climbing, so with this information, Nova FM upped the ante with a new target of 500,000 views. The final target reached was an impressive 620,442. The campaign culminated on the biggest and best day of the year for Australian’s, with Nova’s Australia Day Top 100 downloaded songs. Sam Kekovich hosted the campaign on air with all imaging voiced by Sam Kekovich and celebrated Lamb on Australia Day!

The Results:

• 31.7% sales uplift during the Australia Day week
• 13% sales uplift for the four week period including the campaign – a record week and month for retail lamb sales
• Increase in lamb’s value share of 6% compared to 2011
• The most successful Australia day lamb campaign in Australian promotions history

Your speech, if you were able to make one…

When the agency told us that they wanted to make Sam Kekovich a pop star and treat him like one, we thought F*K me how are we gonna do that credibly? So we didn’t!

Andy hatched the Australia day countdown thing as a “hey this is so crazy it just might work” and he was lucky enough to have a group program director who got what we were trying to achieve.

In fact Paul Jackson & later in the implementation stage, Mike Cass, were critical in us pulling the solution off and we were so lucky to have that level of buy in from programming.

Lauren spent a lot of time compiling the response and Jane worked hard on making sure the whole thing fit together cross platform.

When Inge presented our solution to UM they could clearly see we were bringing to life their campaign and exceeding their expectations in coverage.

The talent all got on board as well and because the whole Kekovich campaign had it’s tongue firmly in cheek, it was a no brainer.

Simon Hills-Johnes the creative writer wrote close to 60 scripts and blew out his pun quota for the year.

Finally, flawless national Implementation was crucial and Sabina Popescu spent some long nights making sure all of the scripts & bits went to air.

If you're a finalist in Metropolitan, Non-Metropolitan, Provincial or Country drop us a line and we'll shine the spotlight on you.

Email Mark Hales here