SIRENS ROUND 3: CLEMENGER MELBOURNE WINS FOR RACV FINANCIAL SERVICES SPOTS

| | 2 Comments

Single_overall_julianpaul.JPGAn ad for RACV car loans for RACV Financial Services has won the overall and single categories for round three of the 2008 Siren Awards. The spot, called ‘Disclaimer’, was written by Paul Reardon and Julian Schreiber from Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne, and uses humour to promote a financial product.

“It was purely circumstance, to do an ad for an RACV car loan, which unfortunately required almost 30 seconds of legal disclaimers, so it made sense for us to make such an overwhelming element of the ad the idea,” says Paul Reardon. “Also disclaimers are a challenge every creative who writes radio has to face. How do we make them fit in and not sound like they’re undoing all the impact the ad had before all the legal jargon kicks in. It was great to write an ad where the ad and disclaimer literally had a fight.

“It was just good to find an entertaining solution. By making the disclaimer the idea, what was a big negative, became a great vehicle to carry a retail message,” he said.

One of the judges and winner of the previous Sirens round, Connor Beaver from Grey, Melbourne said about the winning ad: “The RACV ‘Disclaimer’ spot stood out for us as a simple idea executed really well. It was obvious that the creatives received a brief with pages and pages of mandatory disclaimers, the fact they could embrace this and turn it into a damn funny ad is worth applauding.”

There was one highly commended entry in the single category. Flower Growers of Victoria ‘I’m Sorry’, written by Sabina Schaare and Kirsti Lewis from Grey Worldwide, Melbourne. This ad was also part of a campaign which won highly commended in the campaign category [‘I Fancy You’, ‘I’m Sorry’ and ‘I Miss You’] along with an ad called ‘Beer First’ for J Boag & Son, written by Joshua Stephens from AJF Partnership, Melbourne.

Winner of the campaign category was ‘Buses’ for Metlink, written by Dan Forrestal, Frank Trobbiani and Neil Mallet from Marmalade Communications, Melbourne and submitted by production studio, gasinc, which features witty songs about Melbourne’s buses.

Winner of the craft category was ‘Snore’ for the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, produced by Ross Batten from Cutting Edge with creative director, Kelly Denning from agency, Make.

Judge and previous winner, Jo Campbell from ARN said: “The obvious winner was ‘Snore’. This is a cleverly crafted, effective ad that really pulls the listener in close. A great example of how sound effects and acoustics can enrich the audio experience!”

Highly commended in the craft category was an ad called ‘Police Radio’ for Working Against Culpable Driving (WACD).  Sound engineer was Paul Taylor from Sound Reservoir, sound director was Ralph van Dijk from Eardrum and creative director was Luke Chess from BWM Sydney.

The national Siren Awards are run by Commercial Radio Australia and are designed to recognise the best radio advertising in the country. The awards promote the importance of creativity as a way to make radio advertising more effective. Entries for round 4 are now open and close on 11 January next year.

For more information visit the dedicated website:

www.sirenawards.com.au