The Siren Awards has revealed the finalists for the 19th annual competition recognising the best radio ads in Australia.
Making the finals are agencies M&C Saatchi, BMF, Eardrum, Marketforce, The Monkeys, Rare, AT Creative, The Hallway, The Royals and Wildings Creative, along with sound studios Cue Sound, Massive Music, MDS Audio, The Studio at SCA, and Soundbyte.
The client campaigns include ALDI Australia, Coates, Boating Camping Fishing (BCF), the Department of Education the WA Football Commission, Steggles Turkey, 7-Eleven, Liquor Barons, Queen Victoria Tea, Friends in Need, West Australian Ballet, Baiada, Revel Brewing Co, The Men’s Table and Scitech.
Last year BMF won round 5 of the Siren Awards with the radio ad campaign ALDI Christmas 2022.
Commercial Radio & Audio and ARN will livestream the annoucnement of the winners at 12:30 pm AEST May 30. The awards will be hosted by ARN’s Mitch Churi, host of The Night Show and co-host of The Pick Up on the KIIS network, and Nat Penfold, KIIS radio announcer and producer on the Kyle & Jackie O Show.
Ford Ennals, chief executive officer of CRA and organiser of The Siren Awards, said effective creative radio campaigns cut through to the hearts, minds and wallets of listeners.
"The Siren Awards acknowledge how agency creativity, combined with the intimacy and immediacy of commercial radio, enable calls to action in listeners like no other medium," Ennals said.
The 2023 Gold Siren Award winner is selected from the three Silver Siren winners, with three categories: for a single radio ad, a radio campaign and an excellence in audio craft award. These awards are judged by The Sirens Creative Council, a panel of ad and radio industry experts.
A Bronze Siren will be won by the writers of a radio ad or ad campaign that has met best the rigorous criteria of creativity, as defined by a client panel.
Ralph Van Dijk, chair of the Sirens Creative Council, said the Siren Awards is the only place that celebrates Australia’s best radio creative work each year.
"It creates a benchmark for creatives to match or exceed and gives advertisers confidence to use the medium,” Van Dijk said.
The winning ad agency team will receive the coveted Gold Siren trophy, two tickets to the 70th Annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with travel and accommodation, and their winning ad entered into the Cannes Lion radio award. Their client will also receive a ticket to the Cannes Festival with travel and accommodation.
“Radio is part of our lives – over 80% of Australians have listened to radio in the past week. And with the emergence of new opportunities for advertisers in the digital audio space, there are so many opportunities for creative audio productions,” Ennals said.
“This is the 19th Sirens Awards, and we thank ARN for helping us host a livestream show which will reveal the best radio ads that Australia has produced in the past 12 months. It’ll be a cracker of a show.”
Listen to the finalist ads here.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.