Commercial Radio Australia today launched an exciting new initiative – a website called SiVi, which will feature the best and most unusual audio that can be used for inspiration and ideas for radio advertisements.
Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner, said the idea was for visitors to submit their own material, with the page eventually becoming a creative portal of original, unusual and funny audio.
“SiVi is all about inspiration," Ms Warner said. “It’s about getting people to think outside the usual radio creative box, getting them excited by different, quirky and out-there examples of audio – the sort of stuff that is so compelling that people want to talk about it and share it with their friends."
Ms Warner said the establishment of SiVi was part of a range of initiatives designed to help improve the standard of radio ads and ensure Australia was world-class in this important area. The SiVi site (short for Siren Viral) can be found as part of the Siren Awards website at www.sirenawards.com.au.
Creative director of Commercial Radio Australia and director of agency, Eardrum Australia, Ralph van Dijk, encouraged people to visit the site and send in their sounds – no matter how strange.
“Imagine an audio version of YouTube, where you could find anything from an 80-year-old lady telling jokes to the clicking language of the Namibian Hottentots. Anything that makes a sound can be used in a radio ad. That funny attachment you were sent, the studio out-take you kept, or the concert bootleg you recorded - send it in to SiVi now," Mr van Dijk said. “All types of audio, including the weird and obscure, help us broaden our sound reference points and encourage us to go boldly where other radio ads fear to tread."
The SiVi page is designed to be interactive so users can submit their own ideas, contribute blogs and download audio for emailing to friends.
Downloads on the site include, from the Guinness Book of World Records, the shortest ad ever, the classic Yahoo substitute son ad, some of the early Bud Light ads from the now world famous campaign, and an ad that takes a few pot shots at its own with an ode to advertising school. There are also some audio bloopers from the late UK broadcasting great John Peel, who loses the plot in a recording session, Orson Wells sounding off about the English language, a suspect recording of the JFK assassination and a radio station making a random call as Jack Nicholson’s character in “A Few Good Men.
To visit the SiVi site go to www.sirenawards.com.au and follow the links to SiVi.