DDB Sydney’s Jim Curtis and Ryan Fitzgerald’s ‘Road/Drive/Street’ campaign for Volkswagen wins overall in Round 1 of the 2014 Siren Awards

A series of ads promoting Volkswagen’s Fatigue Detection Technology has won the campaign and overall categories in round one of the 2014 Siren Awards. The “Road/Drive/Street” campaign was written by Jim Curtis (left) and Ryan Fitzgerald (right) from DDB Sydney. The ad, ‘Road‘ also won the single category, and was highly commended in the craft category.

Says Curtis and Fitzgerald: “The bones of the ad came out of the rhythmic sound car tyres make when driving along freeways. It seemed to be a good place to start when thinking about fatigue.

Round two of the 2014 Siren Awards is now open. Entries close for round two on 12 July.

“Radio is one of the most enjoyable mediums to work with. You can literally think of anything without the worry of ‘how the hell are we going to shoot that?’ Hopefully through winning this, we’ll be able to add some more radio to some of our upcoming campaigns.”

Says Paul Le Couteur, judge from Flagstaff Studios: “This campaign really does use hypnotic technique to lull us into a place where we really get the point that fatigue is a major factor in road accidents. So why are we smiling? Great writing and production makes this campaign sing.”

Says James Rickard, judge from kwp!: “Simple. Intriguing. Compelling. With the product at the heart of the idea.”

The “Road/Drive/Street” campaign is now in the running to win the Gold Siren for best radio ad of the year, which will be announced in May 2014. Writers of the best radio ad for 2014 win airfares, accommodation, plus automatic entry and tickets to the Cannes Advertising Lions Festival in June 2014. The client of the Gold Siren winning ad also wins a trip to Cannes and the festival.

Winner of the craft category was the ad titled “Squirrel Monkey“, produced by Ralph van Dijk (right) (Eardrum) and Paul Taylor (left) (Sound Reservoir) for Perth Zoo. The humourous ad was also highly commended in the single category.

Two further series of ads were highly commended in the campaign category; a Mother’s Day campaign for the City of Perth, “Burbs”, by Marketforce’s Alida Henson and Megan Riley, and BMF’s “Enemies” campaign for Lion Nathan, written by Piero Ruzzene and James Ross-Edwards.

Says Joan Warner, chief executive officer, Commercial Radio Australia: “The entries into the Siren Awards are always highly creative and prove just how effective radio is as an advertising medium.”

The winner of the 2013 Gold Siren, the ad “Set Fire to Your Hair”, written by John Mescall and Pat Baron of McCann Melbourne, is up for awards in the Radio category at the Cannes Lions, with winners to be announced early morning AEST Thursday, 13 June. The ad was part of the “Dumb Ways to Die” campaign for Metro Trains Melbourne.

Agency: DDB Sydney

Single title: “Road”