award Applaud

Creative Counsel

SA radio creative is really stepping up to the plate and silencing the critics both locally and internationally. Proof? Well, apart from accolades including D&AD awards, Cannes Radio Lion Grand Prixs in 2009 and 2011, Loeries, Pendorings and many more, we think the recent appointment of Rob McLennanExecutive Creative Director, Net#work BBDO as this year’s Cannes Jury President for the Radio Panel as well as Brett MorrisDraftfcb SA Chief Creative Officer being invited to judge the radio category at the CLIO Awards is more than enough! CONGRATULATIONS to both of you! We know you’ll make us proud!

http://press.draftfcb.co.za/pressrelease/default.aspx?primarykey=213

Filed Under: award Applaud, creative, Featured

Glocal Charts (local & global wins)

‘Think local, act global’ is a chant that’s no doubt fallen on your ears in recent times. With South Africa once again topping the Cannes Lion Radio charts, bringing home 10 awards, including the coveted Grand Prix, and raising the standards on our own doorsteps, we’re happy to report that Creatives really took this message to heart.

Read on, and you’ll find tips from award-winning Jenny Glover of Net#work BBDO, Grant Sithole of Draftfcb, Justin Gomes of Fox P2 and many more, including commentary from Cannes Radio Panel Jury President, Eugene Cheong. We’re sure these articles will help you tap into the relevant cultural nuances of our rainbow nation and inspire your creative communication. After all, the power of your radio campaign really does lie in the power of your message.

Creatrix does the best they can do for Koo – and Eskom

140BBDO puts Snickers on the D&AD map!

Frank.net – The thrills without the frills

Thath’ amachance, thath’ amawards!

Draftfcb CT goes for Gold at Pendoring Awards

Yes we Cannes!

Filed Under: award Applaud, creative Mind Tagged With: 140BBDO, Creatrix, draftfcb, frank.net, global, local awards

Listen UP:

Title: Would you rather

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Filed Under: award Applaud Tagged With: 140BBDO, snickers

Frank.net – the thrills without the frills

FoxP2’s – dare we say – ‘frank’ approach to insurance advertising for Frank.net is not only refreshing, it’s a reminder to us all that an honest, well-crafted message will pay you over and over and over again! Executive Creative Director Justin Gomes has the figures and stats…

RAB: Tell us a bit about the awards. What impact do they have for you, your agency and local radio creative as a whole?

JG: Awards are always nice to win, but they’re the result of great work and not a means to an end in themselves. What is sad to see is, as soon as a radio campaign wins an award, creatives want to imitate the structure and sign up the VO before you can say; ‘Virgin Atlantic’.

South Africa has experienced a real radio renaissance of late and this medium is where we’ll continue to be competitive with the relatively level playing fields. We don’t stand much of a chance when it comes to big TV production budgets, but in radio, concept is always king. Neither the Frank.net nor the Mercedes Benz winning radio this year had much in the way of frills. Just great script-writing and voice casting.

RAB: What’s the thinking behind the campaign that really made it work?

JG: Frank.net is a brand that tells it like it is without any sugar-coating and the campaign needed to reflect that. So no bells, no whistles. Just the straight-talking voice-over of Adam Behr talking about subject matter other brands in the category aren’t comfortable talking about.

RAB: please share some top tips on writing for radio.

JG: Radio is the most unforgiving of mediums. There is no place to hide. An average print ad can hide behind pretty pictures, a TV ad, the treatment of a great director. But in radio, it’s all about your idea. So when you present your script to client service, gauge how you’re feeling while reading the radio script to them. Do you feel slightly embarrassed and self-conscious? If so, chances are the script should never get in front of the client, let alone on the airwaves where you know its heavy rotation could end up in road-death.

RAB: Your thoughts on the awards vs. advertising effectiveness debate?

JG: There is no debate. The most effective ads are creative. The agencies that try and pit creativity against efficacy are the ones that don’t have the ability to be creative. Frank.net sold a billion’s rands worth of direct cover in its first four months of launch and six months later, we’ve just hit the R5-billion mark. If your clients want to read more about it, refer them to the recent UK analysis that cross-referenced the Gunn Report [global creative league table] with the IPA Effectiveness Awards [the UK equivalent of theApex Awards] and you’ll see that, on the basis of a sample of more than 430 campaigns across 16 years, creatively awarded campaigns are seven times more efficient than non-awarded ones (Campaign, 17 June 2011).

