Leo Burnett Melbourne takes out best radio ad of the year winning the Gold Siren Award

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Advertising agency, Leo Burnett Melbourne has won the 2011 Gold Siren award for best radio ad of the year for a campaign called “Slow Mornings” for 7-Eleven.

The campaign was written by Andrew Woodhead and Eamonn Dixon and is the first time the agency has won the Gold Siren Award. The same ad also won a Silver Siren for winning the campaign category.

The winning ad, which uses humour to encourage people to buy a coffeefrom 7-Eleven, was announced today at a breakfast in Sydney. It willautomatically be entered into the Cannes Radio Lions to be held nextmonth at the Cannes Advertising Festival and the winning writersreceive airfares, accommodation and tickets to the event.

Judge, Brad Grisaffe, senior engineer, Audiobrien said about thewinning ad: “”Attention grabbing and funny…everyone can relate tohaving a slow morning”.

Judge, Joe Talcott, chief creative, NewsLab said: “This year’s SirenAwards were quite difficult to judge, with a strong showing of highquality work being submitted. The Gold winner wonderfully demonstratedsomething that millions of people experience every morning. Itcompelled you to listen to the ads”.

The national Siren Awards, now in their seventh year, are run byCommercial Radio Australia and are designed to recognise the best radioadvertising in the country. A winner is announced in each of the threecategories: single, campaign and craft as well as an overall winner whoreceives the Gold Siren. The awards are judged by the Siren Council,comprised of creative directors and producers from advertising agenciesand studios throughout Australia.

Winner of the Silver Siren for the single category announced today wasan ad for Perth Zoo called “Slender Tailed”, written by Josh Edge andRikki Burns from The Brand Agency in Perth.

The Silver Siren winner for the Craft category was an ad for AdelaideZoo called “Bath”. The ad, which promoted an unusual Mother’s Day giftto encourage people to visit the Zoo, was produced by sound engineer,Martyn Zub from production studio, Oasis Post in Adelaide.

Judge, Brad Grisaffe, senior engineer, Audiobrien said about thewinning craft ad: “Bath for The Adelaide Zoo lets you eavesdrop on aconversation between a mum and her daughter, The mum from theperspective of being in a bath, the daughter speaking to her throughthe bathroom door.  The spot beautifully captures the acoustic space,completed by an unexpected visit from an occupant of the Zoo!  Welldone!”

The 2011 Siren Awards also included a new award known as the SirenClient Award which was judged by a panel made up of clients, ratherthan agency creative directors.  This Award was won by radio network,Austereo in Perth for an ad for Allpest, called “Does not negotiate -Rats”, written by Alida Henson, Garry Dean, Ingrid Paxton  and MattDickson. The winners received a cash prize of $5000.

The winning team said: “An essentially bland topic inspired us. We knewthe campaign needed some creativity if it was going to work. We startedwith the line ‘does not negotiate’ as a bit of a funny euphemism, andthen developed the approach from there. The idea of pests being’unwanted houseguests’ gave us the basis for the scenario and it allcame together nicely.”

Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner saidthe Siren Awards provided a great opportunity to recognise excellencein Australian radio advertising and had grown in stature each year:”This year there has been a record number of entries with over 800 – anincrease of 34% on last year and a fantastic result which highlightshow important this Award has become.”

Today’s breakfast was hosted by 2UE’s Paul Murray and was followed by aone-day, hands-on workshop on how to make great radio ads.

2011 Siren Award winners

Siren Awards 2011 Overall Category Winner (Gold Siren)

Agency: Leo Burnett, Melbourne

Writer: Andrew Woodhead and Eamonn Dixon

Client: 7-Eleven

Commercial Title: “Slow Mornings”

Siren Awards 2011 Single Category Winner (Silver Siren)

Agency: The Brand Agency, Perth

Writer: Josh Edge and Rikki Burns

Client: Perth Zoo

Commercial Title: “Slender Tailed”

Siren Awards 2011 Campaign Category Winner (Silver Siren)

Agency: Leo Burnett, Melbourne

Writer: Andrew Woodhead and Eamonn Dixon

Client: 7-Eleven

Commercial Title: “Slow Mornings”

Siren Awards 2011 Craft Category Winner (Silver Siren)

Sound Engineer: Martyn Zubb

Production Studio: Oasis Post, Adelaide

Client: Adelaide Zoo

Campaign Title: “Bath”

Siren Awards 2011 Client Category Winner (cash prize)

Agency: Austereo, Perth

Writer: Alida Henson, Gary Dean, Ingrid Paxton and Matt Dickson

Client: Allpest

Commercial Title: “Does not negotiate – Rats”