M&C Saatchi has won round five of the Siren Awards for excellence in radio advertising for its ‘Ugly, but good for you’ campaign for Steggles turkey.
The ‘German Jog Techno’ commercial was voted overall winner and best single ad, while the four commercials in the series were awarded best campaign.
Creative team Melissa Hawkett and Jason Leigh developed the four 60-second musical workout tracks in the genres of techno, pop, hip hop and rock to create an identity for turkey as a superfood for client Baiada, one of Australia’s leading poultry producers with the brands Steggles and Lilydale.
“These ads are unique because they’re not ads, they’re songs,” Hawkett and Leigh said. “We made sure they were bangers that blended in with radio playlists, so they complimented what you were listening to. We loaded them with funny truths to leave people feeling good about Steggles Turkey and ‘sweaty creases’.”
The pair said creating an emotional response was the most important factor when developing a radio ad: “Whether you laugh or cry, there’s a reward for listening, it makes it worth their while.”
The ads were produced by sound engineer Hylton Mowday from We Love Jam Studios, who won the craft award for ‘German Jog Techno’ and was highly commended for ‘Hip Hop Spin Class’ and ‘Pop Power Pump’.
BMF’s campaign for Tourism Tasmania, ‘Come down for air – Wakalina’ by creatives Jack Robertson and Rob Boddington was highly commended in the single category.
Judges also selected four other campaigns for highly commended recognition. These were Eardrum for ING Bank (Australia) by Ralph van Djik from Eardrum; ‘Go Full Christmas’ for SleepCheck by Patrick Anderson from Isobar Australia; ‘At Home’ for Brightwater by Alida Henson from Rare; and ‘Tradies Swear By It’ for Fergus, by Will Reynolds and Nick McHugh from Winsdorborn.
In the craft category, Tone Aston from Rumble sound studio was also highly commended for ‘Come Down for Air – Wakalina’.
The Siren Awards are run by Commercial Radio Australia to recognise outstanding radio advertising and are judged across five rounds throughout the year, plus a final call round.
Final call round winners have also been selected and the entries that received the highest scores, along with winners from all previous 2021 rounds, will now enter a final judging stage with hopes of becoming one of the finalists who will compete to win the Gold and Silver Sirens.
The 2021 Gold Siren winner will be announced at the Sirens Awards event in Sydney on Thursday, 3 June. Silver Sirens are awarded in each of the three categories: single, campaign and craft. There is also a client-voted award of a $1,000 cash prize that will be presented to the writers of the ad voted the best by a panel of clients.
CEO of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner, says, “The entries into the Siren Awards have been outstanding this year and continue to showcase radio as an effective advertising medium.”
Listen to the Round 5 winning ads here.
Round 1 of the 2022 Siren Awards is now open, with entries closing on 1 May 2021.
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