Winners of this year’s Radio Advertising Awards were announced to over 450 media and advertising executives at the Roundhouse, Camden last night.
The evening was hosted by LBC 97.3’s Nick Ferrari, with live performances from The Hoosiers and Caro Emerald. Guest presenters included Toby Anstis, Iain Lee, Mark Goodier and Neil Fox.
The awards, which are organised by the Radio Advertising Bureau and supported by Haymarket, celebrate the best in radio advertising and media planning.
Leading the creative categories, Mother’s work for Frank, the COI’s drugs awareness brand, scooped no less than three gongs, including Aerial for Best Writing and Direction for Giggles vs Panic Attacks and Best Campaign for Anti-Cannabis. With a cast of 6-8 voices all requiring strong direction, judges felt Giggles vs Panic Attacks ‘genuinely brings to life the feeling of stress and anxiety linked with cannabis’, while Anti-Cannabis ‘shone well above the competition’.
Frank also won the Aerial for Most Outstanding Commercial for an Existing Advertiser which, as part of the £1m Aerials Creative Challenge, includes a prize of £450,000 radio airtime. The judges commended the ‘well crafted scripts all clearly linked, the sum of which is greater than the individual (admittedly brilliant) parts’.
Aerial for the Best Use of Radio to Drive Sales went to Vizeum and AMV BBDO for the Heinz It has to be Heinz campaign, which resulted in an average sales increase of 2.7 per cent, and a 17 per cent increase in agreement with the phrase ‘It has to be Heinz’.
Aerial for the Best Use of Radio to Drive Consideration went to Universal McCann in partnership with Global Radio for the campaign for Windows 7 Capital Jingle Bell Ball Sponsorship. Microsoft’s brief was to drive preference for its new Windows 7 offering, with judges describing the results – 1.2m competition entries, 2,7m views on the hub and over 680,000 unique visitors to the hub – as ‘astonishing’.
Aerial for Best Use of Radio to Drive Awareness went to Carat and AMV BBDO for the Think Bike, Think Biker campaign for the Department for Transport. Judges praised the campaign for its great use of insight, its use of the core benefits of radio and its locally tailored copy. AMV BBDO also picked up the Aerial for the Most Outstanding Commercial for Charity Campaign for Kids Company’s This Christmas, described by judges as ‘strong and emotionally engaging’, and winning a prize of £100,000 radio airtime for the charity as part of the £1m Aerials Creative Challenge.
Aerial for Best Use of Radio in a Multimedia Campaign went to the Department of Health’s Smokefree from MCBD and MEC, which judges felt was ‘strongly connected to a wider media campaign, running across TV, press and outdoor’. Aerial for the Best Use of Radio to Drive Response went to MediaCom and DDB for Volkswagen’s “Complimentary” Sat Nav campaign. Judges praised the campaign’s ‘cute’ creative execution and its impressive results, which included a 33 per cent increase in footfall.
Aerial for the Best Use of Branded Content went to Drum PHD for the O2 Priority campaign. Applying the data tagging principals of ‘songtagging’ to radio, judges applauded the campaign for having the ‘real flavour of a media first’.
In the final award of the evening, Carat was named Media Agency of the Year, awarded to the agency that has done the most across the year to support radio’s position with their clients. Linda Smith, Chair of the RAB said Carat ‘shone through on a number of levels’, including increased investment in radio way ahead of the market and 100% increase in campaigns measured on RadioGauge.
Simon Redican, Managing Director, RAB, said: “This year’s awards reflect much of the outstanding work which has seen our sector return to growth and build its share of the display advertising market for the first time in 5 years. Crucially they highlight the great collaboration between commercial radio and our advertising and agency customers. This evening is a celebration of the hundreds of people who have understood and harnessed the power of the medium – and then taken the time and effort to share this success with the wider industry.”
[b]The full list of winners are:[/b]
Aerial for best use of radio to drive sales
Heinz (Vizeum/AMV BBDO)
Aerial for best writing & direction
Frank (Mother)
Aerial for best use of radio to drive consideration
Windows 7 (Universal McCann & Global Radio)
Aerial for best campaign
Frank (Mother)
Aerial for best use of radio to drive awareness
Dept of Transport (Carat/AMV BBDO)
Aerial for best use of radio in a multimedia campaign
Dept of Health (MCBD/MEC)
Aerial for best use of radio to drive response
Volkswagen (MediaCom/DDB)
Aerial for best use of branded content
O2 (DrumPHD)
Aerial for the most outstanding commercial for a charity campaign
£1M AERIALS CREATIVE CHALLENGE
Kids Company (AMV BBDO)
Aerial for the most outstanding commercial for an existing advertiser
£1M AERIALS CREATIVE CHALLENGE
Frank (Mother/MGOMD)
Media Agency of the Year
Carat