Winners of this year’s Radio Advertising Awards were unveiled to over 400 media and advertising executives at the Room by the River on London’s Southbank last night.
The awards, organised by the Radio Advertising Bureau and supported by Haymarket, seek to recognise the best radio campaigns from the last year from spot creative to effective media planning. The evening was hosted by Absolute Radio’s breakfast show presenter Christian O’Connell and a live performance was given by singer songwriter Taio Cruz. Guest presenters included Darren Gough, Iain Lee, Toby Anstis and Peter Andre.
Aerial for Best Use of Radio to Drive Sales went to AMV BBDO and PHD for Sainsbury’s Supermarkets ‘Here’s the deal, here’s the idea’. Judges said “The flexible “here’s the deal…here’s the idea” campaign was proven to consistently deliver sales every week, providing Sainsbury’s with a huge increase in sales across the last three and a half years and a very healthy return on their investment".
Aerial for Best use of Radio to Drive Consideration went to MediaCom for their Churchill campaign ‘Mandarin’. Research demonstrated that radio increased Churchill’s ‘1st preference insurer’ rating by 17 per cent over TV alone. When compared against RadioGauge benchmarks, Churchill’s overall brand consideration score was more than double that of other brands in the finance market.
MediaCom also picked up the Aerial for Best Use of Radio to Drive Response for their Direct Line Motor Insurance campaign. Thanks to clever targeting across relevant days and day parts, the activity successfully disrupted traditional insurance search patterns online and stimulated over 32,000 quotes for Direct Line at a cost-per-quote 50 per cent cheaper than targeted.
The Best Use of Radio to Drive Awareness went to the West Midlands Casualty Reduction Scheme ‘Death calling – talk and text’ campaign. Radio activity doubled awareness of the campaign, with two-thirds clearly recalling the message of “don’t use your mobile phone when driving”. This carried through into behavioural change, demonstrated by a 74 per cent increase year on year in the number people claiming that it would make them not use their mobile phone when driving.
In the creative category, Next Door London was awarded Aerial for best sound design for the ZSL London Zoo advert ‘The Animals’. Judges said “Its clever use of sound mixing, creating a charming and simple message was a pleasure to the ear”. Leo Burnett picked up Aerial for Best Direction for The Department for Transport’s ‘Search’ which judges said “put you into the heart of a real-life situation to chilling effect”.
This year, the RAB launched a £1m creative challenge offering up to £500k of radio airtime to each of two advertisers – for the best existing radio campaign and the best new campaign that has not yet run on Commercial Radio. The Aerial for Best Ad by an Existing Advertiser was awarded jointly to Marie Curie Cancer Care ‘Guitar’ created by DLKW and the Department for Transport’s ‘Search’ created by Leo Burnett. The award for the best new advertiser went to Saatchi and Saatchi for Otrivine which judges said “cleverly used a symphony of sound to bring the brand benefit to life”.
Most outstanding entry of the night went to the Department for Transport where judges said “The DfT has constantly and unfalteringly pushed the radio creative boundaries, using challenging and powerful approaches that deliver their message brilliantly, and are appreciated by the listener”.
Media Agency of the Year was presented to MediaCom. Andrew Harrison, chairman of the RAB said: “This is the second year we have recognised our Media Agency of the Year, and the competition has been even more intense this time around, making the decision tougher than ever. We were looking for the agency that has done the most across the last 12 months to support radio’s position with their clients and MediaCom delivered against all the criteria.”
Simon Redican, managing director of the RAB said: “We had a record level of entries this year across all categories. Even better from our perspective, the overall standard of entries were very high – a brilliant reminder of the quality to be found in radio advertising – which made the task facing the judging panels that much more difficult. Congratulations to all the winners.”
The Winners in full:
Aerial for Best Use of Radio to Drive Sales
Advertiser: Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd
Title: Here’s the deal, here’s the idea
Creative Agency: AMV BBDO
Media Agency: PHD
Planning Team: Tom Roach/Maria Ballard
Buying Team: Sharon Barnes/Oli Jones/Cathy Lowe
Aerial for Best Use of Radio to Drive Consideration
Advertiser: Churchill
Title: Mandarin
Creative Agency: WCRS
Media Agency: MediaCom
Planning Team: Rebecca Collins/Jane Boddington
Buying Team: Stacy Pratt
Aerial for Best Use of Radio to Drive Awareness
Advertiser: West Midlands Casualty Reduction Scheme
Title: Death Calling – Talk & Text Campaign
Creative Agency: Global Ideas (Birmingham)
Aerial for Best Use of Radio to Drive Response
Advertiser: Direct Line Motor Insurance
Title: Disruption
Creative Agency: MandC Saatchi
Media Agency: MediaCom
Planning Team: Edward Pizey
Buying Team: Stacy Pratt
Aerial for Best Sound Design
Advertiser: ZSL London Zoo
Title: The Animals
Creative Agency: Next Door London
Media Agency: Next Door London
Creative Team: Craig Kind / Paul Nowikowski
Creative Director: Craig Kind / Paul Nowikowski
Producer: Cathy Mason
Facility House: Candle Music
Sound Engineer: Ben Ash
Director: Ben Ash
Production Company: Candle Music
Aerial for Best Direction
Advertiser: Department for Transport
Title: Search
Creative Agency: Leo Burnett
Media Agency: Carat
Creative Team: Tony Malcom / Guy Moore
Creative Director: Jonathan Burley
Producer: Adam Furman
Facility House: Grand Central
Sound Engineer: Munzi Thind
Aerial for Best Ad by an Existing Advertiser
Joint Winner
Advertiser: Marie Curie Cancer Care
Title: Guitar
Creative Agency: Jocelyn Fiske
Media Agency: Maxus
Creative Team: DLKW
Creative Director: Steve Boswell / Steve Drysdale
Producer: Miles Nathan
Sound Engineer: Ashley Smith
Advertiser: Department for Transport
Title: Search
Creative Agency: Leo Burnett
Media Agency: Carat
Creative Team: Tony Malcolm / Guy Moore
Creative Director: Jonathan Burley
Producer: Adam Furman
Facility House: Grand Central
Sound Engineer: Munzi Thind
Aerial for Best Ad by a New Advertiser
Advertiser: Otrivine
Title: Senses – City Street
Creative Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Media Agency: Global Radio Services
Creative Team: Dave Govier / Levi Slavin
Creative Director: John Pallant
Producer: Rebecca Williams
Facility House: Wave
Sound Engineer: Tom Heddy
Director: Steve Sidwell
Production Company: Jeff Wayne Music
Most Outstanding Entry
Department for Transport
Creative Agencies: AMV BBDO, Leo Burnett
Media Agencies: Carat, Starcom
Media Agency of the Year
MediaCom
