May 2, 2013 By
Frank.net rewrites history in Yellow pencil pursuit
April 25, 2013 By
Rui Alves
The 51st annual D&AD Awards judging event is taking place this week at London’s Olympia
Exhibition Centre. Radio campaigns from Australia, New Zealand, the U.S and South Africa have
been judged amongst the best in the Radio Advertising category and Rui Alves, Foreman of the Radio Advertising Jury and Executive Creative Director at Y&R Johannesburg had this to say;
“There might have been predictions of a dip in radio advertising in terms of the number of entries and in client demand but having seen this year’s entries I can truly say that radio is alive and well. I’ve been completely bowled over by the quality of work this year – it’s been an extremely tough job to whittle down the entries and pick the very best pieces.
“There have been some very inspiring pieces to emerge and one trend that is really interesting is how the category is starting to overlap with other channels. I’ve come across work for example which makes you question whether it’s a radio ad or an interactive piece. It’s great to see radio continuing to evolve and yield really strong, creative ideas.” (Source: Bizcommunity)
Agency, Fox.P2’s work for insurance brand Frank.net has once again come up tops. Their Frank.net ‘Death doesn’t have to try very hard’ ad is one of only 6 radio ads in the world that is up for a D&AD yellow pencil award.
Click here to listen to the ads vying for top position (in this case, the prestigious Yellow or Black Pencil) and below for the Frank.net ads
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Strepsils Wins Ad Of The Month
April 22, 2013 By
Here’s a situation: Your client gives you a brief. But it’s not just any brief. It’s a 30 second radio brief. For Strepsils. And their stronger alternative, Strepsils Intensive. But that’s not all. The product must also be mentioned six times. Each. That’s 12 product mentions in a 30 second spot! Quite a tall order in a category known for dry, boring, medically-endorsed FMCG advertising. Not much room for creativity there. Their agency, HAVAS Worldwide Johannesburg (HWJ) however, chose to disagree and wrote two. And they both got 1st place at this month’s Creative Circle Ad of the Month Awards.
Jonathan Deeb, Executive Creative Director at HWJ says that historically, the Strepsils brand has been known for the way it soothes throats as a result of illness. The client wanted to highlight that there is a product in this range to relieve any throat occasion that may give rise to the possibility of one being silenced, hence the platform ‘Let your voice be heard’.
“Our aim was to breathe life into these products and establish their personality as one that you resonate with. The campaign is therefore very much based on real human behavioural insights, dramatising the benefits of two of the Strepsils variants”.
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Please outline the production, crafting and timing process involved in the making of the ad and key features that made it work?
“Too often radio ads are treated like the ugly sister with not enough time, preparation, planning, crafting and love given to the process. Because it is possible to write and produce a radio ad in less than a day, that too often ends up being the case – and is evident in the quality of the output. To combat this, Havas has been working closely with John Culverwell of Sonovision studios in ensuring that that they are included straight after client approval of the script. This allows for valuable collaboration between the writer and sound engineer as to how to bring the script to life. Careful selection of voice over artists, giving the actors sufficient time to bring their interpretation of character to the script, piloting of voices where necessary – and then of course sufficient time in studio to craft”, says Deeb.
Top Tip! How using dramatic sound techniques can make your radio message stand out
April 3, 2013 By
Close your eyes as you listen to the following Redefine Property Group radio ads. Think about the images they evoke…
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All too often in radio, a great concept loses merit due to poor production. It’s refreshing to see a client who understands how using clever sound techniques and entertaining scripts can convey advertising messages in an unforgettable way – proving that when advertisers aren’t concerned with slashing voice overs or special effects, radio ads can generate tangible impact
Chris Marrington
Charlie Bravo Advertising
The Big Idea
Redefine Properties wanted to rapidly gain awareness of their brand and its promise; ‘We’re not landlords. We’re people’. Redefine is #2 in the product category and had rarely advertised so their level of awareness was low.
Why Radio
Chris Marrington of Charlie Bravo Advertising says; “The power of radio to build awareness within a tightly defined target market, in our case senior executives of medium to large organisations, is probably unequalled even by television where wastage can be huge. One of the common mistakes advertisers make on radio is to try to run audio versions of their print or TV ads which usually fails dismally. Great radio advertising understands the importance of sparking the listener’s imagination by using relevant dramatic techniques to convey the message in a rewarding and unforgettable way”.