Listen Up:

Title: Poor

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Title: Radiation

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Filed Under: award Applaud, creative Mind, listen Up Tagged With: frank.net, justin gomes

Fresh from turning up the heat – in India nogal, for their Eskom ‘Viva Street’ radio campaign, Creatrix did it once again. Their client, KOO bagged a Grand Prix at the Sunday Times Top Brands Award – no doubt with a lot of thanks to the Creatrix developed and produced special radio edutainment feature. CEO Lynn Joffe spills the ‘beans’ on two impressive wins…

Filed Under: award Applaud, case studies, creative Mind Tagged With: lynn joffe

Draftfcb CT duo Andre de Wet and Riaan van Wyk walked away with Gold in both the Radio and original Afrikaans categories for ‘Die Burger’ at the Pendoring Awards, proving that in 2011 – even print needed a little radio to get results!

RAB: Tell us a bit about the awards. What impact do they have for you, your agency and local radio creative as a whole?

AdW: To win a Gold Pendoring is no easy feat, especially in the radio category. Afrikaans is a very expressive language, and radio is the perfect medium to showcase its diversity and character. We are immensely proud of this achievement.

RAB: What’s the concept behind the‘Kiwi-Kapenaars’ campaign that really made it work?

AdW: As rugby-loving, proudly South African Capetonians, we regularly watch games at Newlands. It puzzled us why so many Cape Town fans are rooting for New Zealand teams, so we wanted to put this topic in the spotlight.

Our client, Die Burger Newspaper, continuously encourages its readers to debate topics and form their own informed opinions – so we knew they were the perfect vehicle to kick off the debate. We started brainstorming and after throwing around some ideas we thought it would be really funny if these Kiwi-Capetonians started singing the New Zealand anthem in their own distinct, colloquial Afrikaans.

RAB: please share some top tips on writing for radio.

AdW: If you’re having fun while writing a radio spot, you know you’re in the money. You won’t write effective radio if you don’t put your heart and soul into the characters and the message. Write, rewrite and rewrite again – a script very seldom flies on the first take.

RAB: Your thoughts on the awards vs. advertising effectiveness debate?

AdW: Both have merit. As a creative team we always welcome an award. We need our egos stroked from time to time, but we also understand that we have a duty to our clients to deliver effective work. At Draftfcb our aim with every job is to create ‘ideas that matter’. Not only when it comes to answering our clients’ briefs, but also when coming up with ideas that are relevant to our audience. There’s nothing more rewarding than making an ad that wins awards and at the same time gets talked about.

Listen Up:

Title: Die burger kiwi kaapner cleaner

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Filed Under: award Applaud Tagged With: andre de wet, draftfcb, riaan van wyk

Yes We Cannes!!!

From a festival at which the world’s biggest and best strive to make the cut – Cannes –SA radio Creative really shone brightest and silenced the critics in 2011. Allow us to boast a little…

Having walked away with a first for their Virgin Atlantic Plain Insanity radio campaign in 2009, local agency, Net#work BBDO proudly brought home the 2^ndCannes Radio Lion Grand Prix this year.

Not happy resting on our laurels, South Africa also bagged 10 Radio Lions, almost twice that of the next runners up, Germany with 6, and America and Australia, each with 5.
This strong radio communication culminated in SA taking 13^th position in this year’s Cannes country rankings report. Enough said! We’ll stop here and let someone more qualified, that being the President of the Cannes Radio Jury 2011, Eugene Cheong,say his piece…

President’s Message

They say Radio is the lowest hanging fruit in the South of France.
I disagree.
With visionless radio, all you have is A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z and a prayer. There is simply nowhere to hide.

However, if you are a genius you can rearrange the 26 amigos into The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, I Have a Dream, The Goon Show and, of course, ‘Hi, Tom Bodett for Motel 6’.
I spent my entire career avoiding radio for fear of being found out.

Terry couldn’t have found a better man to be President of the Radio Jury.

Eugene Cheong
President Cannes Radio Lion Jury
Regional Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific

Filed Under: award Applaud, creative Mind Tagged With: cannes, eugene cheong

Bright Young Thing

Turning our attention now to the most awarded campaign this year – rather the brains behind it - Net#work BBDO duo Jenny Glover and Brent Singer who have two Cannes and one Loerie Lion Radio Grand Prix between them, give us their Top 10 Tips for writing award winning radio…

When it comes to writing great radio, it’s incredibly old school. Start with a great idea. Ask yourself; what’s the brand, what’s the brief, what’s the insight?
Find your voice, know what your strengths are and work from what you’re good at.
Spend time crafting the idea. No one writes a book and then publishes it in one day. It’s a process.
Quick-fire doesn’t always do it. Let ideas simmer. You need time to get through the initial burst of bad ideas.
KISS – that’s Keep It Simple, Stupid, by sticking to your own personality. It’ll make your writing and idea generation that much easier.
There’s a big lesson here; to write great radio, you need to read more and write more.
Position yourself under great copywriters in South Africa and learn from them.
Make clients understand the creative process. Help them to step out of their own shoes and into their target market’s shoes.
Have a culture within the agency that recognises that great ideas take time.
Finally, when you get down to recording voices, make sure you listen, take a break, edit, listen, get others to listen – basically, craft slowly. That’s the secret to doing anything well.

