GPY&R Melbourne’s Letters of Gallipoli campaign for Legacy has won the Melbourne shop six Silver Lions in the Radio category.
BMF Advertising has also won four Bronze Lions for its campaign for Sportsbet. It is Australia’s biggest award haul so far this year. Leo Burnett, VML and Aussie audio production unit Eardrum were also shortlisted but missed out on Lions this time.
Paul Reardon, ECD of Whybin\TBWA and president of the radio jury said that the changes in radio on a global scale, whether it’s traditional, or new formats such as Pandora or Spotify, are making more headlines since the advent of radio in the 1920s, which is evident in the entries.
The Grand Prix in Radio went to Soundcloud, for a longform piece of promotional content designed as a memorial around the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, created by Grey Dusseldorf/Berlin to show off the capabilities of Soundcloud. If you fancy hearing the winner, click below.
The piece of audio content, dubbed the most unbearable radio ad, is not a traditional radio spot, but a seven minute 37 second pic of content, to reflect the time it takes for sound to travel the length of the original Berlin Wall.
Reardon said it demonstrates a “brilliant strategy, original idea and flawless execution”.
“It's harrowing, it's macabre, and it's a memorial to the Berlin Wall. It was a really infesting fresh way of looking at radio… more like walking through an audio museum than listening to a radio spot,” he added.
The juries listed to 26 hours of content during the judging process – some of which was a pleasure, but not all of them were good, according to Reardon, who said “a lot of those [radio ads] you do find yourself wondering ‘I don't know how you thought that would be the best in the world’.”
A lot of the ads were also broadly similar to each other, he said, which meant that when a spot differentiated it really stood out.
“So much of what we heard is so similar, there's a lesson to be learned that so much of what we’re doing on a global level is the same and it’s inspiring to try to do the exact opposite,” he added.
See the full list of Radio winners here.
The Berlin Wall of Sound - Grey Germany
Letters of Gallipoli - GPY&R
Sportsbet - BMF Sydney
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