How it worked
Our intention was to create a high impact radio campaign that would stand out from the clutter and drive home the brand promise by highlighting the disadvantages of landlords who don’t care about their tenants. We made the commercials entertaining and memorable and, chose channels (KFM, 567 Cape Talk, TalkRadio702, 94.7 Highveld, East Coast Radio) and time slots that most effectively reached our target market.
What the client thought
“There’s no doubt that this has been a wonderfully successful campaign. We have created two new executions and slightly modified the schedule but essentially all the fundamentals remain in place and we have every confidence that the results will continue to impress. While no baseline research was conducted before the campaign, there’s overwhelming evidence demonstrating that we have raised the brand’s profile to the highest in the property industry. Several competitors have tried to emulate certain aspects of our campaign and that’s always an indicator of success. Impressions on Redefine’s website increased by 500% during the first few months of the campaign, which is ample proof that the media mix – of which radio was a key component – and the message were perfectly targeted”, says Marrington.
HAVE YOU HEARD?
May 24, 2012 By
If you suffer from a severe case of FOMO (FEAR OF MISSING OUT), we have the perfect antidote! Click here for your one-stop-shop of the latest radio news, industry happenings, plus random stuff that would do you good to know…
HAVE YOU HEARD?
We finally got our hands on the latest Creative Circle ‘Ad of the Month’winners and spoke to the Creatives to get their thinking behind the spots. If you write radio ads for a living or are aspiring to, you need to hear this!
MERCEDES-BENZ ALERT ASSIST
Award winning Net#work BBDO duo Jenny Glover and Brent Singer are already famous for bagging the Cannes Radio Lion Grand Prix for SA in 2009 and 2011, and given the quality of their writing on the Mercedes Benz campaign, we’re not surprised that they just keep winning! Feast your ears on a truly ‘theatre-of-the-mind creative showcase…
Title: MERCEDES-BENZ ALERT ASSIST – ATENTION ASSIST – BOSS
Title: MERCEDES-BENZ ALERT ASSIST – ATENTION ASSIST – CABO
Title: MERCEDES-BENZ ALERT ASSIST – ATENTION ASSIST – REUINION
ABSA L’ATELIER ART COMPETITION
Next up, The Jupiter Drawing Room’s team of Tracy-Lauren Milne, Theo Egbers and Robert Olsen concurs that their work for ABSA’s L’Atelier art competition was based on a brief to inspire South African artists to create artwork and submit it into the annual competition.
On the insight, Tracy says: “Creating art is like giving birth. You spend hours growing your creation. You have an attachment – a love for it. It’s like your child.
The radio spot was modelled on the current issue of child trafficking and the target market’s own fertile imagination – sending them down a sinister path”.
Title: Absa Gallery
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MTN BUSINESS
Seems the Jupiter Drawing Room guys are on a winning streak! This time, Creative Director Jacques Shalom who conceptualised and wrote the MTN ads says; “MTN Business has a wide range of business apps, but due to the fact that there are so many, it’s hard to do specific advertising for each one. With the business environment being notoriously quite staid, the challenge lay in flipping the idea on its head, yet still keeping it relevant.
One thing that worked well, specifically on the ‘Elevator’ spot was casting the right creepy voice. In fact, the brief to voice-over artist, Anton Schmidt was ‘Silence of the Lambs meets The Crying Game’. I think he nailed it, but he is an absolute pro”.
You be the judge and listen to the ads here:
Title: After hours
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Title: Elavator
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GREENPEACE
Interestingly, Ad of the Month Jury Chairman and Executive Creative Director at Draftfcb Neo Mashigo mentioned in his judging comments, a Greenpeace radio campaign that was great, but didn’t make the cut due to an entry default.
We did the necessary investigating, tracked down the ads (the sound design on them will blow you away!) and spoke to Ogilvy Creative Director Molefi Thulo to get the story behind the story…
“As most of us will remember, COP17, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, was held in Durban towards the end of 2011. Greenpeace, being one of the key stakeholders, wanted to extend the debate to the public. The brief was therefore, to create a radio campaign that would enlighten consumers about the possible dangers of climate change and also be flighted during the Conference”.
Thulo adds; “With water being predicted to be ‘the next oil’, we chose it as our main theme and created a mini radio series that depicts a future where countries go to war over this resource that most of us take for granted”.
Please insert series of Greenpeace ads here:
Title: Victoria Episode 1
Title: Victoria Episode 2
Title: Victoria Episode 3
Title: Victoria Episode 4