Extra Extra!!!

Now famous for producing bar-raising work, Net#work BBDO’s Jenny and Brent talk the ‘narrative style’ and other great ideas for coming up with award-winning ads… Check out exclusive video interview here!

Filed Under: award Applaud, creative Mind Tagged With: Brent Singer, Jenny Glover, net#work bbdo

Draftfcb CT goes for Gold at Pendoring Awards!

Having walked away with Gold in both the Radio and original Afrikaans categories for ‘Die Burger’ at the recent Pendoring Awards, Draftfcb CT duo Andre de Wet and Riaan van Wyk, prove that at times – even print needs a little radio to get results! Three cheers all round!

Click here to listen to the ad

What impact does this accolade have for you, Draftfcb CT and local Afrikaans radio creative as a whole?

To win a Gold Pendoring is no easy feat, especially in the radio category. Afrikaans is a very expressive language, and radio is the perfect medium to showcase its diversity and character. We are immensely proud of this achievement.

Please take us through the thinking behind the ‘Kiwi-Kapenaars’ campaign i.e. crafting, any interesting features that really made it work?

As rugby-loving, proudly South African Capetonians, we regularly watch games at Newlands. It puzzled us why so many Cape Town fans are rooting for New Zealand teams, so we wanted to put this topic in the spotlight.

Please share your wisdom/ some top tips on writing for radio. What would you caution against?

If you’re having fun while writing a radio spot, you know you’re in the money. You won’t write effective radio if you don’t put your heart and soul into the characters and the message. Write, rewrite and rewrite again – a script very seldom flies on the first take.

Your opinion on the awards vs. advertising effectiveness debate?

Both have merit. As a creative team we always welcome an award. We need our egos stroked from time to time, but we also understand that we have a duty to our clients to deliver effective work. At Draftfcb our aim with every job is to create ‘ideas that matter’. Not only when it comes to answering our clients’ briefs, but also when coming up with ideas that are relevant to our audience. There’s nothing more rewarding than making an ad that wins awards and at the same time gets talked about.

Filed Under: award Applaud, creative Mind Tagged With: afrikaans, andre de wet, Die Burger, draftfcb, pendorings, riaan van wyk

Snickers radio ad wins AD&D!

Never happy letting outstanding advertising go unnoticed, our three cheers this month goes to 140 BBDO’s Mike Pearson & Ross Nieuwenhuizen who’ve just been awarded the prestigious D&AD In Book Award for their Snickers ad! Listen to the ad & hear what they have to say for themselves…

What impact does this accolade have for you, 140 BBDO, and local radio creative as a whole?

D&AD is a notoriously tough award, so it’s a huge boost for the agency to win, especially as we’ve only recently re-launched. It puts us on the map in a big way – for all the right reasons. Winning for a radio ad is hugely satisfying; it’s a massive medium and a lot of good work gets done, so to stand out is really difficult.

What’s the idea behind the Snickers campaign?

Snickers gives young guys the energy to keep doing what they’re doing. Because this market is so marketing-savvy, we really needed to talk to them in way they could relate to. So, we took slice of life moments, where guys wouldn’t like to be left behind and gave them a Snickers twist, for example: our winning ad revolved around a game called ‘Would You Rather’ where guys try to one-up each other by being crazier or more disgusting with the questions they ask their mates. Imagine you had so much energy, you never had to stop playing. Things could get hectic…

Any interesting features that really made it work?

A big thing that had to come through in this campaign was an element of authenticity. This market knows when they’re being ‘sold’, so the ads had to feel fresh and engaging.

When we first recorded the campaign in studio, with voice artists, the spontaneous and fun nature of the campaign was lost. So, we tried again, casting two real (non-actor) guys and recording in-house. This allowed our ‘actors’ to relax and give a performance that didn’t feel like a performance – with natural timing, intonation and responses.

Where’s SA radio creative getting it right and where are we getting it wrong?

South Africans are, by their very nature, creative folk and I think too often we dumb down our advertising to try and appease the lowest common denominator; the same applies to vernacular radio – which is too often seen as an ugly cousin to English and Afrikaans.

We’re convinced we have the passion and talent to nail it, evidenced by the bevy of awards won by our industry over the last few years.

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Filed Under: award Applaud, creative Mind