THE OUTDOOR AWARDS ARE COMING
The Outdoor Media Association of Australia is set to launch a new award – The Outdoor Awards.
There has been a recent resurgence in the creative use of outdoor as an advertising medium – for example, the HBO Voyeur campaign in the US, the McDonald’s Sundial from Canada and the Exploding Billboard in New Zealand – and the Outdoor Awards aim to recognise and reward outstanding creativity across Australia.
“Both here and internationally, creative teams are realising that outdoor media can be turned into something that creates both impact and engagement. Outdoor advertising at its best is truly an event which draws an audience,” said OMA Chief Executive Helen Willoughby.
The OMA has created a new website outdoorawards.com.au to celebrate the very best outdoor work from around the globe – as well as provide entry information to the new awards.
Entries are open already but the ultimate deadline will be the end of April 2009 to allow creative teams the chance to have their latest work appear and become eligible. Creative that has appeared on an outdoor format in Australia between 1 January 2008 and 30 April 2009 will be eligible for entry.
In addition to a new first prize of a Golden Pigeon statue, which will be given to the best outdoor concept, there will be a financial incentive worth $10,000 for the winning creative team.
To launch the event, a national awareness campaign has begun – in itself a highly unusual outdoor idea.
An outdoor billboard truck is being driven over 10,000 km around Australia – carrying the simple billboard message: “THE OUTDOOR AWARDS ARE COMING”. Currently the truck is six days into its journey heading towards Coober Pedy.
The truck will be on the road for 40 days and will take in Alice Springs, The Red Centre, Broome, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne before its return to Sydney at the end of November.
The truck’s progress can be followed online via daily photographs of the journey at outdoorawards.com.au – and imagery of the truck at various pit stops throughout the trip will be used as trade advertising.
“To launch the Outdoor Awards without creating an exciting and original outdoor campaign of our own would be a missed opportunity. This is the first time such a feat has been attempted. We are hoping to reach an audience far beyond the trade to indicate the power of outdoor,” Ms Willoughby said.
For more information about the Outdoor Awards or the Round Australia Truck Journey, please contact Helen Willoughby of the OMA on (02) 8356 9000 or email: Helen.Willoughby@oma.org.au
14 Comments
Finally. Something we’ve never had before. An Awards show. I am starting to think the only reason we are in business is to submit awards. Quite possibly the Outdoor Association has come to the same conclusion about us too.
Yay……. *peter griffin accent* nhehehenehenehenehnhenhe.
Awards ARE the reason you’re in this business!!!!
No Awards, no recognition, no pitches, no creative… no job!
Stop frickin’ moaning about awards – this argument comes up EVERY TIME CB mention the ‘A’ word! Without Awards, agencies don’t have anything to pr themselves about to potential clients, so be thankful for awards…
I thought I was in this business to make ads that sell product and change brand perception. Ooops. My mistake.
I also want to be able to make ads that I can actually tell normal people about. You know, it’s a dinner party or I’m at the pub and someone asks me what i do for a living. I say that I work in advertising and then they say “any I’d know?”. I would much prefer to be able to tell them I have done a telly ad they’ve seen rather than say I’ve done a whole series of print ads that ran in small circulation publications in the Northern Territory because my agency could book the space for fifty bucks so I could go into a politically charged lotto to try and win one of the four hundred or so awards shows that makes our industry feel better about itself.
Plus, surely it’s easier for an agency to PR itself if they’re producing good work for big clients in media that lots of people see, than dropping thousands and thousands of dollars on random awards shows that they couldn’t care less about. If the real work is brilliant, clients will find out who did it.
Hey 2.41, nothing to PR yourself about? How about selling your clients’ product?
I’ve picked up two clients recently because we told them we don’t give a fuck about awards we want to sell your product.
Done two potential award winning ads for them as well, sold ’em through very quickly, minimum of fuss.
Funny life, isn’t it. One big paradox.
That thing is going to get spray painted on for sure.
2.41, here’s a crazy thought.
Maybe, just maybe, we’re here to sell stuff for paying “clients”?
Ever heard that word before?
Or are you too busy doing scam work?
2:41, you poor misguided fool, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Awards used to be a bonus for a job well done. For people like you – and there’s a lot of them – it’s all arse-about. It’s an unhealthy obsession, and a cancer that’s killing the credibility of the industry. As 7:20 touched on, the sort of work that wins awards these days is tailored for the award shows, and has seldom been seen by regular consumers. So when you say you work in advertising and someone asks you “Anything I’d know?” what have you got to talk about? Awards are not the frontline for agency PR these days. You really are showing your inexperience.Try doing a real ad to a real brief for a real client. You’ll be amazed how satisfying it can be to do something you’re not only proud to put your name to, but to see the power it can have in the real world. Anything less is just a high GI snack leaving you unsatisfied and hungry an hour later.
Signed,
Pompous Award-winning Old Fart from The Eighties.
What do you guys think?
There’s a guy who did some of the most amazing work off real briefs. Talking Cannes, D&aD, many things. Cue 2 years later and he’s heading up a chop shop (well known for it’s choppability) cause he got one ad up over a year at a well known international (took the payrise and left the agency that he did his best work at).
So career kind of took a tumbling.
And there’s another guy who scammed it up but also won awards off real briefs and he hasn’t been able to get placed in the 2 years since he was fired as a CD of his last agency.
Nice guy too.
So awards – do they really matter? or are they for people who’d prefer to burn out (career wise) rather than fade away?
Both these guys are genius’s. But both of them have taken… less than amazing roles.
what are you’re thoughts?
I like the pigeon logo.
Why would ambient executions be excluded from winning the grand pigeon?
Dear Poll, your (you’re???) grammar is appalling. Genius’s? Surely you mean geniuses. Are you in advertising or doing year 7?
2:02 – year 5 with an adfertising copyrighter level of english.