McDonalds spot wins round 3 of 2010 Sirens

Writers Ed James and Jakub Szymanski said the most important thing about making an effective radio commercial is: "Trying to make a radio commercial that doesn't sound like a radio commercial."

There were two highly commended ads in the single category, one from the same campaign for McDonalds called "Window". The other highly commended ad was called "Pilot" for the Motor Accident Commission in South Australia and written by Matt O'Grady and Paul Stratton from agency, Clemenger BBDO, Adelaide.

Winner of the campaign category was a safety message from Energy Australia called "Whatever you're digging for", which reminds people about a service called "Dial before you dig", which checks for cables if you are digging somewhere so you don't get electrocuted by mistake. The ads were written by Paul Spelman and Tom Hazledine (left) from Leo Burnett, Sydney.

Highly commended in the campaign category was three spots for McDonalds called "Valet", "Window" and "Waitress", part of the Angus Beef "It's a lIttle Bit fancy" ad campaign.

Winner of the craft category was an ad for HBF called "Passenger", with sound engineer Paul Taylor (left) from production studio, Eardrum in Sydney.

Judge and member of the Siren Council, Rem Bruijn, creative director of Make, Brisbane, said about the winning ad: "A really nicely handled sound design job, that blends multiple layers of ambient sound, background dialogue and narration to create a vivid audio picture and a clear message."

There was also one highly commended ad in the craft category. It was an ad for Melton Toyota, called "Sharks" and was produced by sound engineer, Ray Peters from Australian Radio Network.

The national Siren Awards are run by Commercial Radio Australia and are designed to recognise the best radio advertising in the country. Entries for round 4, 2010 are now open and close on 8 January next year. For more information visit the dedicated website .